Carolina Mountain Club

Hike - Save trails - Make friends

July 31, 2009

CMC Calendar

From Your Editor

More than 15 CMC members went to the Appalachian Trail Conservancy Biennual meeting in Castleton, Vermont earlier this month. I've asked the CMC group to write what the highlights of the conference was for them. Some comments are published in this issue and the rest in the next issue. Hopefully, this will inspire more CMC members to attend the next conference in 2011. Danny

What's Happening in the Next Three Weeks

A.T.C. Konnarock Crew is Here!

The ATC Konnarock Crew will be here from Thursday, July 23rd through Monday, July 27th and Thursday July 30th through Aug 3rd. They will be staying and working near Whistling Gap on the A.T.

The crews are encouraged to work with the Konnarock Crew while they are here. Individuals are welcome to join them for a day also. As discussed with crew leaders, the CMC will be responsible for clearing the trees at High Rocks to bring the view back.

Skip Sheldon will schedule the Asheville Friday crew to work with Konnarock both weeks. Others are very welcome to join the crew if they wish. Don Walton

MST Trail Building Day - Saturday August 22

You are invited to extend the MST (Mountains-to-Sea Trail) South on Saturday August 22.

This is a great opportunity to give something back for all the fun and enjoyment you've had on the trails this past year. We hope to have a large group to help us complete another piece of the MST going South to the Soco Gap Overlook, South of Balsam Gap, BRP milepost 456.

We 'll meet at the Moose Cafe; at 9:00 AM for car pooling. The second meeting place is at the intersection of the Blue Ridge Parkway and Rt. 19, South of Maggie Valley. Tools will be available but if you have digging tools of your own, please bring them.

Please call all your friends and acquaintances and invite them. The bigger the group, the more the fun!!! No prior experience is required. Piet Bodenhorst

Wilderness First Aid Offered in Henderson County

The Henderson County of the American Red Cross will offer a Wilderness First Aid class on August 7, 8 and 9. The class will be Friday night, all day Saturday and half a day Sunday.

You can sign up online at www.hcredcross.org or call the office with a credit card at 693-5605. Please sign up as soon as possible so we know we have a viable class. We must have at least 6-8 people to make the class work logistically. See the flyer with all the details. Cindy McJunkin

Other Important News

A.T.C. Conference Report - Part 1

Check out what CMC members thought were the highlights of the A.T.C Biennual meeting.

More highlights will be reported in the next eNews.

The next Biennial Conference will be held in Emory, Virginia on July 1 - 8, 2001. Put it on your calendar.

Danny

Awards Committee Seeks Nominations - By September 1

Each year CMC recognizes outstanding contributions to the Club with two awards.

The Distinguished Service Award recognizes service to the Club over at least a five year period. The Award of Appreciation recognizes a truly outstanding contribution to the Club over a shorter period of time, as little as a year.

The Awards Committee is seeking nominations for both of these awards. If you know of someone who you think should receive an award, please send details of their contribution to Lenny Bernstein, Chair of the Awards Committee, by September 1. You can either use the form on the CMC Website or send Lenny an e-mail (Lsberns@att.net). Please be as specific as you can about the nature of the member’s contributions to CMC.

Smithsonian Exhibit on the Appalachian Trail

I wanted to alert you to a new museum exhibition about the Appalachian Trail and ask for your help in building an online map populated with stories and photos from the people who’ve hiked the A.T. throughout history. The Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History recently opened an exhibition, “Earl Shaffer and the Appalachian Trail,” about Earl Shaffer and his first thru-hike of the AT. An online version of the exhibition is available at http://tr.im/ATWeb. Part of the online exhibition involves an interactive map of several of Shaffer's diary entries and photos. Our goal with this map is to include not just one person's memories of the trail but to show the depth and range of experiences people have had hiking the region throughout history. We are inviting hikers of all interest levels to contribute their geotagged photos and stories from the trail to a Flickr group: http://www.flickr.com/groups/appalachiantrail

Through contributions from the hiking community, the Smithsonian hopes to connect a wide audience, one that may have little or no connection to the A.T. when they encounter our exhibition, with the memorable experiences available to those who set foot on the trail.

The exhibition is on view in the Documents Gallery until October 11, 2009; the online exhibition will remain active on the Web in perpetuity. We look forward to working with you, and others like you, who have experienced life on the trail and would like to share memories and images of those experiences with others.

Allison Tara Sundaram - New Media Intern, National Museum of American History

In Memoriam

Felix Metzner

We regret that a long time hiker, trail maintainer, and member of CMC, Felix Metzner, died July 16, 2009 at age 92. Felix went on many of the club's scheduled hikes for many years and worked with what is now the Asheville Friday Crew and later with the Wednesday Crew. He particularly liked to find and bring rocks to where steps were being installed and to work with logs for steps, cribbing and waterbars. While with the Wednesday Crew, Felix took over blazing as his specialty. Felix was a native of Gratz, Austria and came to the US from Venezuela where he was a Director of the Sanchez Company, a large manufacturer and marketer of machinery. Felix is survived by his wife of many years, Jean Pyle-Metzner. Howard McDonald

Read this Book

Outdoor Navigation with GPS - Reviewed by Dave Wetmore

Outdoor Navigation with GPS by Stephen Hinch (Wilderness Press) begins with a short but very useful summary of how the GPS system works. Early on he introduces the important theme of practice to gain familiarity, a theme which he constantly returns to throughout the book.

Hinch’s discussions of navigational techniques deal almost exclusively with waypoints and bearings. Here in the southern Appalachians, where visibility is often measured in yards, other techniques are more useful. The discussion of latitude, longitude and the UTM grid is good, as is his explanation of the datum. There is an excellent introduction to map reading and emphasis on the importance of using paper maps along with a GPS unit. A chapter on route planning and navigation by waypoint has a very good section on transferring positional data from paper maps to a GPS unit. The section “Recovering from Disaster” is perhaps too long and again there is little which is useful in areas of limited visibility.

In the latter third of the book, Hinch seems to lose his focus. There are sections on geochaching, GPS games and highway navigation. The major weakness of the book is the lack of discussion about GPS use in low-visibility situations. Also, Hinch’s discussion of specific GPS units is outdated. Considering the rapid rate of change in GPS technology, this is not surprising. “Outdoor Navigation with GPS” is comprehensive and well-written. The lack of discussion about GPS use on low-visibility terrain is unfortunate, but the book can be read with profit and pleasure by any outdoor navigator, beginning or experienced.

It is the best single book on the subject that I have read. Dave Wetmore

Heard on the Ground

Adopt a Section of the MST

Richland Gap Access to Richland Balsam Access (3 Trees) 1.2 miles

If you're interested in either the A.T. or MST, email Don Walton.

Maintenance Reports created by Don Walton

Heard on the Trail

It's Cold Up There!

The previous record low temperature for July (recorded at Mt. LeConte and filed to the National Weather Service) was 38 degrees which occurred in both 1988 and 1993.

We have broken the record twice this month: we had 35 degrees at Mt. LeConte on Saturday morning July 18 and then we saw 33 degrees Wednesday am July 22.

Pretty cool, eh?

Bob Miller
Management Assistant (865) 436-1207
Great Smoky Mountains National Park

The Small Print

Hiker leaders, please send all your eNews hike reports and photos to Dave Wetmore at dwetmore@citcom.net

So send me your news and maintenance reports by Tuesday evening at 9 P.M. before the newsletter comes out, that is, by Tuesday evening August 18, 2009 to Danny Bernstein at danny@hikertohiker.com. Include your email address at the end of your story. Thank you.

       The CMC Calendar is meant to answer the perennial question "When is this happening again?" It is also meant to prevent conflicts between competing CMC events. Please check it often.

How to join the Carolina Mountain Club
1. Go to www.carolinamtnclub.org
2. Click on “How to Join” (upper-left on web page)
3. Print out the “CMC Application Form”
4. Fill it Out, write a check for your dues and ...5. Mail to CMC, PO Box 68, Asheville NC 28802

        For CMC members only - Send all address and email changes to Marcia Bromberg at mwbromberg@yahoo.com. Do not resubscribe yourself to the eNews. That will be done automatically.

If you are a non-member subscriber, you need to go back to the
CMC home page > News >Subscribe and change it there yourself.