Remote Overnight Crew on the Appalachian Trail

Join us as part of the new Remote Overnight Crew (ROC) on Nov 17th and 18th on the Appalachian Trail as we renovate a more remote section of the A.T.   This section is near the Spring Mountain shelter, which will be our base for operations.  CMC Trail Maintenance Crew members and the Appalachian Trail Conservancy (ATC) are partnering to offer a unique opportunity to spend the weekend assisting in the rehabilitation of the A.T. as it traverses Spring Mountain in the Cherokee and Pisgah National Forests.

To read more, click here.

Pre-registration is required by signing up on the below link. Youth of all ages are welcome, but must be accompanied by a parent/guardian. CMC will provide safety instructions, supervision, training, and tools for the tasks you are assigned.  

If this date is not a fit, our next event will be April 27 & 28, 2019.

Please contact CMC AT Supervisor Paul Curtin at: [email protected] for further information or any questions you may have. 
 

To sign up, click here.

For an event flyer, click here.

Fall Camporee 2018

About 35 people attended the fall camporee at Appletree Campground in October. Thanks to Kathleen Hannigan, Jill Gottesman and Kay Shurtleff who were among those who organized the event held twice a year to explore Mountain Treasures- areas being considered for higher protection in the forest service system. We also couldn't have had it without our hike leaders. On Saturday night, we honored the late Ted Snyder who started the camporees nearly seven years ago and who recently passed away. He was instrumental in preserving the wilderness of WNC and served as the national president of the Sierra Club. The next camporee will be held in the spring.

To read more about Ted Snyder go to an extensive interview with him in the Sierra Club archives:

https://archive.org/details/sierraclubleaders01lagerich/page/n363

CMC receives Walmart Grant for Hike Leader First Aid Kits

The Carolina Mountain Club has received a grant from our community Walmart facility located on Hendersonville Rd in Asheville. Through their Community Grant Program, Walmart supports the needs of the community by providing grants to local organizations.

The $650 grant provided to CMC will be used to purchase first aid kits for hiking trip leaders meeting minimum training requirements, as determined by the CMC board. This will provide additional safety for CMC hiking participants within our community. We appreciate Walmart providing this funding and thank Walmart for their generosity!

Help Maintain Secondary Trails

by Les Love

CMC is responsible for maintaining trails in the Pisgah National Forest and on the Blue Ridge Parkway that are not part of the Appalachian Trail or the Mountains to Sea Trail.  We are looking for people who would like to adopt these sections and walk them 3 to 4 times per year as either:

1) A non-tool carrying maintainer who is only scouting the trail to report issues on the website for the weekly crews to address.  If they don't know about it, they can't fix it.

   OR

2) A maintainer who walks the trail with hand tools, cleaning ditches, lopping branches, and sawing small trees that have fallen across the trail.  Anything requiring a chainsaw would be reported on the website.  You would also be responsible for string trimming the weeds and grass (swing blading in wilderness areas) once or twice per season, as well as keeping the blazing fresh.  CMC provides all the tools.

We need more eyes and boots out on these "secondary" trails to help us keep them open and enjoyable for everyone to hike.

To review the list of trails, click here.

If you would like to step up and get involved, please email Les Love at  [email protected]

In January a task force was requested by President Randy Fluharty to develop survey to learn how to improve the club, to get members more actively involved, and to increase membership. Kathy Kyle, Lynn Saul and Jan Onan developed, distributed, and analyzed the survey.  In August 2018 they distributed data to Chairs with contacts to follow up and wrote a report including recommendations for the Council.

According to the survey, many CMC members are satisfied with what the club is doing.  However, the results indicate that the club could offer more hike choices, further integrate technology (social media), and reach out to younger and diverse populations. Recommendations were suggested for ways to improve our club. The task force is recommending that the CMC council make time to review these and work toward improvements.

To see the results of the survey click here.

New Mountains-to-Sea Trail guide highlights hiking from Clingmans Dome to Mount Mitchell

Karen Chávez, Asheville Citizen Times Published 6:00 a.m. ET Oct. 17, 2018

ASHEVILLE - To say Walt Weber knows every step of the mighty Mountains-to-Sea Trail in Western North Carolina is no tall tale.

Weber, 90, and turning 91 in November, has just released the third edition of his "Trail Profiles and Maps: From Clingmans Dome to Mount Mitchell and Beyond," a meticulously detailed hiking guide of the MST from its start at Clingmans in the Smokies to Mitchell - the highest point in the Eastern United States, just in time for fall hiking.

The CMC annual dinner will be held Saturday, November 3 at the DoubleTree Biltmore Village, 115 Hendersonville Rd., Asheville, NC. Social hour begins at 5:30 followed by dinner and the annual meeting.

Our guest speaker is Jennifer Pharr Davis, long distance hiker, author, speaker and a National Geographic Adventurer of the Year.

To register, go to the member site on the CMC website ( http://carolinamountainclub.org/) and follow the links. Please make your plans to join us.

 

NOTE:  Walt Weber's edition 3 of his MST guide is JUST out, and it's awesome!  To get your copy, assuming you're coming to the Annual Dinner and Meeting on Nov 3, bring either $15 cash or a check made out to the club for that amount.  That's a member savings of 25% over the retail price, and Walt and "the gang" will be there to autograph the book for you.  Already purchased one?  Bring it that night to get it autographed.  Later, members can purchase it from Les Love for that amount or you can purchase it for the retail price at Highland Books in Brevard, the Ranger Station and the Cradle of Forestry, all locations of Mast General, and at REI, Black Dome, Foot Rx, and Jus Running in Asheville.  The full title is Trail Profiles and Maps: From Clingmans Dome to Mount Mitchell and Beyond.  You'll want to have your own copy of this incredible resource Walt and his buddies have created!

 Our SB6K Journey - Jim and Judy Magura 

While I have been a member of CMC for a while, I didn't realize CMC had challenges until talking with a fellow hiker who mentioned it to me in late 2016. I took a look at the challenges and decided that the SB6K challenge looked fun and obtainable. I printed off all the documentation, created a spreadsheet so I could start tracking what I had already accomplished.  Wow, I had three hikes already completed and 37 to go.