I'm in Chapel Hill after a long day at the Friends of the MST Annual meeting. Over 185 people gathered at Saxapahaw. You've never heard of Saxapahaw? Well, I hope I never have to pronounce it in public but it's a small village restored around an old mill. 

It  would disingenuous if I didn't admit that the highlight of the meeting was getting my Completer's plaque. Eight people completed the MST in 2011; six showed up at the meeting and we all got a lovely, personalized plaques. We participated on a panel where we talked about out experiences. The highlights for me were the people I met on the trail – both those I passed and those who walked with me.

Kate Dixon, ED of the organization, went through the 2011 highlights – the photo contest, more hikers on the trail, more trail on the ground. Next year over 80 new miles is predicted, which would put the trail at over 600 miles. A 65-foot bridge over a section of the Falls of the Neuse recreation area was also a major milestone.

Kate also touted the new NC licence plate. We've now sold 115 plates, over a 1/3 of the way there.

But there are still challenges. The route of the MST out of the Smokies has been a discussion since the trail started and it's still not solved. At the “open mike” session, I spoke passionately (I hope) about staying in the Park as long as possible. It was amazing that others called the park too rugged and remote. That's hiking, folks.

The other challenge is how to get from Raleigh to New Bern without walking on roads for 150 miles. There is no public land there or a conservation ethic. It's an agricultural area that floods. The land values are low and there's no incentive to sell. So the State Park system has been asked to come up with a new route.

Lewis Ledford, head of the State Parks system, may not have been the Keynote Speaker, officially, but he was the highlight for me. We have one of the best state parks system in the country, one that will celebrate its 100th anniversary in 2016. It's going to be a tough one to celebrate since it will compete with the 100th anniversary of the National Park Service.

I reconnected with friends and met some old FB friends face to face.  A good meeting with good outcomes.

The message is “Come on out and walk the trail.”  

In an effort to cut the unemployment rate among veterans, President Barack Obama is calling for a new conservation program that would put veterans to work rebuilding trails, roads and levees on public lands.

Interior Secretary Ken Salazar said the Civilian Conservation Corps that operated during the 1930s could be viewed as a model for what the administration will try to accomplish through its "Veterans Jobs Corps." He said that the administration will propose spending $1 billion over five years that would be used to put an estimated 20,000 veterans to work restoring habitat and eradicating invasive species, among other activities.

The media is discussing the political implications of this jobs program but I see it as a potential win-win for our public lands as well.

I was sent a pair of Yaktrax Pros and asked to review them. Well, I had two choices: I could wait for ice or I could try to review them without ice. I have a pair of Yaktrax extreme already so I know that they certainly grip on ice.

If you live in the Southern Appalachian Mountains, you know that snow and ice have been in short supply this year. I just came back from a hike where everyone stripped down to their short sleeve shirt. Ice and snow are just not in the forecast. So I put on my boots yesterday and put the Yaktrax Pro on my boots.

The first thing to know about using any of these products is that you can't just grab them, put them in your pack and hope to figure it out on the trail. You need to check them out at home.

The second is: don't try to figure it out without reading the instructions. I tried to do that and I was not getting anywhere. Why can't I put these Yaktrax on my boots? Well, to start with, you need to wear your boots for the Yaktrax to fit well.

Once I followed the instructions, the Yaktraks fitted well. They hugged the toe and heel of the boot. A strap also helps keeps these things on your foot.

The Extreme Yaktrax have sharp triangular spikes on them.  I would use them on a rocky hike. The Pros are coils which would do well on icy roads  and easy trails. I put my Yaktraks in my day pack about the middle of December and pull them out in March. This way, I don't have to think about whether or not I might need them.

But without ice, it is impossible to see how the Pros do on the trail. I know that the Extremes really worked. So if we get ice, I'll hit the trail and let you know. In the meantime, I'll hike in a short-sleeve shirt.

It may seem like a long time from now but a committee  has been working on the Appalachian Trail Conservancy 2013 Biannual meeting for a couple of years.

I'm responsible for excursions and I've started to plan and check out possible excursions.

This one is to Cherokee, North Carolina, in the Qualla Boundary, just outside Great Smoky Mountains National Park.

The first stop is at the Museum of the Cherokee Indian. It tells the story of the Cherokee People in a very vibrant way. Before visitors are let loose in the town, they might want to know about the history of the people here.

Across the street is the Qualla Arts Gallery, with exquisite and expensive native art. Cherokee has been criticized for having a lot of cheap stuff from China such as beads, moccasins and T-shirt. Well, this gallery is the real deal.

Before I head out to Mingo Falls, I have coffee at Tribal Grounds Coffee Shop. This is the best and really only place to have coffee and tea.

Mingo Falls is 120-foot waterfall right in the Big Cove area of Cherokee. I pass the educational complex, a beautiful building for all students in the town from Kindergarten to 12th grade. After about five miles, I turn into the Mingo Falls parking lot and walk up a long staircase to the falls. The water was really falling yesterday.

Lunch is at Paul's Diner. This is a traditional Cherokee restaurant which means fried bread with everything. If you want rabbit or bison, this is the place. But the restaurant is not about the food. It's a real Cherokee atmosphere with Indian themed pictures on the wall and over the fireplace. People sit at a bar in front of a large-screen TV. You can't buy an alcohol drink in Cherokee but that doesn't mean that patrons can't watch the big game anyway. A pie case rotates showing off the most lavish sweets around. And of course, most of the diners are Cherokee.

The tacky kitch is very visible in Cherokee because as they will tell you, this is what tourists want. So you'll pass
Pan F'r Gold, Native American Dance Shows and the Wigwam Motel. You'll also pass Harrah's Cherokee Casino and resort, the largest single tourist attraction in NC with 3.5 million visitors. But the excursion won't take you there because it's been vetoed by the Chair of the conference committee.

But even with all that kitch, you know that this is a real live town, not just a tourist attraction. There's a hospital, public transit system with large vans, a supermarket and apartments.

I discovered a bookstore, Talking Leaves which you won't find just walking around. The low building housing the bookstore is overshadowed by the KCF at the intersection of US 19 and US 441.This bookstore specializes in native American books and seems to have books about every tribe. It also had cookbooks, children's books and every book that Sherman Alexie has written. I bought a book on Indians and the National Parks.

This will be a real popular attraction, I'm sure.

On Friday I went scouting the Boogerman Loop in Great Smoky Mountains National Park for a Friends of the Smokies hike in April. Hannah E., an AmeriCorp intern came with  me.

I have probably done the Boogerman Loop in Cataloochee more than any other hike in the park. It's easy, historic, fun and a loop hike. Why did I need to scout it again? Am I glad I did! 

The Boogerman Loop  is a "C" shaped trail which starts on Caldwell Fork Trail. I like to go to the top of the loop, crossing on all ten bridges before starting Boogerman Loop. Another good decision. [For those who really know this hike, my bridge numbering does not include the small bridge over a puddle, only the bridges over Caldwell Fork.

The first bridge, which is supposed to be the longest wooden bridge in the park, is deteriorating. The railing wobbles, the creosote coating on the surface of the bridge is wearing off and the wood is chipped in places. I was not happy crossing the bridge and knowing I would have to cross it again. I was not going to pull out my camera and take more detailed  pictures while on the bridge.

The second bridge tilts to one side. Like all the other bridges I encountered, the walking surface was once scored with grooves to make it less slippery but now the lines have been worn away. I wonder why the Park never went into putting chicken wire on slippery surfaces, like I've seen in New Zealand Parks.

Bridge 3, 4, and 5 were fine. Their surfaces could have been scored as well but that's a detail. Bridge #6 was closed - period. See above.

There's a crack in the middle which I now realize you can't see well in the photo, but trust me, you don't want to use the bridge now. So to recoup the day, Hannah and I went back to the first Boogerman Trail intersection and walked to almost the second intersection with Caldwell Fork and walked back.

Boogerman Trail was still as wonderful. The big trees, stone walls, burned tree that you can walk into. All the good stuff was there. Without leaves on the trees, we had great views. I calculated that taking this route, we did 8.6 miles and about 1,800 feet of ascent.

Those numbers don't include the walking to the closed bridge #6.

With Friends of the Smokies, we would skip that. Or would we? Maybe Friends of the Smokies hikers need to know viscerally that Smokies Trails need our help. The Park can't do it alone. So another plug for the Trails Forever program. 

According to a recently-released National Park Service  study, Great Smoky Mountains National Park is not only the nation’s most visited national park, it also tops the 397 national park units in visitor spending.  The study estimates that in 2010 the Park’s 9 million visitors spent over $818 million in the gateway communities surrounding the Park.

The study also estimates that 11,367 local jobs were supported by Park visitor spending.

That's not surprising. Other than books, maps and maybe a T-shirt, there's nothing you can buy in the park. You can't get a cup of coffee or a bed. By the time, the Smokies became a park, the gateway communities, especially Gatlingburg, were tourist towns. So it was decided that tourist accommodations were going to stay outside the park.

All those folks who may see the National Parks as a money drain may want to reconsider and see them instead as money and job generators.

The entire study can be found at:
http://www.nature.nps.gov/socialscience/docs/NPSSystemEstimates2010.pdf

The Carolina Mountain Club hike on Sunday was not at all routine. The area was in the news yesterday.

We started at the new trailhead at Florence Preserve in Hickory Nut Gorge - US 74A. I had scouted that hike in November for a new printing of Hiking North Carolina's Blue Ridge Heritage. At that time, the trail at the beginning went straight up.

But since then, the owners of the land, Carolina Mountain Land Conservancy, rerouted the trail to make it more friendly. They hired some mechanical help (read - a guy with a bulldozer) to switch back the trail. CMC trail crew put in several log bridges.

Once out of Florence Preserve, we walked on a road up to the top of Little Pisgah Mountain. I spotted several Southern Appalachian Highlands Conservancy (SAHC) signs. And also a bathtub on the side of the road - see the top photo. Where did that come from?

According to the Asheville Citizen Times, the Fisher family owns the property along with a summer home on Little Pisgah Mountain. SAHC, the conservancy, arranged for a conservation easement that is supposed to be valued at $1.5 million. The property remains with the family but the land can't be sold for development - ever. In return, they save on property taxes. Well, that makes sense. The land is now worth less if you can't develop it.

For some reason, they can still put six homes somewhere on the property.

Here's the full article in the Citizen-Times. Read it quickly because articles on the Citizens-Times website disappear after a week.

There's always something. There's always some threat to the funding of our parks, forests or trails. This time the threat is to the Recreational Trails Program.

The Recreational Trails Program (RTP) is a national program that provides funds to the States to develop and maintain recreational trails and trail-related facilities for both nonmotorized and motorized recreational trail uses. These funds are then distributed to the States so that they can be used to build or improve greenways, hiking and bicycle trails. One of the recipients of this money has been the Mountains-to-Sea Trail. (The picture above is on the Tanawha Trail on the MST.)

For the last two decades, RTP has received a portion of the gas taxes paid by users of off-highway motorized vehicles to fund trail building, maintenance and other trail-related projects.

And now the program is in deep trouble. The U.S. Senate Environment and Public Works Committee has approved transportation reauthorization legislation known as MAP-21 that would effectively eliminate the RTP by stripping the program of its dedicated funding.

The RTP is the foundation of the state trail programs. If the RTP loses its dedicated funding, organized trail planning and development will simply vanish in many areas of the country. But this is not a North Carolina issue. This is an issue of national importance, if you use a trail.

So we're asking you to call or email your U.S. Senator and ask their support to protect dedicated funding for the Recreational Trails Program.

The key messages are simple:
*  Unless the bill is changed, MAP-21 will effectively eliminate the Recreational Trails Program; and
*  Please amend MAP-21 to include dedicated funding for RTP.

If you live in North Carolina, here's the information you need:

1) Call Senator Burr and Senator Hagan's offices to ask them to work to have MAP-21 amended to include dedicated funding for RTP. Here is contact information:

Senator Richard Burr - 202-224-3154. You can leave a message for the Senator or you can speak to Matthew Dockham, his staff member who focuses on transportation and conservation issues. If you'd like to e-mail Matthew, his e-mail address is matthew_dockham@burr.senate.gov.

Senator Kay Hagan - 202-224-6342. You can leave a message for the Senator or you can speak to Aaron Suntag, her staff member who focuses on transportation and conservation. If you'd like to e-mail Aaron, his e-mail address is aaron_suntag@hagan.senate.gov.


 

For North Carolina State Parks, 2011 was a great year. Over 14 million people visited the parks. And I certainly did my part.

Because of my Mountains-to-Sea trek, I visited Hanging Rock State Park, Eno River State Park and finished at Jockey's Ridge. I also took my granddaughter camping at Lake Jordan and the family to Mt. Mitchell. Actually my whole MST hike was in a state park.

Surprisingly, Jockey's Ridge had the most visitation. Maybe it's because it's close to several National Park units - Cape Hatteras, Wright Brothers and Fort Raleigh.

The experts gave lots of reasons as to the increased popularity of our state parks. The poor economy means that people are staying closer to home. State parks are for the most part free.

But state parks are also perceived as the safest place to go outdoors. They specialize in soft-core adventures. So their trails are well-marked and well-maintained. Signs are accurate and up-to-date. State Park rangers offer a lot of programs for the family. And if anything is up to snuff, they close the particular resource.

In Western North Carolina, hikers are sometimes guilty of ignoring state parks. They're so small and "wimpy" compared to National Parks and Forests. But for most people, in and out of North Carolina, state parks is their access to nature.

 You can look at the attendance figures at 

http://www.dpr.ncparks.gov/photos/photos/NONDPR_2012/01/17404.jpg

The National Forests in North Carolina wants your input on trails in Pisgah and Natanhala Forests.

If you always wished you could tell "them" about Forest trails, this is your chance. Here's what they say:

In 2012, trail enthusiasts and others with knowledge of non-motorized trails in North Carolina will have a chance to provide input on the US Forest Service trail planning process.

So this is your invitation to attend a meeting where you can get involved in the planning process and possibly, the improvements of forest trails.

The Forest service is having meeting all over Western North Carolina. The details are on their website.

Note that the meetings have already started. So plan to go to one of the remaining ones.

How did Jennifer Pharr Davis walk the Appalachian Trail in 46 days? In one word, displicine.

But for more nuance and details, read Brew Davis' 46 Days: Keeping up with Jennifer Pharr Davis on the Appalachian Trail. The thin book is the blog that her husband, Brew Davis, kept while leading the Pit Crew that supported Jennifer on her trek.

Day by day, he describes her mileage and length of her walking day. On average she walked from 5 A.M. to 9 P.M. Now that's discipline. The average mileage, 46.4 miles, is amazing. Brew describes the logistics of meeting her at road crossings, giving her food and drink, helping her with any problems like icing shin splints - and of course, encouragement.

Just as amazing as her mileage was the food she ate. A moderately active woman should eat between 1,500 and 2,000 calories. Jennifer was supposed to eat 6,000 calories. So much of it came from fried foods - French fries, onion rings, hamburgers and cheap fast food buys. How did her stomach take in all of that?

Brew is amazed by his wife's feat. He keeps saying that "she's a freak of nature" and "what a woman". He was sidelined by a knee injury and couldn't walk much with her. But many other supporters did walk with her. She didn't run. I recognized Matt Kirk, a trail runner who set the record for the Mountains-to-Sea Trail last year.

Jennifer felt that she had pushed herself to the limit. So few people take the opportunity to do that. In her epilogue, she knows that someone will beat her record. But for now she is the fastest person on the A.T. I just wished I could see her picture on a Wheaties box.