This July, the Carolina Mountain Club (CMC) is embarking on a landmark journey to Japan, marking a momentous step in the club’s history.

The Carolina Mountain Club Remote Overnight Crew (ROC) convened near the Walnut Mountain shelter on the Appalachian Trail for a trail enhancement event. The outing drew 19 volunteers, who enjoyed splendid weather while working on various trail improvements.

Western North Carolina is a hiker’s paradise.

With so much land protected by national and state forests and parks, those who live in the Western North Carolina area have endless hiking opportunities.

The tangle of trees and vines beyond the playground fence at North Canton Elementary School used to be a no-go zone for students, years of accumulated balls a testament to a long-time school rule against jumping the fence.  

A new Carolina Mountain Club trail crew, dubbed the Extra Mile Crew, has been formed to work on trail sections likely to be missed by existing crews. 

Trekking through fresh snowfall on the Appalachian Trail, Carolina Mountain Club volunteers and U.S. Forest Service staff installed a new bear box at Little Laurel Shelter — part of a larger CMC initiative to replace traditional bear cables with boxes at each of the 10 A.T. shelters the club maintains. 

The Carolina Mountain Club has started a new hiking initiative, called Leisure Hikes, with the next event scheduled for 10 a.m. Saturday, Jan. 20, on the Mountains-to-Sea Trail in Asheville. 

Take a winter walk on the Mountains-to-Sea Trail Sunday, Jan. 7, in Asheville with the Carolina Mountain Club. 

With 54 volunteers turning out for the Carolina Mountain Club’s Quarterly Crew Day at Sam Knob last month, the group was able to check a lot of items off its to do list.

As temperatures neared 90 degrees on the sunny afternoon of Sunday, July 16, the forested Carolina Mountain Trail offered a shady respite for the 20 people joining Tom Southard for a 2.1-mile hike through the woods of the N.C. Arboretum in Asheville.