Book Event: Great Day Hikes on North Carolina's Mountains-to-Sea Trail at Malaprop's-March 23rd
by Marcia Bromberg
Friends of the Mountains-to-Sea Trail is publishing a new trail guide to day hikes on the MST. The book, which will hit the shelves March 23rd, features 40 hikes spread out across the state, from Clingmans Dome to Jockey's Ridge. It's available for pre-order on Friends of the MST's website--
https://shop.mountainstoseatrail.org/
Friends' Trail Resource Manager and the book's editor, Jim Grode, will be joining CMC hike leader and Friends board member, Marcia Bromberg, to talk about the book and share some of their favorite hikes along the trail-both near Asheville and across the state. The details:
Where: Malaprop's, 55 Haywood Street, Asheville
When: Monday, March 23, 2020, at 6:00 pm
We hope you'll join us for this fun and informative event!
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Save the date for CMC's annual Spring Social - April 18
by Kathy Kyle
Save the date for CMC's annual Spring Social to be held on Saturday, April 18, at the North Carolina Arboretum. The event features food, hikes and a travelogue presentation.
The dinner will be catered this year by Appalachian Smoke
 Barbecue and the menu is chicken, pork, barbecue beans, corn salad and loaded mashed potatoes, tea and water. There will also be a vegetarian option with a larger corn salad and sides. The cost for dinner is $20 plus a PayPal charge of $1. The price includes free entry into the arboretum. Children under 12 can attend and eat for half price.
The longer hike to Lake Powhatan will start at 2:30 and the wildflower hike will start at 3. All events will be held at the Education Center at the arboretum and hikes will start there as well. Happy hour, which will not include alcohol, will start at 6. Dinner will start at 6:30 and the program starts at 7:30. This year's program will be a series of mini-travelogues by CMC members. The event will end at 9.
A check can either be mailed to P.O. Box 68, Asheville, NC 28802 with Spring Social written in the memo (no $1 Paypal extra charge for checks), or there will be a method to pay online in March. Make plans to attend this delicious CMC tradition.
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Pisgah Pride Day
by Richard (Pete) Petersen
Pisgah Pride Day will be on Saturday, April 25 this year. CMC will be managing trail projects on the Art Loeb access spur at the Rt. 816 parking area and the upper portion of the Pilot Rock trail.
There are over a dozen other projects planned for the day including the removal of non-native invasive species at Sycamore Flats. Go to Pisgah Conservancy website opens to see the other projects and to volunteer for any of them (including the CMC led ones.)
Registration for a Pisgah Pride Day project on the Pisgah Conservancy website opens on March 27
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Hot Springs Community TrailFest
by Jack Dalton
April 17-19, 2020
Hot Springs Welcome Center
106 Bridge Street
Hot Springs, NC 28743
828-622-9932
The 24th annual Trailfest in Hot Springs will be a celebration of the Appalachian Trail and the great outdoors in downtown Hot Springs!
A weekend of fun, FREE outdoor events for the whole community! Live Music, "hiker' games, Camp stove Cook-off, Talent Show, Duck Race, and more! Great Food and Vendors will be there as well.
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I-26 Blue Ridge Parkway Bridge Project
by Ron Navik
Blue Ridge Parkway officials have assembled information regarding the multi-year bridge project in the Asheville corridor of the Blue Ridge Parkway and about the MST trail detour near the I-26 crossing.
The National Park Service is a cooperator with NC Department of Transportation, who will be building a new bridge on the Parkway in the area that travels above Interstate 26. The project is planned in such a way that allows the Parkway to remain open to the greatest extent possible during construction.
NPS thanks Andy Otten, David Anderson, and members of the Carolina Mountain Club for their contributions to this information.
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Favorite Trail Snack
By Donna Lanning
Whenever I lead a hike, I bring these energy balls for lunchtime and they are pretty popular. My fellow hikers thought I should share the recipe:
Energy balls
Combine 1 cup of regular (old-fashioned) rolled oats with 1/2 cup of peanut butter (low fat, sodium), 2 tablespoons of ground flax seeds, 1/4 cup of honey, and 1/4 cup of dark chocolate chips.
Roll spoonfuls of the mix into bite-sized balls or larger and put on wax paper to set for a few hours. The medical-type gloves are best for rolling, less sticky on hands. No need to refrigerate. I store in Tupperware with lid. The recipe is easily doubled.
Enjoy!
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Youth Partner Challenge partners with
Conserving Carolina
by Jan Onan
The Youth Partner Hike at DuPont on February 1st had double the number of participants due the help of Rachel Hess. Rachel is an AmeriCorps Communications and Education Associate with Conserving Carolina through mid-summer.
Prior to the hike, Kay Shurtleff and Jan Onan of the Education and Outreach committee, met with Rachel at Conserving Carolina (formally CMLC) to talk about how we might work together to increase knowledge of public lands.
Rachel enthusiastically offered to join us on our next Youth Partner Challenge hike. In quick order, she wrote an article for their newsletter, then posted the hike on CC's social media using Instagram. The day of the hike, Rachel taught about public lands and especially how DuPont came to be. She presented information about wildlife and invertebrate charts for water fun, but we had snow the day before, so we were sure the salamanders were sleeping. Instead, we got to play with the snow and learn about mosses and DuPont!
Rachel is interested in joining other CMC hike leaders to share her knowledge of land conservation. If you are interested in leading an informational hike on conserved public land in partnership with CC, contact me at [email protected].
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CMC Celebrates Legendary Hike Leaders at Dinner
by Stuart English
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Joe Burchfield, Carol Deal, Ken Deal, Paula McNabb, Dave Wetmore, Tom Sanders, Lou Blodgett, Ashok Kudva
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This year at our Hike Leaders dinner several members were honored who no longer lead hikes but are considered among the best leaders we have had. (See picture and caption). Each had their own distinct personality which always made their hikes a memorable experience.
The dinner was held at the Double Tree Hotel in Asheville. The late Greg Goodman was remembered. Service dogs were discussed, along with how to set up a car shuttle, how to report downed trees, how to use our website to request to lead a hike, and finally the ABC's of hike leading.
If you want to be invited to this dinner, just lead a hike. If you want to become a legendary hike leader, that is up to you.
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CMC Wilderness First Aid Course Follow-Up
by Sarah Broughton
Scene Scenarios
In November 2018, CMC Offered a Wilderness First Aid course through NOLS Wilderness Medicine for hike leaders and trail maintainers. In an effort to promote safety and education, and to continue ongoing discussion of the information shared during the First Aid course, The CMC Education Committee will be sharing NOLS scene scenarios. The following article is adapted from an article that was originally sent via the NOLS Wilderness Medicine Scene Scenarios mailing list and is available to read in full on the NOLS Blog. It is shared here with permission. Visit the NOLS Blog at
https://blog.nols.edu for more articles on Wilderness First Aid, Leadership, and Education.
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