Carolina Mountain Club Since 1923
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SPRING SOCIAL: APRIL 23
By Stuart English
As I sit here, hunkered down in my house and not hiking while it is in the low 20s outside, thinking of the CMC Spring Social is like an image of lying on the beach at Bora Bora. But, it's time to start thinking of it! We will again have Bubba's BBQ catering. Two hikes will be led in the arboretum area starting at 2:30. (Leaders will be announced later.) The social hour will start at 5 pm and beer and wine will be available for purchase. CMC members, their families and friends are welcome. You do not have to be a member to attend. Thanks again to Les Love and Sherman Stambaugh for giving us this great event every year.
The theme for this Spring Social is the National Park Service Centennial. Danny Bernstein will talk about her visits to the 71 national park units of the southeast and emphasize the rangers, volunteers, park partners, and visitors -- the people who bring each park to life. She'll sign copies of her new book Forests, Alligators, Battlefields: My Journey through the National Parks of the South. For each book sold, Danny will donate two dollars to CMC.
To celebrate the NPS centennial, we've invited superintendents from the six national parks close to Asheville who will talk about something interesting or quirky about their park. We've extended invitations to Andrew Johnson NHS, the Appalachian National Scenic Trail, the Blue Ridge Parkway, Carl Sandburg Home NHS, Cowpens National Battlefield, and Great Smoky Mountains National Park. There will be a powerhouse of Green and Gray! We'll have an opportunity to meet national park personnel on an informal basis and become more familiar with our wonderful national parks close by.
Sign up for this event online (to be set up soon) or use the form included in the next issue of Let's Go.
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Take pictures for our slide show at the Spring Social
By Lenny Bernstein
The Appalachian Trail (A.T.) may be the most famous hiking trail in the world, but many people don't realize it became a unit of the National Park Service in 1968. CMC's involvement with the trail goes back much longer. In 1931, our Club merged with the Carolina Appalachian Mountain Club and assumed responsibility for building and maintaining the A.T. in our area.
CMC has honored that commitment through the decades and we now are responsible for 93.5 miles of the A.T. from Davenport Gap to Spivey Gap. No, I didn't make a mistake. The A.T. relocation into the Rocky Fork tract added 0.8 miles to the 92.7 miles that have been CMC's section of the trail for many years. Unfortunately it moved the Trail away from the Shelton Laurel Graves, final resting place for two North Carolina soldiers who fought on the Union side during the Civil War, and a young boy who helped them. A short side-trail now leads to the graves.
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Blue Dreaming
in the Green River Gorge
Between the river
and the leaning boulders big as churches,
I walk the trail.
Small stones flecked with mica
speckle the sides of the path
and glitter underwater.
When the river disappears,
her rushing still reaches my ear;
the treetop wind sings harmony
with her quickening over rocks.
Three times I cross a stream and add,
to the trickles and rushes,
my own new pour toward growth.
I nod my reverence
to an audacious arising
of Spring Beauties
and a fragile patch
of creekside Hepatica.
Carolina Vetch begins
its fetching toothy climb.
A Trillium still closed,
pumps up tight
from the center of its tripartite show.
Little Brown Jugs,
hiding beneath heart-shaped leaves
tantalize like wrapped gifts.
A clan of slate-gray tree trunks
marches up a storybook hill.
Through their bare branches,
the quiet sky,
a cloth of soft blue dreaming,
falls gently onto my head.
And all the dazzling afternoon,
glistening flows the river,
glistening flows the green Green River.
© Susa Silvermarie 2015
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Let's Pull Some Weeds
A Call for Volunteers
By Brenda Worley
CMC will be assisting Amy Snyder of the Appalachian Trail Conservancy rid parts of the AT of the noxious weed, garlic mustard. The first pull will be at Bluff Mountain on April 5, with April 6 as rain date. The second pull will be at Lemon Gap on May 2, with May 3 as rain date.
We will meet for both dates at 9 AM at Westgate. Herbicides or special equipment will not be needed -- just bring your gloves and small garden shovels so we can get the weed up by the roots.
Please contact Brenda Worley at bjdworley@gmail.com for more information and to sign up for this service opportunity. Please Come!! We need help getting rid of this invasive plant.
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Hiking Through History:
Civil War Sites on the Appalachian Trail
by Leanna Joyner
Reviewed by
Danny Bernstein
There's no untouched wilderness in the East and that includes the Appalachian Trail (A.T.). This is so well brought out by Hiking through History.
Leanna Joyner has written a great book combining the A.T. with Civil War history. She takes readers to many Civil War sites, where she explains the history in colorful, understandable language. She also tells you how to walk to the sites with clear instructions and color maps.
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CMC History Archives
Minutes 1936, Hiking Soco Gap, The Mazamas and Hiking Boots 1930s
By Rocko Smucker
CMC History Briefs:
From minutes of December 7, 1936 Annual Banquet:
After adjourning to the dance floor, we entered upon the more energetic part of the evening. Games, which we keenly enjoyed, square dancing and the Lambeth Walk (led by Pauline Smathers) made the gathering a merry one, and the Orchestra's "Home Sweet Home" came all too soon for many a club hiker.
Lambeth Walk:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mc6XUus5IC4
From Flint Gap Appalachian Trail Shelter-October 23, 2013 "When I get home, I'm going to be grateful for that one extra wall that prevents wild animals from getting in my business @ night."
Special Note:
A huge thanks to CMC authors Danny and Lenny Bernstein, Jennifer Pharr Davis, Heather Housekeeper, Walt Webber, and Peter Barr for donating copies of their books to the Carolina Mountain Club's archives in UNCA's Ramsey Library's Special Collections. CMC now has shelf space reserved in the Special Collections Library reading area.
Once these books are shelved, they are considered historical documents and will not be discarded. They will become property of the state of North Carolina and will be available to researchers, students, and just plain folks 30, 50, 100 years from now.
If anyone has a good copy of The Mountains-to-Sea Trail: WNC's Rival to the AT by Dossey and Hillyer, or Allen de Hart's Third Edition, North Carolina Hiking Trails, or any other CMC-related books, donations would be greatly appreciated.
Also, a big thanks to Gene Hyde, Special Collections Archivist, for his guidance and patience.
For this month's History Feature:
Carolina Appalachian Trail Club Hikes, 1931 ,
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The Hub Changes the Look and Culture of Pisgah Forest
By Stuart English
Many CMC hikers have stopped at The Hub for a cold beverage after a hike. The Hub is an outdoor shop at the entrance of the Pisgah National Forest. Recently, the business moved across the road into a new 9,000 square foot location and little Pisgah Forest will never be the same.
The Hub is primarily a bike shop. After all, Brevard has gotten to be primarily a mountain bike town with Brevard College winning several NCAA titles in the sport. But the store sells all sorts of outdoor gear including shoes, clothing, packs, trekking poles, maps, etc. Sam Salman, who has owned the Hub with his wife Jordan since they graduated from Brevard College in 2008, believes that it will have a positive impact on the community and be a good alternative to another dollar store. "Anyone could have bought it," Salmon said. "They could have built a strip mall. People should be thanking us. Not one tree was cut down."
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Park Needs Citizen Science Volunteers
GSMNP News Release
Great Smoky Mountains National Park rangers are recruiting volunteers to adopt a phenology monitoring plot in areas throughout the park. Volunteers will collect information as part of an important research project tracking seasonal biological data such as plant flowering dates and the presence of migratory birds. Tracking this phenology data across the park allows scientists to better understand how plants and animals might be influenced by seasonal variations in climate.
The phenology monitoring training will be held on Saturday, February 27 from 9:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. at Sugarlands Visitor Center near Gatlinburg, TN or Saturday, March 5 from 9:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. at Oconaluftee Visitor Center near Cherokee, NC.
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The newsletter will go out the last Friday of every month. The deadline to submit news is the Friday before it goes out.
The next issue will come out on Friday, March 25, so s end your news by Friday, March 18, to eNews@carolinamountainclub.org. Include your email address at the end of your story. Thank you.
Westgate parking - Park in the northernmost part of the lot - past EarthFare, in the last row of parking spaces.
To join Carolina Mountain Club go to: www.carolinamountainclub.org. Click on "Join CMC" on the right side. Follow the instructions. 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.
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Carolina Mountain Club | P.O. Box 68
Asheville, NC 28802
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