Please help us congratulate our very own Tony Barrett who is ATC’s featured volunteer for November! Currently Tony is on the MATC Executive Committee as well as a trail maintainer and chair of our Landscape Protection Committee. Please read the volunteer spotlight to learn about all of Tony’s contributions to the AT!
Author Archive: Laura Flight
Side Trail Closure on Barren Mountain
Details from the Monson Appalachian Trail Visitor Center: TRAIL CLOSURE ALERT: A pair of peregrine falcons with a young chick are nesting on the rock slide on the flank of Barren Mountain. If you hike near nesting peregrines, they may abandon the nest and their chicks may die. To protect this falcon family, the A.T. side trail leading to the Barren Slide has been closed. Breeding peregrines are endangered in Maine. Please respect the wildlife with whom you share the A.T. by obeying the closure.
April 17 Annual Meeting
The Maine Appalachian Trail Club’s 2021 annual meeting will be held on Saturday April 17 on… you guessed it- Zoom! We will all miss seeing familiar faces and regaling stories of 28-inch blow-downs, shoveling out privies, and flat tires. And we’ll especially miss the coffee and doughnuts! But, this is the best we can do given the circumstances. There will be a bit of extra business to conduct this year because there was no annual meeting in 2020, but we are planning on a 2-hour meeting to prevent screen fatigue and stick to the tasks at hand. For More Information.
2021 Annual Meeting
The Maine Appalachian Trail Club’s 2021 annual meeting will be held on Saturday April 17 from 9-11am on… you guessed it- Zoom! We will all miss seeing familiar faces and regaling stories of 28-inch blow-downs, shoveling out privies, and flat tires. And we’ll especially miss the coffee and doughnuts! But, this is the best we can do given the circumstances. There will be a bit of extra business to conduct this year because there was no annual meeting in 2020, but we are planning on a 2-hour meeting to prevent screen fatigue and stick to the tasks at hand. We’ll send out more information, including a Zoom invite, as the date approaches. In addition, we’ll be reaching out to those without the internet to make accommodations. Here’s a sneak-peek at the agenda. “See” you all on April 17th! For more information, please contact: Tom Gorrill.
Draft Agenda
- 9:00 AM Annual Business Meeting of the Club
- Welcome – Lester Kenway
- Approval of the 2019 Annual Meeting minutes – Janice Clain
- Treasurer’s Report – Jonathan Ellis
- Adoption of Budget for FY 2021-2022 – Tom Lewis – Finance Chairperson
- Corresponding Secretary Report – Doug Dolan
- Election of Officers – Tom Gorrill
- Constitutional and Bylaw amendments- Tom Gorrill
- President’s Report – Lester Kenway
- Recognition and awards – Peter Roderick, Lester Kenway, Tom Gorrill
- Other business – Lester Kenway
- 10:40 AM News from the Appalachian Trail Conservancy – Hawk Metheny (tentative)
- 11:00 AM End of Day
There are no upcoming events at this time
Leaves and Drainages: A Muddy Mix
It’s fall. That time of year with crisp air, shorter daylight hours, crunchy apples… and what else? Falling leaves! This vibrant foliage settles in voluminous quantities onto the ground in our yards. And the A.T. isn’t immune to this annual jettison of foliage either. But on the A.T. it can create problems with water drainages if not addressed. When it rains the leaves wash into these drainages where they often accumulate in the narrow or flatter locales, essentially damming the flow of water. Where’s the water to go now? In the trail! Water is ruthless and will find its way around and over obstacles if its designed flow path is interrupted, and either erode the trail, create a mud hole, or perhaps ruin the drainage structure itself. What’s a trail maintainer to do? Grab your favorite hoe and go for a nice walk on your trail section, combing the drainages and their outflows of leaves. Don’t think you are out of the woods if your trail section is mostly non-deciduous trees. Needles shed from softwood trees can cause the same issues! It’s a great time of year to be in the woods, so please consider purging your drainages of leaves, and needles, to keep water off the trail!
Long-Time MATC Volunteer Featured in ATC Blog
ATC’s blog post from July 28 tells the story of a day in the life of an A.T. volunteer; getting up early on a day off to move rocks, cut brush, and swat bugs. All for a whopping paycheck with lots of zeros, including a leading zero… But the rewards are tremendous and have lasting impacts. Featured in the ATC blog post is MATC legend Dave Field; he’s been maintaining and protecting the A.T. for over 50 years! Be sure to scroll down the page to read about Dave, and watch the “myATstory” short film on his lifetime of efforts!
COVID-19 Guidelines for Maintainers and Monitors
The National Park Service has issued guidelines that allow us to resume our trail and campsite maintenance as well as boundary monitoring during the COVID-19 pandemic. This is great news! However, there are a few tasks to complete before heading out, and guidance to work within while on the trail so that we remain as safe as possible.
Volunteers need to watch a video and complete an on-line acknowledgement form to demonstrate that you have read, acknowledge, and agree to follow actions to improve safety found in the COVID-19 JHA (Job Hazard Analysis) and training. This means that before you can work on the trail, campsites, or boundary, every maintainer and monitor needs to go to ATC’s “Volunteer Protocols During COVID-19” page (https://appalachiantrail.org/get-involved/volunteer/safety/covid-19/) and:
- View the 17-minute on-line training video
- Read and be familiar with the guidelines and links including the one-page reference chart
- Complete the online “Re-Engagement Acknowledgement – COVID-19” form
This is required not only ourselves, but any person that goes out on the trail, campsite, or boundary with us.
If you are not comfortable performing your maintainer or monitor duties in these conditions, you are under no obligation to complete them. Please let us know so we can adjust.
Campsite maintainers: Please use the revised campsite maintainer tip sheet for campsite tasks (https://www.matc.org/assets/Campsite-Maintainer-Tip-Sheet_COVID-19.pdf). Please do not perform the following:
- Privy maintenance
- Lean-to maintenance
- Trash clean-up
If you are going out by yourself or with someone from your “household” to maintain the trail, campsites, or boundary then it is a little easier to make sure you are safe. If you have someone from outside of your “household” accompany you, which is recommended in general, then you become a “trip leader” and have to take some additional precautions. These include:
- No sharing tools
- No carpooling
- No sharing food or drinks
- Maintaining social distancing
Please contact your Overseer with any questions.
Thank you for your dedication to the AT!