Month: June 2015

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2015 ATC Biennial – Winchester, Virginia

Hiking Through History
July 17 – 24, 2015

The Appalachian Trail Conservancy’s Biennial Conference is being co-hosted by Potomac Appalachian Trail Club (PATC) and Mountain Club of Maryland (MCM).  Sited at Shenandoah University located in Winchester, Virginia, which is near hundreds of miles of outstanding hiking trails, including a short 18 minute drive to the Appalachian Trail at its closest point. The University is also close to important civil war battlefields such as Manassas, Gettysburg and Antietam, and 90 minutes from Washington D.C.

Workshops will be held during the day on Saturday, July 18th through Monday, July 20th. Coordinated hikes will be offered between Saturday, July 18th through Thursday, July 23rd.  In addition to amazing scenic areas, there will be nature, history, and  photography theme hikes, plus sunset outings. Many of the hikes include a swim, and/or a stop at an ice cream shop, restaurant, winery, or brewery. Family hiking specialists have designed hikes suitable for most families that are five miles or less plus hikes suitable for most children eight years and older that are nine miles or less.

2015 Bienniel Logo

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Fun Fest Moonlight Hike – Call For Volunteers

Scheduled for Thursday, July 16, 2015

TEHCC will once again co-sponsor the Kingsport Fun Fest Moonlight Hike at Bays Mountain Park on Thursday, July 16th.  The hike traverses 2.5 miles around the lake.  We need at least twelve volunteers to help ensure the walkers stay on the right path at assigned intersections.  Bonus is that you don’t have to have one of the 350 “golden” FunFest tickets for the event!  If you are interested in assisting with this event or have any questions, please contact William Werner (423-408-4469).

More details will be later provided to the actual volunteers, including when/where to meet and what to bring.

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For the Record – Spring Wildflower Hike, May 9, 2015

Joe DeLoach reporting

For this year’s installment of our annual spring wildflower hike, we chose the Appalachian Trail from Highway 19E to Doll Flats.  Our record of 40 species was found years ago between 19E and the edge of Hump Mountain, and we might have matched that if we’d gone further this year, finding 31 varieties without going beyond Doll Flats.  Showy orchis and fringed phacelia highlighted the lower elevations, moving into erect trilliums and wood anemones in the middle, with early spring trout lilies hanging on at Doll Flats.  The flower of the day was jack in the pulpit; we saw some great specimens and a lot of them in the upper half of the hike.  We also saw evidence of much hard work by dedicated TEHCC volunteers who had cut and peeled locust logs, some quite large, and stakes for Trail rehabilitation with HardCore the following weekend.  Doll Flats makes a great place for a siesta on a warm sunny day.  Joe lost his bet with Kim that we would find more species of flowers than we would see Appalachian Trail thru-hikers, and it wasn’t close.  Next year we’ll shoot for earlier in the spring and the different varieties it brings. Hikers for this outing were Serita Blankenbecler, Phyllis Cairnes, Denise Hardin, Kim Peters, and Joe DeLoach.