Raven’s View

Check out www.ncwarn.org

Public enemy number one for hikers is this hideous drought that dealt such utter damage this past summer, but all we can really do about that is a lot of rain-dancing. One wonders how that will play into the outdoor conditions this year.

Someone that was in the store recently seemed surprised that there is a ban on open fires in Shining Rock wilderness area. Fires are cool and all, but truthfully they do a lot more harm than good. In an emergency situation, they’re amazing, but they’re just unnecessary the other 99% of the time. It’s one thing to have a fire and roast some marshmallows when car camping at a public campsite with a myriad of water access, but are they really essential to the backpacking venture? They make the areas we camp in look like people have been there, they burn the earth beneath making it difficult for natural growth to continue, and it’s just plain wrong to do anything Smokey the Bear advises against. Also, they make lightweight backpacking stoves for a reason and they’re really all that a hiker could need. Linville Gorge burned a couple of times last year and it’s one of the jewels of our State. Natural conditions led to the fires both times, but common sense from people can go a long way toward protecting our environment.

I’ve even overheard some paranoid speculation that the wildlife will be out to savagely maul us feeble humans due to a lack of water. Maybe bears will want to eat us and steal our Nalgene bottles.

That’s clearly nothing to worry about, of course; the whole wildlife vs. human ordeal isn’t really a problem around here. Although while employed in a high adventure program, this dude boasted to me that he knew a guy who allegedly put some breed of vicious Russian boar into Middle Prong Wilderness for some idiotic reason. There was always a joke running amongst trail guides about not sleeping in hammocks in Middle Prong because our butts would be perfect tusk-level. Fortunately, myself nor anyone I know has had the displeasure of hiking across a wild, angry boar’s path. People are even starting to get worked up about an alleged presence of mountain lions in the area. One girl in a literature class I took last semester even swore to high heaven that she saw a road-kill cougar on the side of the interstate on the way to Asheville one morning. The truth is, the most dangerous animals in our woods, next to unwise humans with fire, are those little rodents that love to chew holes through stuff sacks and tents.

The days of Eric Rudolph’s wraith-like wandering through our Southeastern mountains are long gone, but unfortunately, there’s always a few bad seeds. This is kind of a harrowing issue. Two elderly hikers killed (one still missing) in our very own backyard and now this girl in Georgia? It’s messed up, but don’t let it be a deterrent for enjoying a day or two in the woods. Just make sure to be a bit safer about it.

Normally I’d recommend hiking with Chuck Norris, but he’s too busy campaigning with Mike Huckabee to be an effective means of protection for the average hiker. Here at the Dome, we sell bear mace. According to the packaging, it can shoot a stream of pain about thirty yards. Seriously- if someone is threatening out in the wilderness, shoot them with bear mace. (Also probably effective in bar-room brawls.)

_{(borrowed image from piratesvsninjas.org or some weird site)}
A few bad things happen, sure, but it’s like any other facet of life in this country. The wilderness is, by far and large, still a lot safer than, say, Detroit. It would be very unfortunate if the fear that the people have let consume them politically in the past few years started rising in the outdoor enthusiast’s world. Just being smart about things is the best method. There’s no way to predict accidents in the outdoors; they happen and its part of the bargain that we all make when we decide to do something cool in the woods. Thinking goes a long way though.So far, in these 8 days of 2008, we’ve been lucky enough to get our fill of snow and rain. Maybe this trend will continue this spring and summer (hopefully not the snow part) and our state of drought will be eradicated. We live in a beautiful part of the world and as always, I would encourage people to get out, enjoy the mountain life, and not be overly worried.

Isn’t it always empowering to hear about local college students see the light of activism and try to stick it to a large corporation that’s plundering natural resources? Protesting is really the only way to get in the faces of powerful, wealthy companies that feel they can trample on whatever they please with no fear of repercussion. Thank you, freedom of speech, and no thanks to those who destroy our environment for monetary gain.

Even though it’s not really heart-warming to know that these young protesters were actually arrested for exercising their freedom of speech, it sure got ‘em noticed, and that’s the goal of protesting, right? So here’s a big “hats off” to the Charlotte P.D. for cuffing these college kids and inadvertently scoring them the publicity they needed; most of us wouldn’t even be aware of the issue had it not been brought to light in this manner. Sure, blocking off an entrance to a business might not be the nicest means of protesting, but screwing up our atmosphere with pollution from coal-burning plants isn’t very nice either, now is it? While these kids didn’t necessarily deserve to get legal charges, as they were fighting for a worthy, smart cause, the publicity garnered by the arrest definitely spread the message more effectively than the protest did.

This isn’t some new issue, either; there’s been quiet protest amongst the learned for a while now. On the same day these Warren Wilson students made their stand, students at UNCA made phone calls voicing their concerns about Duke’s planned expansion and the unpleasant effect it would have on our environment. Other college students across the state phoned in to our governor’s office and, of course, the office of Duke Energy CEO Jim Rogers. Now that this issue has been openly addressed by the media and a lot more of us are aware of it, we have to keep our eyes open. This is a serious situation regardless of how it’s looked at; anything regarding our environment’s well-being is important.

Duke Energy’s facilitation of coal-burning is less harmful than it could be, sure, but it’s still a bad thing. Trying to justify it on the grounds of it being, “less harmful” or “better than it could be” is like saying one type of cigarette is less apt to result in lung cancer than another; all cigarettes can result in lung cancer and all pollution results in harming our environment. While our state does need energy, this expansion would result in producing more than we actually require at the expense of our air. Last time I checked, we need air as much as we do energy. In an article regarding this matter that I recently read, it’s stated that if Duke Energy were to open up another coal-fired plant, the new one combined with the pre-existing would pump an additional one million cars’-worth of CO2 into North Carolina’s atmosphere.

There’s so much political baggage associated with climate clean-up these days that it makes it hard for a lot of people to view it as anything other than a political campaign issue. Really though, it’s a lot more than that; it’s everything. Saving our planet should be a top priority for everyone; it’s not like we have an extra one sitting in storage somewhere. We’re lucky enough to live in a state with so much excess natural beauty everywhere, and I know we all want it to stay that way.

Here’s an irrefutable fact: We live here. Here’s another one: Pollution hurts the place we live.

We all need to stay on top of making sure our environment stays clean. So thank you, Warren Wilson student protesters, for being the “martyrs” that got this issue some press. Stay alert, WNC, and help keep things green.

Black Dome’s Chelsea Kendrick (far left) has been on loan for 6 months now…to the North Carolina Outward Bound school…Chelsea has been overseeing trips out of the Cedar Rock base camp.

For the next 2 months, she and her band of cohorts will be touring the country on the NCOB Service Bus, doing good deeds and generally having a blast in the outdoors. Chelsea will be checking in occasionally to give reports and make us all jealous…Have fun guys!

Here is the first of her reports:

Hello Friends and Family!

Just dropping a quick line to let folks know how the bus is doing. As most of you know I have chosen to spend the months of October through December traveling the country with eight other Outward Bound employees rock climbing, paddling and most importantly spreading compassion and the mission of Outward Bound through community service. This is the first of several updates as an attempt to stay in touch with the outside world and the people I care about out there! Also I want to say thanks to all of you all who contributed to our cause. This past week and a half we spent gearing up, white water conoeing on the Nantahala for three days (cold cold cold!)…Doing some service at a friends house whose father recently passed away and needed to clean out/ fix up the family house, Climbing in Chattanooga and finally today, doing some fixing up at a childrens home here in Chattanooga. Tomorrow we are doing a climbing work shop with the famous Arno Ilgner author of The Rock Warriors Way. We hope to all find our inner warriors and be fit to climb hard, as our trip will soon take us out west to such exciting areas as Joshua Tree, Red Rocks, Indian Creek, and Golden Cliffs Colorado! If you want to keep up with the service bus or make donations if you have not already, see our website ncobs.org/community. Wish us safe travels and I hope to see you all soon, Happy Halloween!

Much love Chelsea

The Steed, The Service, The fun…

Congratulations Mark and Sheila Vanderhoff!

July 20th brought the birth of their new baby girl - Lucy Olivia

Mark has been the Dome’s events and web guy until recently taking a full-time position with Coldwell-Banker

Mom, daughter and dad are doing great!

National Park Service endorses cash settlement of the Fontana Agreement
Thursday, May 31, 2007 8:48 AM EDT

If the NPS’ recommendation goes through, the North Shore road to Fontana will remain a scenic dead-end drive six miles into the Great Smoky Mountains National Park north of Bryson City. (Pete Lawson)