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Reports from Committees... RMC Trails Report
Going forward, there are indications that many of the 2009 crew hope to return in 2010. Mike has already roughed in the calendar for next year and will be actively soliciting hosts for Sunday crew dinners and volunteers to lead and participate in the popular and enjoyable work trips. We are also considering a Trail Adopter Program. If you have a favorite trail, consider becoming a steward. A few hours each season would likely be enough to keep the brush from reclaiming your trail. Drop Mike or Cristin an email if you want to learn more about this project. The award of $14,000 federal stimulus money to the RMC means that our crew will be partially funded for next season’s work on Howker Ridge. This wild and wonderful trail has not seen any erosion control work in all its years, and much as Inlook Trail was transformed this past season, so too will the Howker Ridge Trail be rebuilt. As many of you may know, the role of our Trail Crew is to improve trails in order to preserve and protect them, not simply to make walking them easier. During the last one hundred years, our trails have been loved to death. The effect of boots on ground is to compact and erode the soil making for an ugly, eroded path through the woods. The task of our Trail Crew is to drain the water from the trails and retain the soils and the walking surfaces of our historic and beloved trails. This, then will be the end result of the Centennial project on Howker Ridge -- an improved trail that can be enjoyed for another 100 years! In another important development, the RMC has signed an agreement to become the official custodian of the Gulfside portion of the Appalachian Trail between Madison Hut and Edmands Col. This provides increased visibility for the Club and opens doors to additional funding for camps and possibly feeder trail work. This trail requires little in the way of maintenance, since it is constructed of rock with no drainage issues. With some periodic cairning and some new signs, we participate in a very important piece of the New England trail network.
And with winter on the way, it’s a good thing we had a productive work season at the Camps this summer. The work log is extensive: annual oiling of the floors at both cabins, staining and sealing the outside shingles, doing minor rehabilitation at the impacted areas around the camps, and plugging away at the new composting system at Crag (see article elsewhere in the newsletter). Jamie Trombley (Crag) and Hunter Hague (Gray Knob) were a perfect working pair, Jamie thriving in visitor outreach and education, and Hunter taking to work projects with gusto, and even having a guest spot on the RMC Trail Crew for the day. This fall, we welcomed back Arianna Johnson and Kaia (her bubbly, and fiercely independent Alaskan Malamute) for most of September. Covering Gray Knob in late September into October was Beau Etter-Garette, a native of Conway and most recently employed by the AMC Backcountry Campsite program at the remote and rugged Speck Pond Campsite in Maine. Beau has earned a reputation this summer for being the happiest caretaker out there, so we hope his contagious good attitude continues once he gets to us! For the winter, the RMC camps will be again in the capable hands of Mike Foster and Juliane Hudson, our winter caretakers from the previous winter. Both of them spent the summer in the woods, Mike in the heart of the Pemi Wilderness at 13 Falls and Julianne in the beautiful Kinsman range at Kinsman Pond campsite. Pete Antos-Ketcham has joined the RMC Board, and will be serving as co-chair for the RMC Camps along with me. He brings a wealth of experience, knowledge, and enthusiasm to the table (and the outhouse!). During the winter, we’ll be working on lining up projects for the coming summer: the continuing toilet upgrade project and other construction projects. As always, the RMC Camps offer the most challenging winter backcountry facility location in the Whites—so strap on your crampons and compress your -20 degree down sleeping bag, and scale Lowe’s Path!
Another great RMC season has come to a close….the caretakers worked hard on the composting systems and greeting guests. The trail crew toiled in the muck to improve our trail system. Thanks to all those who volunteered to make this a successful and smooth season. Of course, the volunteers making up the Board go a long way toward maintaining the quality Randolph expects.
Thank you, Paul Cormier, for planing some future cutting boards and lending the tools to make them smooth. Thanks, Steve Hartman, for lending tools and assistance with axe heads. The Arnolds once again made quite a food display for our orientation lunch…vegan options even! Dave Salisbury was a big player in the RMC once again from his ‘care and feeding’ of tools to a Griphoist instruction day, and helping out with Griphoist cleaning. The crew members who participated were infinitely grateful for that additional training to help maintain of one of our more useful and expensive tools. We also had a number of camps volunteers who helped build drying racks early in the season, led by new Camps chair Sally Manikian, former Camps chair Al Sochard, Paul Cormier, and others. Around Stearns Lodge, Cathy Goodwin came early in the season to bring plant donations and improve upon our flower garden. Kate Allen donated another Serviceberry shrub with compost. Val Stori and Doug Mayer made a big contribution in the form of a vegetable garden. The crew enjoyed peas, lettuce, beans, and tomatoes sprouting from the newly imported soil within a protective fence. Hopefully this can be perpetuated season to season. We thank Sarah Gallop for encouraging the crew to participate in the Charades this year. Thank you, Edith and Dan, for the use of your porch for internet and for mowing the softball field for us to play AMC’s trail crew. (We won for a second year in a row.) Thank you to all the sponsors who fed the trail crew and caretakers at the benefit dinner at Libby’s. Unfortunately we were called away for an emergency, but we enjoyed the brief moments we had there. Thank you to Camp Dodge and the cook there, Sarah, for welcoming us to their Friday night BBQ’s week after week. It was truly a great season and it couldn’t have taken off without the efforts you all have put in. I’m sure I’ve omitted some people and was unaware of the help of others. Thanks to all who have committed to RMC and have made it the fantastic club it is today. A lot of this year’s crew hope to come back. Editor’s note: And many thanks to Curtis Moore, an especially competent and helpful supervisor who worked gracefully not only with Trail Crew/Caretakers, but also with Board volunteers for a successful and happy season in spite of one of the wettest summers on record.
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In
late summer, Trails co-chair Mike Micucci decided that RMC trails
needed a fall crew if at all possible. During the budget process
a fall crew had been eliminated due to cash flow concerns. A
surprise donation from a club member, plus a larger than anticipated
surplus in the new tools line item, plus $14,000 in federal stimulus
money opened the door to a fall crew. Immediately two of this
summer’s crew stepped up and a member of the 2008 crew jumped
on board. During the all too short fall season, this hardworking
and experienced crew – Johanna Stansfield, Benzo Harris
and Chris Carlson -- began a major project on the Howker Ridge,
quarrying rock and installing the first of many drainage systems
on the sadly neglected trail. This talented and energetic crew
also wrapped up some work on Lowe’s Path before moving on
to school and other jobs.
The
preceding summer season was equally successful. New Trails co-chairs
Mike Micucci and Cristin Bailey put together a great crew and
held it together through challenges during their first season.
Both are quick to point out that, but for the experience of
field supervisor Curtis Moore and the energy, enthusiasm and
talent of the summer crew, the season could have gone quite differently.
Thanks to everyone involved for making this transition year so
enjoyable!
The
morning I sat down to write this Report (Sept 19), there was
an inch of rime ice on the summit of Mt Washington. Red leaves
have begun to pave the trails (and clog our drainages). There
are available parking spots at Appalachia again. Winter is coming.
As
usual, we had many volunteers on our brushing trips, which maintain
our trails at the most basic and critical level. Special thanks
to Dave Salisbury, Cristin Bailey, Doug Mayer, and Mike Micucci.
A few T.C. siblings, including Riley Eusden and Chris Jensen,
also helped out.