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A Reminder - Winter Dinner Meeting
The winter dinner meeting will be February 5, 1984, at the Eastman Cabin.
The program will be on the Club's Yosemite Hike, so keep the date open and plan
on being there. More details in the February newsletter.
Trail Maintenance Equipment Inventory
The annual TERC inventory of all equipment is scheduled for Wednesday, December
28. TERC has requested that all maintenance equipment be returned to the
Hiking Club storage room prior to 1 p.m. on December 28. If you plan to do
trail maintenance on December 28, please contact Kathy Denney at Extension
3876. The equipment being inventoried will again be available for checkout
after 5 p.m. December 28. When returning equipment to the storage room,
please try to keep the room orderly. Thanks for your help this past year
in keeping the area very presentable.
Trail Maintenance Equipment Missing
A recent spot check of equipment showed some items are missing from the storage
room that have not been signed out. Please double check your own tools at
home to see if you may have forgotten to return the following: 48" bow saw,
42" bow saw, folding saws, small brush axe, and short handled shovel.
All items must be signed out on the checkout sheet when taken from the room and
marked off when they are returned. Please return equipment promptly so
that it will be readily available for all trail maintenance work.
Now Available - "A Geological
History of Bays Mountain Park"
This 83 page booklet, written for people with no geological training, is now
available from the TERC Hiking Club Library. It describes and illustrates
the gradual formation of Bays Mountain along with the Mid-Atlantic region.
To borrow the book, contact Jim Crowell, club librarian at Building 284.
TRIP NOTICE - Bays Mountain Geology Hike -
March
3, 1984 Leader - Collins Chew
This novelty hike will provide, for some, a new look at our nation's largest
city park. A brief narration will accompany our look at the rocks to tell
where they came from, and when and how they formed. Ancient scenes will be
reconstructed in our minds as we look at ripple marks, wormholes, and seashells
of long ago, beaches and tidal flats, a bed of volcanic ash, and view the
evidence of powerful mountain building forces as shown by folded and
broken rocks. A simplified reference is "A Geological History of Bays
Mountain Park" available from the club librarian, Jim Crowell. The
entire hike will be about 6 1/2 miles but a few shortcuts can make it shorter if
desired. It is a moderate to easy hike. Bring raingear, warm
clothing, lunch, canteen, and if you have one, a Bays Mountain Park Association
pass for parking. For more information, call Collins Chew, 239-6237.
Date - Saturday, March 3, 1984 at 8:30 a.m. at the Building 215 parking
lot. Expected return is before 4:00 p.m.
TRIP NOTICE - Western Montana Backpack - August 4-12, 1984
Leader - Doug Lowman
Spend a week backpacking in the wilderness of western Montana. Tentative
plans are to drive to Atlanta Friday evening, then on Saturday fly to Great
Falls, Montana, and drive 90 miles to the Benchmark Trailhead at the Bob
Marshall Wilderness. It is possible that we could hike a few miles on
Saturday, thus spending six nights in tents. We will hike out on Friday
and spend Saturday touring Glacier National Park. Total hiking distance is
60 to 70 miles. The plan is to hike north on the east side of the Chinese
Wall, then return south along the west side of the Continental Divide, all in
the Bob Marshall Wilderness. On the way out, a short trip through the
Scapegoat Wilderness is planned. The scenery should be beautiful.
The hike is rated difficult. Approximate cost will be $700 for air and
ground transportation, trail food, and food and lodging while off the
trail. I would like to discuss the trip plans with those interested in
late January or early February. If interested, please send your name,
address and phone number to Doug Lowman, 812 Kendrick Creek Road, Kingsport,
Tennessee 37663, or Building 150, TEC. A small, nonrefundable deposit will
be required by April 1, 1984, and full air fare by July 1, 1984. The trip
is limited to twelve hikers, but if more than twelve respond, I will start a
waiting list.
TRIP NOTICE - A.T. Long Trail, Vermont - September 8-16,
1984 Leader - Collins Chew
The delightful Green Mountains of Vermont contain some of the finest miles of
the Appalachian Trail. This week-long hike will cover about 40 miles
of the A.T.-Long Trail in the Green Mountains and almost 40 miles of the A.T.
between the Green Mountains and Hanover, New Hampshire. Nights along the
Trail will be spent at shelters, except for Tuesday night, which will be spent
at Mountain Meadows Lodge. Two hiking groups will be formed: northbound
and southbound. The cost should be about $200 per person. Although
the trail should not be particularly rugged, the trip will be quite strenuous
and hikers should be in good condition. If you do not have experience, you
will be asked to do some backpacking before this trip. We need to make
reservations early so let me know soon of your interest. Call Collins
Chew, 239-6237 for information. Please send the following information if
you wish to join this hike. Send to Collins Chew, TEC Building 66.
Information needed: Name(s), Building Address, Home Phone No., Date Information
Sent.
FOR
THE RECORD
*Election Results - The following people were
elected to the Steering Committee in the recent election: Gordon Porter, Ed
Oliver, and Paul Worsham. Continuing members of the Steering Committee
include Gordon Newland (Chair), Tom Pridgen, and Bill Murdoch. Also
continuing as advisor as past chair is Frank Williams. Retiring after
two years of service are Steve Falling, and Lester Church.
*Beyond 6000' Hike - Newfound Gap, Clingman's Dome - Nov.
12, 1983
For the second time a Beyond 6000' hike was thwarted. This hike had to be
cancelled when it was learned by calling the park ranger the day before that the
Newfound Gap - Forney's Ridge road (to be used for car shuttle) was closed
indefinitely because of ice. Without the shuttle, this would have been a
difficult, 14 mile hike in marginal weather. For safety reasons, the hike
was cancelled. We will try to reschedule in the spring.
*A.T.-Hughes Gap to Iron Mountain Gap - November 19,
1983 Led by Steve Banks
We had a clear and fairly warm day for this eight mile hike. The views
from Little Rock Knob of Unaka Mountain, Roan Mountain, Ripshin Ridge, etc. were
great. The trail is in good shape. Participants were Terry Good,
Beth Shanks, Ann Aitken, Rod Gray, Owen Holbrook, and Steve Banks.
*ATC Board of Managers Meeting, Harpers Ferry, W. Va. -
Nov. 19, 1983 - F. L. Williams
The meeting started at 10:00 a.m. on Saturday and adjourned for the day at 5:00
p.m. There were committee meetings during lunch and regional meetings in
the evening. The meeting reconvened Sunday morning at 8:30 and adjourned
at noon. I was unable to stay for the Sunday meeting, but I was impressed
by the amount of work accomplished by the Board. As an outsider not
involved in the day to day problems, some of the proceedings were of more
interest to me than others. I was interested in the discussion of possible
wilderness designation for some Forest Service land and how it would affect the
A.T. The budget discussion was of interest, particularly the grants
requested by some clubs from the ATC. There was also a discussion of fund
raising and whether the ATC should undertake an organized fund raising drive
with direction from a professional fund raising organization. I was also
planning to learn how some of the land trust money is being spent to acquire
land to protect the A.T. At the regional evening meeting I learned why I
was having so much trouble understanding the Permanent Trail Location Review
procedures. There were actually two programs, the Permanent Trail Location
Review and the Trail Protection Review. The objective of the Trail
Protection Review is to identify lands the Forest Service should buy to protect
the Trail. The objective of the Permanent Location Review is to accurately
locate the trail on maps, make sure the trail is in the best location and to
identify maintenance and safety problems along the trail. In my mind the
two programs had become one and the procedure appeared highly complicated.
All-in-all this was a worthwhile trip, and I recommend that anyone who has the
opportunity to attend one of these meetings do so. It will give you a
better understanding of the goals of the ATC and the work required to meet these
goals.
*Eagle Rocks - December 10, 1983
Led by Collins Chew
The trip was listed as "easy" and it almost was. We drove to
Carvers Gap and entered fog right at the Gap. We walked the half mile on
the road and two miles on the logging road as planned except for the fog.
We scouted around and visited or saw Eagle Rocks but were still in the
fog. Then we ate lunch. Everything was according to plan up to that
point. The sky then cleared beautifully. By popular demand, we chose
to seek variety on the way back. This involved going up along an abandoned
logging skid road that had grown over almost completely. We then
bushwhacked through fir and blackberry bushes over blowdowns, and up a few crags
to the cliffs south of Roan High Bluff. We then followed trails through
the Rhododendron Gardens and located the A.T. for the trip back to Carvers
Gap. This too was quite different because springs had deposited sheets of
hard ice in the Trail. Everyone enjoyed the excitement of this somewhat
different hike. Hikers were Rodney Gray, Owen Holbrook, Reuel Smith, Beth
Shanks, Terry Good, and Charlotte and Collins Chew.
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