Hike - Save trails - Make friends
November 25, 2011 
Western Bear Season (west of I-77)
Dec. 12 – Jan. 2, 2012
Western Deer Season (west of I-77)
Gun: Nov. 21 – Dec. 10
CMC Calendar
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From the Editor
This is my first eNews on the current website. It's not perfect. Heck, you're probably wishing for the old eNews format. But times change and I've moved it over. So let me know what you think and what improvements you want to see. Positives and negatives are invited. Happy Thanksgiving! Danny Bernstein
Ideas for Presents
Support our Hiking Lands - Buy a Membership
If you're looking for a gift that will last, support one or more of these membership organizations. The price of basic membership is around $25 to $35, a great investment.
And if you're reading this and you're not a Carolina Mountain Club member, it's time for you to join. For $20, you get membership in the largest and most active club in Western North Carolina and a $20 gift certificate to Diamond Brand Outdoors. You can't beat this.
News and Happenings
Carolina Mountain Club dinner a great success
Over 115 members and guests filled the room at Pack's Tavern to meet, talk and celebrate another wonderful hiking and trail maintaining years.
Becky Smucker presented two awards.
Stuart English received the The Award of Appreciation, awarded to a member who, during the calendar year prior to the Annual Meeting, has rendered such exceptional service to the operation of the Carolina Mountain Club that its goals were significantly advanced. Stuart has done a wonderful job with Let's Go under trying personal circumstances.
Stuart writes I cannot accept any credit for the newsletter without the mention of several people. First of all, Jean Reese is our professional formatter who makes it looks as good as it does and somehow fits all the copy and hike schedules into a limited area. Bobbi Powers contributes articles every quarter giving the newsletter a much needed different voice. Also, we have a team of proof readers: Bobbi, Marianne Newman, and Bruce Bente.
Howard McDonald received the Distingushed Service Award , is made to a member who, during his/her membership, has made consistent and cumulatively extraordinary contributions to the operation of CMC, and to the achievement of its goals. Howard received the President’s Call to Service Award for volunteer work on the trails. We thank them both for their hard work to CMC.
Peter Barr gave awards to all the hikers who finished CMC challenges and other challenges. See below.
We voted in new officers. We also thanked three Council members, Charlie Ferguson, Ashok Kudva and Becky Smucker, who are leaving the Council.
John Whitehouse will be taking over the reporting of CMC trail maintenance work from Jim Arial. Thank you, Jim, for your great work.
Elk in Great Smoky Mountains National Park can stay!
After 10 years, the National Park Service has decided that the reintroduction of elk is a success. Or to be more exact, they found that the elk have had no significant impact on the environment. So the elk reintroduction is no longer considered an experiment.
The research findings from the experimental elk release indicated that the elk population was sustainable, had minimal impacts on the Park’s resources, and human-elk conflicts were manageable. So they can stay.
Of course, the elk are staying. There would be a lot of disappointed volunteers and visitors if the elk had to leave. >From about 50 elk, the park now has about 140 and growing.
Some have moved to Oconaluftee Visitor Center where they're creating traffic jams there and eating corn at the Mountain Farm Museum.
If you want to learn all the ins and outs of this Environmental Assessment, go to the park website. Then scroll down to the Elk issue. It's worth your time to learn how this all works.
Challenges
South Beyond 6000: See photo to the right.
Don Gardner, W. Lane Bailey, Chris Washburn, Martyn Easton, Bob Hysko, Erwin Hoadley, Steven Phillip Gilliam Sr., Elaine Jenkins, Jon Bellows, Garrett Ransom, Beth Ransom, Sawako Jager, Bev MacDowell, Seth O'Shields
Lookout Tower Challenge:
Jack Fitzgerald
Sawako Jager
Pisgah 400:
Jeffrey Rinehart
Waterfall Challenges 100:
Erwin Hoadley
Joanne Tulip
Penny Longhurst
Howard Colby
Gary Neibert
Appalachian Trail
Jennifer Davis (speed record) (shown with Danny Bernstein to the left)
MST:
Danny Bernstein
Sharon McCarthy
Matt Kirk (speed record)
New Hampshire 4000:
Kent & Nancy Wilson
Carolina Mountain Land Conservancy White Squirrel:
Allison Barr
Sawako Jager
Jack Fitzgerald
Jeff Rinehart
Interview
Meet Sawako Jager
Sawako grew up in Japan. Now she's a regular CMC hiker and hike leader.
Read the Interview.
The Small Print
So ... the next issue will come out on Friday, December 16. 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 December 13 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
For CMC members only - Send all address and email changes to Gale O'Neal at gogalemail@gmail.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 eNews and make the change yourself.