Carolina Mountain Club
Hike - Save trails - Make friends
July 3, 2009
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| Upcoming Hikes | Hike Reports |Maintenance Schedule |
| Happenings in the next two weeks | ATC Biennial Meeting - last chance to register |
| Other News | Hiking is top activity in North Carolina |
| Conservation | Goats on Roan Mountain |
| Challenge Program | Three women finish SB6K in record time |
| Help Wanted | Need a transcriber for interview with Bernard Elias |
| Heard on the Ground | Adopt a piece of trail |
| Heard on the Trail | Goodbye to Joe Cirvello |
| The Small Print | Deadlines, change of addresses and other details |
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From Your Editor This eNews will have to last you for four weeks. Your editor is going to the Biennial Appalachian Trail Conservancy Conference in Vermont. While there, I'm going to blog about the meeting and get input from other CMCers at the meeting. If you're interested, look at www.hikertohiker.com and please comment. Danny What's Happening in the Next Two Weeks Appalachian Trail Festival and Biennial Meeting There is still time to register for the ATC Biennial Meeting and Festival The Appalachian Trail Festival and Biennial Conference in Castleton, VT starts July 17, 2009. Register today at www.vermont2009.org and guarantee your reservation at the "Best Deal" in Vermont this summer. A full schedule of meetings, workshops and hikes can also be found here. Hope to see you there, Bob Almand, Chair ATC Board of Directors ---------------------- Back to Top From Christine Hoyer, Trails Forever Trail Crew Leader in the Smokies
The information is on the website at http://www.smokiestrailsforever.org/about/ --The Current Projects pdf will give the details about the event and the Volunteer Application is there as well. As you all probably already know, Trails Forever is turning out to be a great program and I am going to do everything in my power to keep it growing! Thanks, Christine Hoyer ---------------------- Back to Top Diva Night is Back at Diamond Brand Outdoors Come to Diva Night on Thursday, July 16th at 7 pm. This will benefit Girls on the Run. For all the outdoor divas out there, it's ladies night again at Diamond Brand Outdoors, and this time we welcome summer with discounts and festivities. Enjoy some food, wine and a massage while our keynote athlete speaker motivates and inspires. - Give aways, raffles and prizes - Outdoor wine glasses for $6 (cash only please) with complimentary wine refills, benefiting Girls on the Run - 20% off store-wide sale plus coupons - Massages - Food catered by Earth Fare - Diva Night t-shirts for $20, benefiting Girls on the Run. For more information on Diva Night, please contact Sarah Merrell at smerrell@diamondbrand.com or 828-209-0311. ---------------------- Back to Top Blue Ridge Parkway not a Smooth Ride Now I took a walk last Thursday with Marcia, Stu, and a few others on the MST north of Hwy 128, and can say, had I known of the problems along the Blue Ridge Parkway, I would not have chosen that hike.
For current road conditions, call the BRP information line 828-298-0398. (Photo from the Big Butt Trail, off the Blue Ridge Parkway.) ---------------------- Back to Top Hiking is Top Activity - from the MST Newsletter A recent survey by NC State Parks found that hiking is the most popular activity in state parks - enjoyed by 79.5% of respondents. These results mirror findings in the State's recent Comprehensive Outdoor Recreation Plan which reveals that walking for pleasure is the most popular form of exercise in North Carolina. What better way to help North Carolinian's enjoy their favorite activity than to build a trail from the mountains to the sea! ---------------------- Back to Top Lost and Found Wyandotte lost a red outer shell on the Sandy Mush Ramble last Sunday. Someone called me & indicated that they had found it, but I just can't remember who it was. Thanks. Rob Resnick ---------------------- Back to Top Correction to Let's Go Article It has come to our attention that in the article Kyle/Cornn Blue Ridge Literacy Council, the name of Susan Fitzgerald was left out. Susan is a CMC member and also volunteers for the council. Stuart English ---------------------- Back to Top Information Needed on Wheelchair Accessible Trails Charlie Ferguson, Chair of the Hiking Committee, is putting together a list of Wheelchair Accessible Trails in our CMC hiking area. If you have details of some, please contact Charlie. ---------------------- Back to Top Goats on Roan Mountain Julie Judkins of the Appalachian Trail Conservancy told me that I couldn't miss the goats - they were in between Engine Gap and Jane Bald. The fence was obvious and so were the two serious dogs that approached the fence. But the goats were in the middle of the fenced in area, munching away at Canada blackberry cane. That's their job.
How you can get involved? You can volunteer to camp with the goats on a weekend or adopt a goat. Yes, you'll get a photo of the goat and a snippet of hair. Email Julie Judkins and look at http://baatanygoatproject.blogspot.com:80/. Danny ---------------------- Back to Top
Women Finish South Beyond 6000 Adventure Run Congratulations to Anne Lundblad, 42, of Swannanoa, Jenny Anderson, 35, and Rebekah Trittipoe, 52, both of Lynchburg, VA, who completed a 7 day endurance run of the 40 South Beyond 6,000 peaks on June 16.
SB6K was first completed in one continuous trip in 2003 by Ted Keizer (aka Cave Dog), who holds the overall SB6K speed record at just under 5 days. The trio of women runners finished the SB6K run in 6 days, 13 hours, and 31 minutes, setting the women's record. Their journey was nearly 300 miles. Peter Barr
---------------------- Back to Top Congratulations to Peter Barr
Read the complete story.
---------------------- Back to Top Needed: Transcriber for Bernard Elias Video
Photo taken by Houck M. Medford, Executive Director, Blue Ridge Parkway Foundation at the National Parks video screening in Asheville in June. ---------------------- Back to Top Wanted - Geology Hike Leader For the past year, the Education Committee has been organizing Theme Hikes, that is, hikes that include some education for the participants. We’ve had flower and tree identification hikes, history hikes and photography hikes. However, nobody has volunteered to lead a geology hike to explain some of the geological features of our hiking area. If you know enough about the geology of our area to explain it to your fellow CMC’ers, and would be willing to lead a hike, please contact Lenny Bernstein (Lsberns@att.net). If you know your geology, but aren’t a hike leader, we’ll pair you up with an experienced hike leader. Lenny ---------------------- Back to Top Adopt a Section of the Appalachian Trail Big Butt to Flint Gap 3.3 miles Adopt a Section of the MST Richland Gap Access to Richland Balsam Access (3 Trees) 1.2 miles Devil’s Courthouse Jct. to FS Road 816, 2.4 miles If you're interested in either the A.T. or MST, email Don Walton. ---------------------- Back to Top Maintenance Reports created by Don Walton
---------------------- Back to Top Goodbye from Joe Cirvello Hello CMC'ers......I have enjoyed my years hiking with the club and meeting many of you, but for several years I have wanted to move back to NYC and now I am finally able to do it. I have a nice place to live lined up near Pelham Bay Park in the Bronx. I can't afford Manhattan, but can be in midtown in 30 minutes via Express Bus from my new neighborhood. I plan to leave North Carolina on July 30. Wish I could say goodbye to you in person, but maybe I will squeeze in a hike before I leave and see some of you at that time. Happy hiking to all of you! Joe Cirvello ---------------------- Back to Top The eNews comes out on Fridays. So ... The next issue will come out on Friday, July 31. Wednesday hike reports for the hike just before the eNews comes out will be published in the next eNews.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 July 28, 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 If you are a non-member subscriber, you need to go back to the ---------------------- Back to Top |
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Danny Bernstein
danny@hikertohiker.com
Greetings! I was thinking about an upcoming Trails Forever event that is taking place on the Smokemont Trail... and let my mind wander back to the great 75th anniversary hike we took together. I am trying to recruit a bunch of great volunteers for our Trails Forever 'Saturday in the Smokies' event happening July 11th. 
It took us 1.5 hours to return from 128 to the Folk Art Center. Not only is there the well publicized traffic light near the Craggy area washout, but the repaving of the parkway north of the Craggy Visitor Center makes for long waits behind trucks full of asphalt to negotiate the one-lane conditions there as well. And for some reason there was another one- lane problem near Bee Tree Gap. In addition, there are numerous serious potholes from the Visitor Center going south. It's not a good ride. There may have been some publicity about the paving project, but I have not seen it. 
I went to Roan Mountain on Sunday June 28 to take pictures of goats and all I got is a picture of a dog - a Great Pyrenes guard dog. From Carver's Gap, you pass Round Bald, Engine Gap, and Jane Bald where if you're lucky, you may see Gray's lily, a small red cup-shaped lily. 
The goal of this Vegetation Management Pilot Program is to see if goats can control the invasive blackberries and keep the Roan Highlands bald and to see how that affects the globally rare Gray's Lily. The fence gets moved regularly so the Angorra goats have fresh blackberry to work on.
The three women finished on top Grassy Ridge Bald in the Highlands of Roan on a beautiful afternoon among blooming rhododendron and flaming azaleas.
Peter Barr, Chair of the Challenge Committee, had an article published in the Smoky Mountain News on our CMC challenges. The story gave a lot of visibility to CMC's Challenge Programs.
We have recently recorded an interview with Bernard Elias for the CMC Archives at UNCA Ramsey Library Special Collections. We need someone with good word and typing skills and time to transcribe the DVD for us. Special Collections has a pedal-pause setup that can be used, or you can do it at home. Contact Becky at