NEWS Quarterly of the Green Mountain Club SPRING 2017 LONG TRAIL NEWS • SPRING 2017 | 1 The mission of the Green Mountain Club is to make the Vermont mountains play a larger part in the life of the people by protecting and maintaining the Long Trail System and fostering, through education, the stewardship of Vermont’s hiking trails and mountains. Quarterly of the Green Mountain Club Michael DeBonis, Executive Director Kid Gore Shelter Privy Jocelyn Hebert, Long Trail News Editor Richard Andrews, Volunteer Copy Editor Sly Dog Studio, Design CONTENTS Green Mountain Club Spring 2017, Volume 77, No . 1 4711 Waterbury-Stowe Road Waterbury Center, Vermont 05677 Phone: (802) 244-7037 FEATURES Fax: (802) 244-5867 E-mail: [email protected] 6 / A Memoir from Website: www.greenmountainclub.org TheLong Trail News is published by The Green Mountain Club, Inc., a nonprofit organization founded 1938 Taylor Lodge Caretaker Daan Zwick in 1910. In a 1971 Joint Resolution, the Vermont by Daan Zwick Legislature designated the Green Mountain Club the “founder, sponsor, defender and protector of the Long Trail System...” 9 / Celebrating a Milestone Contributions of manuscripts, photos, illustrations, and by Rick Swanson news are welcome from members and nonmembers. Copy and advertising deadlines are December 22 for the 10 / Getting the Stink Out spring issue; March 22 for summer; June 22 for fall; and September 22 for winter. by Alan Paschell The opinions expressed byLTN contributors and advertisers are not necessarily those of GMC. GMC 11 / How I Helped Name a Green Mountain reserves the right to refuse advertising that is not in by Rob Waters keeping with the goals of the organization. TheLong Trail News (USPS 318-840) is published 12 / GMC’s 107th Annual Meeting quarterly by The Green Mountain Club, Inc., 4711 Waterbury-Stowe Road, Waterbury Center, VT 05677. Periodicals postage paid at Waterbury Center, VT and additional offices. Subscription is a benefit for GMC DEPARTMENTS members. Approximately $5 of each member’s dues is used to publish the Long Trail News. 3 / From the President 22 / Board Report POSTMASTER: Send address changes to the Long Trail News, 4711 Waterbury-Stowe Road, Waterbury Center, 4 / Mountain Views 23 / Annual Election of VT 05677. 5 / Blue Blazes General Directors Copyright©2017 The Green Mountain Club, Inc., 4711 Waterbury-Stowe Road, Waterbury Center, VT 05677. 14 / Volunteers 24 / Sections Permission to reproduce in any form any of the material in this publication without prior written approval of The 15 / Field Notes 26/ GMC Outdoor Programs Green Mountain Club, Inc. is granted only to individuals for their own personal hiking convenience. 16 / Trail Mix 27 / James P. Taylor Series Cover photo: Long Trail north to Mount Abraham. 20 /Stewardship 30 / Journey’s End Photo by Jocelyn Hebert. From the President inter will be releasing its grip and maintain our hiking trails. If a reduction in public funding to on the Green Mountains as First and foremost, let me say that the maintain trails is coming, it is more impor- Wyou read this. Slowly the snow continued existence of the Long Trail is tant than ever for an organization like the will melt and the ground will thaw, followed secure thanks to our land conservation Green Mountain Club to step up and carry by the ephemeral Vermont spring and, efforts of the past thirty years. All but six the load. The club remains committed to finally, the return of glorious greenery and miles of the trail is permanently protected protecting and maintaining the Long Trail another busy hiking season. either by public ownership or through System and the Vermont Appalachian Trail, As the seasons change, please remember deeded private easements. Even where the and is a stabilizing force in the partnership. that trails are extremely vulnerable to hiking trail passes through federal land, its existence If there are funding shortages in the short boots during mud season. Until they are is protected by layers of federal law. term, GMC will work to raise funds, engage dry, please use good judgment when decid- One vulnerability to the recent political volunteers, and focus staff to make sure that ing where to hike. change in Washington is the possible reduc- essential trail work gets done. In the long Despite limited hiking opportunities, tion in public funding from the U.S. Forest run the club is motivated to strengthen our spring is an important time at the Green Service and the National Park Service to partnerships, diversify our revenue base and Mountain Club. Like the swallows of maintain the Long Trail and Appalachian continue reducing our reliance on public Capistrano, section trail crews return to Trail on federal land. This funding helps money to maintain our trails. their appointed stretches of Long Trail or pay for keeping caretakers at our most At its January meeting the GMC Board Appalachian Trail armed with chain saws, vulnerable campsites and for the Long Trail of Directors adopted several important brush clippers, hand saws, mattocks and Patrol’s skilled trail construction and tread changes to our governance structure and other tools of their trade. They clear winter hardening. Even if the current political policies. This capped more than a year of deadfalls, trim brush, repair shelters, and environment results in a reduction of this hard work by many volunteers and staff report major problems to GMC headquarters funding, I’m confident that our dedicated who conducted an every-twenty-five-years- in Waterbury. In a few busy weekends the trail base of members and donors will sustain our whether-we-need-it-or-not review of how will be ready for another summer of hiking. core trail management responsibilities. the board and staff govern the club’s affairs. Come October the process will repeat itself, As we consider the current political The board approved several significant and the trail put to bed for winter. It has been situation, we should reflect on the power changes to the composition and functioning thus for more than a hundred years. of a partnership in which all participants of the executive and nominating commit- The importance of our volunteers has work toward a common goal. Depending tees, and clarified the roles of the staff and intensified since November’s election. Many on circumstances, sometimes one or another the volunteer leadership to ensure that each have asked whether I am concerned that partner steps up to carry a heavier load. gets the support it needs from the other. the change in our federal government could During the Long Trail Protection campaign, I thank the many people who worked so endanger the Long Trail and Appalachian the State of Vermont invested millions of hard on this important but largely thankless Trail. While I am concerned about how the dollars to protect the Long Trail System. task, especially Executive Director Mike recent changes in Washington may impact After Tropical Storm Irene, the federal DeBonis, Vice President Tom Candon, the environment and society, I remain con- government allocated money to rebuild Treasurer Stephen Klein, and the indispens- fident that our volunteers and mix of public and repair parts of Vermont impacted by able former President Jean Haigh, who as and private partners will continue to work the storm, including the Long Trail and the usual covered every base and then some. together, as we have always done, to protect Appalachian Trail. —John Page, President Camels Hump State Forest, Howe Block LONG TRAIL NEWS • SPRING 2017 | 3 Mountain Views Killian and Moose Spark Memory was craving. That put me at Gorham Lodge on the evening of July 19, where I distinctly recall I enjoyed Amy Potter’s article in the Long a neophyte backpacker trying to learn how to Trail News on the removal of the Hell Hollow use the Svea stove they had borrowed, over- Bridge from Glastenbury Wilderness by actual priming it with fuel, and then having it erupt GMC Officers horsepower. I have a special interest in that area John Page, President in two- to three-foot-high flames as they lit Tom Candon, Vice President because I was active in the campaign for wilder- it. And I recall the caretaker calmly grabbing Stephen Klein, Treasurer ness designation there. Lee Allen, Secretary a shovel and scooping it out the door, just as Removing remains of a dismantled bridge Howard states in his journal. GMC Directors is just one example of the value of horses in Lars Botzojorns, General Was glad to see that end-to-end stories are Michelle Connor, Burlington designated wilderness, where vehicles are housed with the Vermont Historical Society Hope Crifo, General prohibited. Horses also hauled materials into Big Marge Fish, Manchester in Barre. Will have to go by someday to read Russ Ford, Northern Frontier Branch Wilderness to rebuild Lost Pond Shelter what I wrote about that ’72 trip. James Fritz, Connecticut after a fire. Jean Haigh, Northeast Kingdom —Rob Badger Allison Henry, Killington On an Ottauquechee Section hike on GMC member since 1979 Peter Hope, Ottauquechee unmaintained roads in Vershire a couple years Paul Houchens, General Anne Janeway, General ago, we came across a U-Haul truck and two guys AT Stretch Glorious Wayne Krevetski, General from Louisiana who had followed their GPS onto Sheri Larsen, General Ron Lucier, Sterling an unplowed road, then got stuck at the bottom The following note was addressed to Jocelyn Doug McKain, Bread Loaf of a steep dip. They had no cell service, but one of Hebert, whose account of her three-day backpack Ed O’Leary, General John Oliva, Worcester our party had a phone that did (barely). on the Vermont AT from Sherburne Pass to the Ira Sollace, General We called a wrecker for them, but warned Connecticut River appeared in the last issue of Martha Stitelman, Bennington Long Trail News.