HIKING & PADDLING NEWS

Contents

• Next Two Months
• Hiking
• Paddling
• For The Record

HIKING

50TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE TEHCC - SPECIAL EVENTS KICKOFF - WINTER DINNER MEETING
(Scheduled: Saturday, 2 March 96)
Leader: Garry Luttrell
1996 is the 50th anniversary year for the Tennessee Eastman Hiking and Canoeing Club, and during the year we plan to have several activities, such as sponsored hikes that will allow a person to hike the entire 125 mile section that we maintain, and earn a special award.

The winter dinner meeting this year will be the kickoff to the 50th anniversary, and we would like for it to be a special event. Some of the ideas for the kickoff dinner: have the program theme of "50 Years of Hiking, Stories, Experiences, and A.T. Stewardship" and have some of the charter Hiking Club members show some slides and pictures, and tell some tales of earlier hike trips, then have some stories and pictures of trips in the 60s, 70s, 80s, and 90s. We may have a special kickoff hike during the day prior to the meeting, and we may have a special meal - something crazy like freeze dried dinners and desserts.

We would like to form a special committee to plan this Winter Dinner Meeting & Kickoff; and we need a few of the "charter members" to serve on it along with other "younger" members to plan for this special, fun, event. If you would like to serve on this 50th Anniversary committee, contact me or one of the TEHCC Steering Committee Members.

For me, the Hiking Club has provided some of my most rewarding experiences; and I know the same is true for many others. Please consider sharing some of your better, humorous, and maybe some of your worst experiences by serving on this special 50th Anniversary Planning Committee for the upcoming 1996 Winter Dinner Meeting.

SOUTH BEYOND 6000 - LUFTEE KNOB, BIG CATALOOCHEE, OR SOMETHING
(Scheduled: Saturday-Sunday, 2-3 December 1995)
Leader: Garry Luttrell
Rating: Difficult
This will be an overnight backpack trip to Laurel Gap Shelter or Tri-Corner Knob Shelter, with hikes to the summit of a couple of South Beyond 6000 peaks.  I would like to hike up from the Cherokee side, but this may not be possible due to the blowdown situation.  In fact, if they do not have the blowdown situation under control from the Big Creek side, an alternate (or something) overnight trip will be to some other destination - a possible overnighter to the Black Mountains, to qualify Mt. Mitchell; or we may just decide to go to Mt. Rogers.  If the destination is a shelter in the Smokies, then the number allowed on this trip will be limited by the number of reservations available in the shelter.  This trip will require gear suitable for extreme cold temperatures, and will be limited to "hearty" hikers; so, contact the hike leader for further details.

VIRGIN FALLS POCKET WILDERNESS
(Scheduled: Saturday, 9 December 95)
Leader: Ted Malone
Rating: Moderate
Contact trip leader for details.

PADDLING

No trips scheduled.

FOR THE RECORD

RETURN TO HARD COPY NEWSLETTER
(Bob Tonnies Reporting)
Due to popular demand and extenuating circumstances surrounding the publication of the TEHCC newsletter, beginning this month the hardcopy version of the newsletter will again be circulated to all TEHCC members.  After working with the electronic version of the newsletter, it was discovered that there were some organizational obstacles that could not be overcome.

Beginning in 1996, Cris Moorehouse will be taking over as editor of the newsletter.  I've enjoyed the three years I've handled the newsletter and hope Cris gets as much satisfaction out of it as I did.  Please contact Cris with any suggestions you may have for improving the newsletter.

BACKPACK TRIP - CHESTNUT KNOB, BURKES GARDEN
21-22 October 95
(G. S. Luttrell reporting)
Rather than hike through to Highway 42 on Sunday, the game plan was changed to hike in and out the same way along Garden Mountain.  On Saturday, we experienced our first taste of winter, with off and on snow showers, especially hard while we were trying to eat lunch.  We met some southbound through hikers, and we found out that one of them was Matt Davidson, the son of Joe Davidson of TED.  Matt was just one hour ahead of us, but we never did catch him...small world! That night we had fierce wind and low 30's temperatures with very clear skies, that allowed a superb sunset, stargazing, and a super sunrise.  Dr. Arvell Luttrell, Mike Graham, and Garry Luttrell spent the night in tents; and, Collins Chew, Emmett Dougherty, Bob Coffey, Mary Scott Coffey, and Susan Greenwood stayed in the shelter with the mice and a few southbound through hikers.  The return hike along Garden Mountain was in sharp contrast to the weather of the previous day, since we had blue sky, warm, and no wind conditions.  The fall colors were just outstanding and a lot of photos were taken.  Burkes Garden is the highest elevation valley in Virginia, and is very similar to Cades Cove, being completely enclosed in a mountain bowl.  Also, it offers very good bicycling opportunities, like Cades Cove.  We visited one very nice Bed and Breakfast Inn which also had facilities for larger groups, a great place to get away from the crowds and enjoy the rural setting of Burkes Garden.  Contact me for further information.

A.T. OVER WHITE TOP MOUNTAIN, VIRGINIA
28 October 95
(Collins Chew reporting)
A small group enjoyed beautiful views and Fall colors on this seven mile stretch of the A.T. over White Top Mountain, Virginia in amazingly variable weather with warm sun, cold wind, rain, sleet or hail, blue skies and dark clouds.  No one kind of weather lasted long enough to be troublesome and great distant views were available from the grassy areas and through leafless trees at the higher elevations.  Many beautiful leaves were seen lower down.  Hikers were Paula Bullick, Tessa Simons, Edie Swain, Steve Woody, and Collins Chew.

A.T. MAINTENANCE - HAMPTON ACCESS
29 October 95
(Collins Chew reporting)
Several blowdowns were cleared from the blue-blazed trail within a few yards of the A.T. in Laurel Fork Gorge.  Hurricane Opal must have cleared an acre of large trees at that point.  Joe DeLoach and Ed Oliver cleaned up most of it the day before but there was still work to do and we had to leave some small logs to cross.  We had to explain to several of the many people out for the day that we were volunteers and that we could not use chain saws in the Wilderness.  A few even thought the area was being logged.  Twelve-year-old Sam did most of sawing of the biggest blowdown (2 15-inch cuts) and eight-year-old Emily did most of the sawing on an eight-inch blowdown.  There was also work for ax, hammer and wedges.  A two-foot pine with steps made by Ed and Joe was altered to an easy step-over at ground level.  Enjoying the work and the beautiful stroll through the colorful woods were Jud, Carolyn, Sam, Emily, and Alice Barry and Charlotte and Collins Chew.

1995 TEHCC FALL DINNER MEETING
11 November 95
(Garry Luttrell reporting)
Phyllis Cairnes presented a slide program relating her 1994 walk across England with her husband. Wainwright's "Coast To Coast Walk" route leads 192 miles from St. Bees Head on the Irish Sea to Robin Hood's Bay on the North Sea.

The 14-day journey passed through three national parks: the Lake District, the Yorkshire Dales and the North Yorkshire Moors. Terrain varies from the steep craggy barren mountains of the Lakes which jut sharply skyward from little more than sea level to the green windswept moors and undulating pasture land reminiscent of James Herriott's books. Even the smallest villages offered bed and breakfast accomodations, although even the largest towns had no laundromat. Overall the walk offered hiking, spectacular natural beauty, a welcome absence of commercialism and the cozy comfort of pub meals and homey accomodations. Thanks Phyllis for the program, your presentation of the material was excellent.

Rocky Top Trail Shop provided the vendor display and door prizes. Janice Luttrell provided the beautiful flower arrangements for each table, and the special items added a British flavor. The flower arrangements were also given as door prizes.

Ed Oliver was recognized as receiving the Volunteer of the Year Award in Tennessee by Vibram. Also recognized were those receiving Konnarock T shirts for working 5 days or more with the Konnarock crew this past summer: Ed Oliver, Frank Williams, Luann Mack-Drinkard, Craig Haire, and Joe DeLoach.

Candidates for '96 - '97 steering committee were introduced: Kathy Hall, Rick Lott, and Steve Wilson; other candidates, David Allen, Ted Malone, and Mike Morrow, were not in attendance. It was announced that Garry Luttrell will be the 1996 chair.

Hardcopy newsletters will again be sent to employees.

Steve Wilson announced the special 50th anniversary hikes that will cover the entire 126 mile section of the A.T. that our club maintains.

Make plans now to attend the winter dinner meeting on March 2, 1996; it will kickoff our 50th anniversary.

Attendance was 66.

A.T. CLEANUP AFTER HURRICANE OPAL
(Joe DeLoach reporting)
For those of living in the Tennessee Valley the remants of Hurricane Opal only left a few branches down in our yards when it came through in early October. As soon as people started hiking in the mountains a different picture emerged. Opal caused more damage to our section of the Appalachian Trail than any weather system since the ice storm in the late 1980's, even more than the blizzard of '93. Many trees were blown over, mostly uprooted, throughout our section. Particularly hard hit was the stretch between Little Rock Knob and Iron Mountain Gap and the area near the junction of the A.T. and the blue-blazed trail to Hampton in Laurel Fork Gorge. There were a couple of places in these two areas where literally every tree came down, some of which were three feet in diameter. Other areas where there were a lot of blowdowns included from Hughes Gap to Carvers Gap, from 19E to Dennis Cove, and from Watauga Dam Road to the Iron Mountain Shelter. Although these were the worst, there were scattered blowdowns throughout our section and in most cases we had to walk in to find out the conditions.

Many Club members and adopters responded to this emergency. By the end of October we had information about Trail conditions for almost all of our Trail section. Thus far volunteers have spent almost 1000 hours removing an estimated 1000 blowdowns from our 126 mile section. At press time only a 6 1/2 mile stretch between the Iron Mountain and Vandeventer Shelters remains to be cut. Particularly heroic efforts have been made by our retirees; in the vicinity of the Clyde Smith Shelter, perhaps the hardest hit area of all, Bruce Cunningham and John Kiefer worked all day to clear one mile of Trail! Also, it is important to note that the work has been done safely, no injuries. A hearty thanks goes to all the volunteers who have helped clear the damage from Opal; every hiker in this area, including the southbound A.T. thru-hikers, owes you a debt of gratitude for making our section not only passable but clear.