Hike - Save trails - Make friends
January 27, 2012
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From the Editor
The job's not completed until the paperwork is done!
We have not been getting too many hike reports, so I suggested to the Communications Committee and the Hiking Committee that maybe we should cut them out. I heard a resounding NO. They liked the hike reports. But for us to read them, hike leaders (or their delegates) have to write them.
We want to hear about the weather, the flowers, the stone wall, the visitor from Ontario - whatever struck you as special, quirky or funny about the hike. One or two paragraphs. Send it to hiking@carolinamountainclub.org. Thank you.
News and Happenings
From your President
Scouting Opportunities: As you know hike leaders are required to scout their hikes prior to leading them. These scouting hikes often include fewer hikers and may take place either during the week or on the weekend. If you are available and wish to be added to a list of CMC members who help scout hikes please send your email information to Marcia Bromberg at mwbromberg@yahoo.com.
Member Survey: CMC members should look for a special edition of eNews in February that will contain a short electronic member survey. A hard copy version of the survey is being mailed to 5% of the membership. If you receive a hard copy, please complete and return it by mail to the CMC at PO Box 68 Asheville 28806. In either case I hope you will take the time to make your views about the CMC known to the Council by completing the survey--Marcia Bromberg
Save the Dates
Join CMC for its annual spring social on Saturday April 28. As is our tradition, it will be held at the North Carolina Arboretum and include easy hikes and a great barbecue. The evening program will presented by three CMC members who finished the Mountains-to-Sea Trail in 2011.More information soon!
The CMC Annual meeting and Dinner will be held on Friday evening November 2 at Packs Tavern in Asheville. Put it on your calendar.
Vote for Carolina Mountain Land Conservancy to win a $5,000 grant
Support land conservation in WNC by casting your vote online!
Carolina Mountain Land Conservancy is in the running to win a $5,000 Fueling Good grant for gas from Citgo. Vote once daily through February 9th. Voting is easy and takes only seconds.
Thank you for your help as we strive to save the places you love!
Vote online once a day for CMLC! The picture to the right is of a bridge built by CMC volunteer maintenance crew on CMLC land.
Appalachian Trail Conservancy Recruiting Natural Resources Monitors for 2012
Let’s be honest…what makes the Appalachian Trail special is not the Trail itself. It is the bounty of natural splendor that fills the 250,000 acre A.T. corridor surrounding the 2,180 mile-long footpath. The forests surrounding the Appalachian Trail are home to unique, high elevation ecosystems, rare plant and animal species and unparalleled natural aesthetics.
Despite the best efforts of ATC staff and agency partners to protect resources along the A.T., much of this delicate natural majesty is in danger of being lost due to climate change, human impacts, and the spread of invasive exotic species.
Just as volunteers are a crucial component to maintaining the footpath, volunteers from Trail clubs, schools, and the general public play a major role when it comes to monitoring rare plants, invasive exotic plants, phenology, and other environmental indicators along the Trail.
I’d like to thank all CMC members who helped with ATC’s natural resources management in 2011 and previous years. Whether it was for an afternoon or a decade, these contributions have been extremely valuable in furthering our understanding and protection of the A.T. corridor as we know it.
If you have participated in monitoring efforts before and need a refresher, or if you are interested in volunteering for the first time, consider this an invitation to attend one of several workshops this year addressing natural resources management. In the spring and summer of 2012, ATC will hold workshops to train volunteers to monitor high priority rare plant sites using the most current protocols. There will also be workshops to train volunteers in phenology monitoring.
The term phenology refers to the recurring life cycle stages, such as leafing and flowering. Phenology monitoring can be done at any point along the Trail, and involves observations of the same group of plants to track when they leaf out, flower, go to seed, lose their leaves in fall, etc. Finally, there will be periodic workshops to monitor and control invasive exotic plants within the A.T. corridor to prevent their spread along the Trail and lessen their impacts on native biodiversity.
If you are interested in attending a workshop, filling a leadership role for Club monitoring efforts, or if you have questions about natural resource management on the A.T., please contact John Odell, ATC’s Resource Management Coordinator.
Once again, thank you for all of your efforts in protecting the A.T. and the A.T. corridor.
John Odell Resource Management Coordinator (828) 254-3708 jodell@appalachiantrail.org
Kayah Gadish is A.T. Ambassador to Hot Springs
Kayah Gadish will serve as the ambassador to the designated A.T. Community of Hot Springs. In this role, she will serve as a community liaison to the Appalachian Trail Conservancy (ATC) and the respective local volunteer A.T. maintaining club to bolster volunteerism and stewardship of the Trail at the local level. The A.T. Community Ambassador opportunity is the first of its kind within the A.T. cooperative management partnership.
“The Appalachian Trail Conservancy is excited about building off its volunteer base by providing A.T. Ambassadors to designated A. T. Communities to help increase local stewardship of public lands and support healthy lifestyles for community citizens,” stated Julie Judkins, Community Program Manager of the ATC.
Kayah is a member of the Carolina Mountain Club and volunteers on a weekly maintenance crew. She enjoys sharing her knowledge of plant identification, uses, and other primitive skills. She has two children who have inherited her love of nature, and they often spend their time exploring the woods together.
The Appalachian Trail Community™ program is designed to recognize communities that promote and protect the A.T. Towns, counties, and communities along the A.T.’s corridor are considered assets by A.T. hikers and many of these towns act as good friends and neighbors to the Trail. The program serves to assist communities with local initiatives such as sustainable economic development through tourism and outdoor recreation, while preserving and protecting the A.T.
REi donates to Smokies Trails Forever Program
If you hike Forney Ridge Trail from Clingmans Dome to Andrews Bald, you will see a world of difference from the previous muddy, rocky mess of the past.
Reworking trails is no easy task, but volunteers and trail crews hauling boulders, digging water bars and otherwise rehabilitating trails in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park will have an easier time with their new Trails Forever equipment trailer, thanks to a $10,000 grant from REI. Ching Fu, outreach specialist for Asheville’s REI store, presented a check to Friends of the Smokies’ North Carolina Director Holly Demuth to benefit the Trails Forever program, which supports trail improvement projects in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park.
REI’s donation finances a new equipment trailer to transport the tools and supplies necessary to conduct major trail improvement projects, and support a seasonal trail crew that oversees the trail work and coordinates the efforts of hundreds of volunteers each year. In addition to business donations, the Trails Forever program is supported through donations from individuals and volunteer efforts.
Mark Wenger Named Appalachian Trail Conservancy Executive Director
The Appalachian Trail Conservancy’s (ATC) Board of Directors has appointed Mark J. Wenger as the new Executive Director who will lead the organization beginning February 2012. Wenger will succeed David N. Startzell, the longest serving Executive Director in the ATC’s history.
Wenger enters the ATC at a time of growth and development. The ATC currently has over 42,000 members, a vast network of over 6,800 volunteers, 2 to 3 million Trail visitors every year, and an operating budget of $6.8 million. 2012 also marks the 75th anniversary of the completion of the A.T.
Mark is active in the A.T. community as a life member of both the Tidewater Appalachian Trail Club (TATC) and the Old Dominion Appalachian Trail Club. He is past program chair, vice president, and president of TATC. He was most recently Regional Partnership Committee (RPC) representative and RPC chairman for the Virginia region. He also served on the steering committee for the recently completed 2011 Virginia Journeys, the ATC’s 38th Biennial Conference. Mark has also led an extensive number of outdoor trips (backpacking, canoeing, cycling, and whitewater rafting) for the TATC, earning him the Ray Kernel, Jr., Trip Leadership Award. On August 1, 2011, he completed an 8-year, 3-month effort to section hike the A.T.
Interview
Meet Marcia Bromberg, CMC President
Marcia Bromberg became CMC President at the beginning of the year. I immediately saw that she's going to be a great, active president and will continue to be an asset to CMC.
Read my interviewwith Marcia at Brombergmarciainterview2012
Book Review
46 Days - How did Jennifer Davis do it?
How did Jennifer Pharr Davis walk the Appalachian Trail in 46 days? Two word, displicine and endurance.
But for more nuance and details, read Brew Davis' 46 Days: Keeping up with Jennifer Pharr Davis on the Appalachian Trail. The thin book is the blog that her husband, Brew Davis, kept while leading the Pit Crew that supported Jennifer on her trek.
Day by day, he describes her mileage and length of her walking day. On average she walked from 5 A.M. to 9 P.M. Now that's discipline. The average mileage, 46.4 miles, is amazing. Brew describes the logistics of meeting her at road crossings, giving her food and drink, helping her with any problems like icing shin splints - and of course, encouragement.
Just as amazing as her mileage was the food she ate.
A moderately active woman should eat between 1,500 and 2,000 calories. Jennifer was supposed to eat 6,000 calories. So many of those calories came from fried foods - French fries, onion rings, hamburgers and cheap fast food buys. How did her stomach take in all of that? When I did the A.T., Lenny and I once shared a pint of Ben and Jerry's. I had nausea for a couple of days after that.
Brew is amazed by his wife's feat. He keeps saying that "she's a freak of nature" and "what a woman". He was sidelined by a knee injury and couldn't walk much with her. But many other supporters did walk with her. She didn't run. I recognized Matt Kirk, a trail runner who set the record for the Mountains-to-Sea Trail last year.
Jennifer felt that she had pushed herself to the limit. So few people take the opportunity to do that. She says that she doubts that there will be a hike that will compare to the intensity of this hike. Jennifer is only in her late 20s. There are plenty of trails around the world that she can do.
In her epilogue, she knows that someone will beat her record. But for now she is the fastest person on the A.T. I just wish I could see her picture on a Wheaties box.
The Small Print
The next issue will come out on Friday, February 24. 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 hiking@carolinamountainclub.org
So send me your news by Tuesday evening at 9 P.M. before the newsletter comes out, that is, by Tuesday evening February 21 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.
Westgate parking - Park in the northernmost part of the lot - past EarthFare, in the last row of parking spaces.
How to join the Carolina Mountain Club
1. Go to www.carolinamountainclub.org
2. Click on “Join CMC” on the right side and follow the instructions
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If you are a non-member subscriber, you need to go back to the eNews and make the change yourself.