Appalachian Mountain Club – Maine Chapter

On Thursday, October 23, 2008, Authors Ron and Nancy Chase will give a presentation on hiking the scenic mountains of New England. Ron and Nancy are AMC Maine Executive Committee alumni and will share their more than 30 years of hiking experiences, especially in Maine. They have recently published a new book entitled ‘Mountains for Mortals: New England Scenic Summits for Hikers’ including hike descriptions for dozens of mountains in various settings. Here’s a great opportunity to learn more about hiking the mountains of New England and the hard work it takes to write an extensive guide book. Come prepared to get an infusion of enthusiasm for appreciating the view from the summit!

The location is at the Morrell Room, Curtis Memorial Library, 23 Pleasant Street, Brunswick, ME: parking is available on the street and off Union Street. Dinner at 6 pm, presentation at 7 pm. Attendees are encouraged to bring a potluck item and their own dinnerware (plate, utensils etc.). Drinks will be provided and plastic-ware will be available.

Friday is the start of the AMC Maine Chapter’s Annual Meeting! From September 26 to September 27, AMC Maine Chapter members will be meeting at Camp Susan Curtis in Stoneham, ME for a weekend full of activities.

Friday night starts off with the fun of the 2nd Annual Executive Committee chili cook-off; join us for a great meal and a presentation on a major excursion in the French, Swiss and Italian Alps. A full day of outdoor activities is scheduled for Saturday, wrapping up with the annual business meeting and special guest speakers including Mainer Bill Yeo who will share his experiences on Mount Everest. Stick around for another day of events on Sunday.

Please see the Chapter Representative at the registration table when you arrive and you’ll be ready for a terrific autumn weekend by signing up for hiking, biking, paddling, and other activities!

For more information , please visit the Annual Meeting web page.

For directions to Camp Susan Curtis, please click here.

Maine Governor John Baldacci has announced a “Governor’s Conference on Youth and the Natural World” as an opportunity to identify ways to connect Maine’s youth with nature and the outdoors. This all-day event will be held on Thursday, October 2, 2008 at the Augusta Civic Center in Augusta, Maine.

This event is part of Maine’s ‘Take It Outside’ program intended to encourage Maine’s children and families to reconnect with nature. The keynote speaker will be Larry Selzer, chief executive officer of the Conservation Fund and a member of The National Forum on Children and Nature, who will address how today’s digital world is keeping children indoors and isolating them from nature and outdoor activities. This issue is universal in the United States, represents significant health and social implications, and demands attention now.

Several stakeholder organizations will be in attendance to develop solutions for addressing this crisis. As the nation’s oldest outdoor recreation and conservation organization, the activities of the Appalachian Mountain Club are consistent with the goals of the Take It Outside program.

This event has a fee of $25 for adults and $10 for students. For more information, contact Gale Ross at gale...@maine.gov or (207) 287-5266, or go to www.take-it-outside.com.

Please click here for an article in the Portland Press Herald on this event.

We have all seen it; those puffs of black smoke that hover over Mount Washington, visible from peaks many miles distant. Those black clouds were spewed from the wood- and coal-powered cog railway locomotives that churn up Mount Washington, ferrying summer tourists to the mountain summit that is reputed to have some of the worst weather in the world, and some of the best views. Coal replaced wood as the primary fuel in 1910, and each 3-mile trip to the summit required more than 1 ton of coal and 1,000 gallons of water! Despite its 139-year history, ‘The Cog’ is attempting to keep up with the times related to global climate change. One of the cog’s locomotives was recently converted to run on biodiesel, so that black cloud may be getting smaller, and the air a bit cleaner. With the new fuel also came a new name: Wajo Nanatasis (pronounced “Wadzo Nanna-tassis”) which is Abenaki for “Mountain Hummingbird.”

If you’ve every had the pleasure of hiking the Appalachian Trail over Pleasant Pond Mountain in Caratunk, you’ve enjoyed the result of the efforts of veteran trail maintainer Brad Viles. Trail maintainers are an essential part of the AT experience; the trail is a living feature and requires periodic maintenance to keep hiking it a healthy, safe, and pleasant experience.

Here’s a Day in the Life of a Trail Maintainer, in Brad’s own words, published in the Bangor Daily News.

All of the trail maintainers in Maine are volunteers and it’s only through their hard work and dedication that the Maine AT section and other trails continue to be an outstanding outdoor experience. Would you like the opportunity to help out? Contact the Trail Committee Co-Chairs, Peter Roderick at rode...@fairpoint.net or Keith Chapman at ppro...@maine.rr.com.

Loon Echo Land Trust, a partner of the Appalachian Mountain Club, is having their 8th Annual Loon Echo Hike n’ Bike Trek on Saturday, September 20th in Bridgton, Maine to raise funds for land conservation projects. Register for either a 6-mile hike over Pleasant Mountain, Loon Echo’s largest preserve, or a 25, 50 or 100-mile bike ride through western Maine’s mountains and fields. The Trek is fully supported and will have two live bands, a barbeque meal, and prize giveaway for those who raise pledges. Pre-registration ends on 9/14, so go check out Loon Echo Land Trust’s web site or call 207-647-4352 to sign up today! Walk-ins will be accepted the morning of the event for a few dollars more, just make sure to get there on time!

The deadline to register is less than two weeks away! Please sign-up by Monday, September 22. Forms are available in the latest issue of our newsletter “Wilderness Matters” and on our website. Join fellow Maine AMCers and meet new faces for a weekend full of activities on the cusp of the renowned White Mountains in Stoneham, Maine! Enjoy hikes, bikes, paddles, as well as workshops. And don’t miss the guest speaker, Mainer Bill Yeo, after Saturday evening’s dinner who will tell his tale of his attempt to climb Mount Everest. Please visit our web page for more information. See you all there!

The Senator George J. Mitchell Center for Environmental and Watershed Research has announced the next offering in its lecture series on the environment. On Thursday, September 18, 2008, Mary Evelyn Tucker will give a presentation on The Environmental Crisis as a Moral and Spiritual Challenge to discuss the link between religion and the environmental issues we face today. Her presentation will focus on establishing spiritual values intended to generate a sense of environmental ownership by governments and citizens. An author, Ms. Tucker is presently a Senior Lecturer at Yale University and a Research Associate at Harvard University.

The presentation will begin at 1 pm in Hauck Auditorium at the University of Maine in Orono. The event is free and open to the public; tickets are required, however, and will be distributed on a first come basis. Please call (207) 581-3244 to reserve tickets.

For more information, please click here.

BOW stands for “Becoming an Outdoor Woman.” This national program started in 1991 in Wisconsin, but there are now more than 80 weekend-long workshops held each year in North America. Maine will host its weekend workshop on Sept. 19-21 at Camp Caribou in Winslow. Becoming an Outdoors-Woman is sponsored by the Maine Department of Inland Fisheries & Wildlife and Friends of BOW. It offers programs aimed primarily at women 18 years and older who are interested in learning or improving their skills in hunting, fishing and outdoor recreation in a safe and comfortable environment. These workshops provide the opportunity to learn about the outdoors but to also provide a venue for women to learn more about themselves. Partial scholarships are available for women with a financial need. To learn more about BOW or the September weekend workshop, you can visit BOW’s website.