Homer Stone Brook Trail snowshoe

Three hardy adventurers and a 4 legged friend headed up the Homer Stone Brook Trail today, passing many blow downs from the storm last week. We had lunch at the stream crossing at 1.8 miles and did not finish the last 0.5 miles to Little Rock Pond because the water in the stream was up and deep enough without stepping stones that is was not a safe crossing. In spite of that a lovely time was had by all.

Winter Calendar

Our winter snowshoe hike calendar is being posted, slowly but surely. It should all be posted by the end of this weekend. Check it out and join us for some great winter fun.
If you have a favorite snowshoe in the area that is not listed and would like to lead a hike contact contact <marge.fish@gmail.com> with details and to have it posted on our calendar.

Fall trail work report

We have had a very successful series of fall trailwork trips.
On Oct 15 a group of 11 Burr Burton Academy Freshmen plus 1 teacher and 2 GMC members cleared the water bars from Rt 11/30 to the south summit of Bromley. They then ere able to walk down the work road to the baselodge where they were picked up for the trip back to school. The group included 5 exchange students from Ecuador.
On Oct 20 the entire fifth and sixth grade from the Mountain School in Winhall plus two teachers, several parents and three GMC'ers cleared the water bars from Mad Tom Notch to the summit of Styles Peak.
On Oct 22 the entire seventh and eighth grade from the Mountain School in Winhall plus two teachers, several parents, and three GMC'ers   cleared the water bars from mad Tom Notch to the south summit of Bromley.
Finally, on Oct 25 eleven energetic GMC members, including GMC Executive Director Mike DeBonis, hiked into Grifftih Lake and then cleared the water bars south from Griffith Lake to the summit of Styles Peak and then hiked out to Mad Tom Notch, admiring the work of the Mountain School students on the way down.
Our entire 10 mile stretch of trail is ready for the winter now thanks to the great work of all these volunteers. 

Help the GMC get $10,000

click on the link and vot e ofr Green Mountain Club to help the club get $10,000
http://www.pcconstruction.com/donations/

A hiking and Yoga opportunity set up by one of our section members

contact Katie.adams@shejumps.com for details

pictures from lye brook hike

Report from August 23 hike

Six intrepid hikers met at 7am at the Lye Brook Falls parking lot off of Glen Rd in Manchester Center, left some vehicles there and carpooled to the trail head on Rootville Rd.
After hiking up to Prospect Rock, where there was fine view of Manchester and Mt Equinox with its summit in the clouds, we continued on to Douglas Shelter for our first break and snack. Then we headed down the Branch Pond Trail into the heart of the Lye Brook Wilderness, enjoying the relocations away from the beaver pond problems, until we reached Bourne Pond. This is one of the treasures in the Lye Brook Wilderness. We had our lunch at the shoreline. then we started onto the Lye Brook Trail. This trail winds through some beautiful woods that have grown up on what had been a clear cut plateau before the Lye Brook Wilderness was created in the 1960's. Three of our group took the side trail to see the falls before doing the final 2.4 miles for the day for a total of 15.2 miles and three  of us just kept going to the parking lot for a total of 14.4 miles for the day.
It was a great hike and we all enjoyed it.
Pictures to follow.

 A wonderful article from the Barre Times-Argus:

The path back

Author(s): Candace Page Date: August 10, 2014 Section: FEATURES

BOLTON — Mike DeBonis walked with a woodsman’s easy strides through a jungly floodplain forest of red maple and scrawny elms bordering the future path of the Long Trail by the Winooski River. “Some folks who came down here said to me, ‘This is a junk forest,’” he recalled. “I said no, it’s a cool forest, a diverse forest, a forest that has adapted to floods.”

DeBonis, 43, knows what he’s saying. He’s a Yale-trained forester with a deep knowledge of Vermont’s woods and mountains, gleaned as a boy growing up in Middlebury with a forester father.

Forestry isn’t the first skill one would associate with his new job as executive director of the 104-year-oldGreen Mountain Club. As protector of the country’s oldest long-distance hiking path, Vermont’s 272-mile Long Trail, the Club is better known for conserving land, building trails and teaching outdoor skills than for managing woodlots.

But like that floodplain forest, the club is adapting to changed — sometimes difficult — circumstances. DeBonis is just what the club was looking for, President Jean Haigh said.

Forest management requires not just knowledge of timber-cutting, DeBonis said, but the ability to manage relationships with landowners and communities, and to communicate with the public about the ecological, economic and social values of forests.

Those are the sorts of abilities the club sought in its new director.

“We’re at a big turning point,” Haigh said. For many years, the club has been focused on major physical and financial projects, including the $10 million campaign to permanently protect 60 miles of the Long Trail that crossed private land.

Those projects are largely completed. The club has conserved all but six miles of the trail. It has carried out a $1.75 million rebuilding of its headquarters after a 2003 fire and solved the 100-year-old problem of a permanent Winooski River crossing, a $2.3 million undertaking.

“Now the question is, how do we sustain our work?” Haigh asked earlier this month. “That’s the transition we’re in.”

The current challenges facing the club aren’t as visible or compelling to outsiders as protecting large tracts of wild land or building a new suspension footbridge over the Winooski River.

Instead, the club must focus on day-to-day stewardship of the trail and the 24,000 acres that have been protected (most of it now in state or federal ownership, with the club holding protective easements).

How is that land best managed? How can other uses of club-conserved land — timber-cutting, energy development, sugarmaking — be carried out in ways that don’t damage hikers’ enjoyment of the Long Trail?

And where will the money come from to do those jobs, as well as to maintain hundreds of miles of hiking trails, dozens of bridges and more than 70 cabins, shelters and camping areas?

The days when the club received a yearly state grant of $50,000 for its Long Trail work are over. Federal funding for trail crews has shrunk.

The club has tightened its belt, reduced its staff by one position and is in good financial condition with a balanced $2 million budget. Haigh worries about the future, though, because raising funds for ongoing operations and stewardship is a less “sexy” cause and always a challenge, she sighed.

Managing those challenges will be DeBonis’ job. And forestry, it turns out, is the least of the reasons he was the club’s choice from among 80 applicants.

He’s a man with bright brown eyes and an outdoorsman’s build, slim and wiry. He grew up hiking the mountains around Lake Dunmore and through-hiked the 2,000-mile Appalachian Trail as a 23-year-old.

But it was as his outdoor job as a forester, he said, that taught him the indoor skills needed to manage an organization.

“Being a forester is more than just about determining which trees to cut,” he said. “It’s about communicating, being part of a community, working with diverse groups to find common ground.”

After several years as a state forester working with communities in Maine, DeBonis joined the New Mexico-based Forest Guild, a national group that promotes sustainable, ecologically sensitive forestry. DeBonis was promoted to be the group’s executive director in 2008, just as the recession hit.

“Mike did a great job navigating the hard times,” said Rick Morrill, a Maine forester and chairman of the Forest Guild board. That involved downsizing the staff, finding new sources of funds and strategic thinking about the group’s direction.

“It took a variety of approaches, and Mike was the mastermind of that,” Morrill said.

DeBonis said he and his wife, Jennifer, had always hoped to return to Vermont, but in the more distant future. Then his father saw the Green Mountain Club advertisement, and DeBonis decided he couldn’t pass up the chance.

“This was not a planned move,” he said drily.

One of DeBonis’s first jobs is overseeing completion of the club’s Winooski footbridge for a planned October opening. Next summer, the club will cut new routes north from Camel’s Hump and south from Bolton Mountainto the crossing.

The club will continue to tackle other trail projects, but when DeBonis talks about the big jobs ahead it’s the word “stewardship” that appears most frequently.

“Traditionally that meant caring the trail. As a forester, I take a broader perspective,” he said. “Stewardship includes biodiversity, sustainable forest management, attention to the local economy. We have to think not just about land but community and people.”

“The Long Trail is part of the fabric of Vermont. It’s so important socially and economically, we’d sell ourselves short if we just looked on the Long Trail as a footpath,” he said.

That means working with multiple partners, he said, from adjoining private landowners to state foresters to select boards. The club is committed to multiple uses of the land it owns or holds easements on, but wants to minimize impacts that would tarnish a hiker’s experience of the trail.

A good example, he said, is the recent growth of maple sugaring operations, which can string miles of tubing through forests crossed by the trail.

“I never envisioned when I was a kid there would be a sugarbush with 50,000 taps,” he said. “This industrial–scale sugaring requires extensive infrastructure. We have to ask, what is the impact on the trail experience, but also do we want to manage the forest for a single species of tree? What is the impact on biodiversity and wildlife?”

An equally big challenge, he said, is to find ways to encourage — to steward — a new generation of hikers and draw them to membership, activity and leadership in the club.

The Long Trail itself helps that recruitment, he said, citing his own vivid childhood memory of an expedition to explore a beaver dam on Mount Horrid in Brandon.

He recalled a solo hike last month, when he climbed Mount Abraham on a sunny Sunday. On top, he encountered a grandfather with his granddaughter.

“I don’t know if the little girl will remember which mountain it was, but you could tell from the joy in her eyes, she will remember that hike,” he said. “She has that connection with the mountains that will stay with her.”

Candace Page is a freelance journalist in Burlington.
Technical problems: If you have a technical problem with your account please e-mailnewslibrary@newsbank.com.

Copyright, 2014, The Times Argus

Paddle and pot luck successful - next activities planned

Twelve of us had a lovely paddle on Gale Meadow, on a day with excellent weather, followed by fifteen of at the potluck and planning meeting.

The following activities were planned:

Wednesday August 20 - help build one of the Habitat for Humanity, Manchester homes - meet at 8:30 am at the house site on Jennifer Lane, off of Rt 11/30 (the turn on the south side of Rt11/30 between new 7 and East Manchester Rd) - bring lunch, a hammer if you have one (but they will have extras), and work gloves - RSVP to Keld Alstrup at <keld@alstrup.us> or 802-362-1422

Saturday August 23 - hike from Rootville Rd past Prospect Rock to Douglas Shelter and then onto Bourn Pond via the Branch pond Trail and out on the Lye Brook trail, with a stop at the Lye Brook Falls - total distance about 13 miles with about 2000 feet climb at the beginning, moderately level and then downhill thereafter - bring food, fluids, extra clothing and raincoat if any chance of rain, headlamp just in case - meet at 7am at Lye Brook Falls trail head (access road off of Glen Rd in Manchester) and then will leave cars here and drive to start of hike on Rootville Rd.- RSVP to Keld Alstrup at <keld@alstrup.us> or 802-362-1422

Friday September 12 - hike the relocated Old Job Trail from FR 30 to Old Job Shelter and then onto Big Branch Shelter and out to FR 10 - total distance 3.2 miles, several hundred feet elevation gain - meet 8am at Little Rock Pond parking lot on FR 10 to leave cars and drive around to FR 30 - bring snack, fluids, extra layers - RSVP Marge Fish at <marge.fish@gmail.com> or 802-824-3662

Saturday October 25 - fall work weekend - clean waterbars from Griffith Lake to the summit of Styles Peak - bring snacks, lunch, fluids, extra clothing, raincoat if any chance of rain, hoe or shovel or rake if you have it (but we have lots of extra tools so come even if you don't have tools), work gloves - meet at 7:30 am at the Peru town office/park and ride to car pool to both the end of the hike to leave cars and the beginning of the hike - the work goes much better with lots of people so come and help please - RSVP to Dave Ratti at <dbrspruce@gmail.com> or 802-366-0698

Sunday October 26 - fall pot luck and planning meeting for winter trips - at Dale and Mike Malekoff on Adams Lane in Londonderry - meet at 5 pm - bring something for pot luck - RSVP and for specific directions to Dale Malekoff at <dmalekoff@myfairpoint.net> or 802-824-5030

Report on a young adventurers club outing

The Manchester Section of Green Mountain Club's  Young Adventurers Club enjoyed a low key camp-out at Burr and Burton's Mountain Campus on Saturday night. It was the first event of it's type around here and thoroughly enjoyable! We cooked out, went on a bear hunt and enjoyed each other's company well into the evening. Keep a look out for the next opportunity.  If you are interested in hiking activities for families with children, contact <marge.fish@gmail.com>.

Next section activity

Join us for our next section activity on August 6 - check the activity calendar for details. We will be planning our fall activities at this meeting, so come with some suggestions.

Hike in the Aiken Wilderness

Three people participated in the campout at Woodford State Park and then the hike and exporation of part of the Aiken Wilderness ( a trailless area). By all reports they had a great time.

Invasive Species workshop

We had 8 people who participated in this.
 We did some work removing some invasive species, learned a lot, had great company, and have received some excellent resources for further work on our own with this. Thank you to Colleen Balch of VT FP&R

Invasive Species Management Workshop

Join us for an Invasive Species and Habitat Restoration workshop on Friday June 20 at Woodford State Park, taught by biologists from VT Forest. Parks and Recreation.
PLEASE RSVP TO MARGE FISH AT or 802-384-3654 or 802-824-3662 BY JUNE 17
ARRIVAL
 Schedule for the program:
3:30 – 4pm Arrive @ Woodford State Park/Forest, gather at meeting spot4:00 pm Orientation - Who, What, Where, When, How
 Welcome & Introduction
 Site & Facilities where we’re working
 Overview of Evening & Schedule
 Our job & goals
 Prescription process, tool use, plant ID
4:30 Start project
6:30pm Dinner and Invasives 101 – the big picture
 Problem and Threat of Invasives
 Dealing with Invasives
 Restoration and Regeneration
7:00pm Resume project
9pm Break down, tool care, packaging material
9:20pm Summary of work, thank you, gift certificates, conclusion and charge!
9:30 pm Program’s end

Green Mountain Club Annual Meeting

The annual meeting for the Green Mountain Club is this Saturday June 14 at Mountain Meadows Lodge in Killington with activities and hikes starting with a 6:30 am bird walk and running through the evening. The general membership meeting is from 9 -11:30 am and there are multiple afternoon hikes to choose from. A great evening program with Christopher Wren will wrap up the evening. To sign up go to the main club website www.greenmountainclub.org

Little Rock Pond Hike

With a group of 10, terrific weather, minimal bugs while hiking, the hike to Little Rock Pond and back was a great success.

Little Rock Pond Hike

Join us for an afternoon hike to Little Rock Pond on the Log Trail on Sunday June 1. Check the activities calendar for details.

Root Beer Ridge hike

On Saturday 5/24, 12 hikers walked the Root Beer Ridge trail in Weston VT. In spite of a forecast for rain, we had just ashort time with a light drizzle and then partial sunshine and a fine day. The woods were beautiful, there were several views, and the company was great.

Trail Work

We have completed all the blow down removal and water bar cleaning for the spring walk through of our trail section (Rt 11/30 to Griffith Lake) over four trips - three with groups from the Mountain School in Winhal and one with a dedicated group of adults. Thanks to all these volunteers for their hardwork. With the new norm of torrential rains, keeping those water bars open to help with drainage from the trail and decrease the speed of erosion is really critical.

Trail Work time

Join us this Saturday May 10 to clean waterbars and remove blowdowns Griffith Lake to Styles Peak.
Lots of help needed. Meet 8 am Peru Town Office/Park and Ride. We will drop a vehicle at the Stlyes peak end and drive to the trail head for FR 58 trail, hike into Griffith Lake and then work south. If you have them bring a hoe or shovel, clippers, pruning saw - but we have extra tools for those who need them. Bring food and fluids, extra clothing, rain gear.
RSVP to Dave Ratti 802-362-0698 <dbrspruce@gmail.com>

Report on the Snowshoe in the Aiken Wilderness on 3/22

Snowshoe at Aiken Wilderness with Dave Ratti, Jayne Della Ratta, Bob Whitney, and Ken from Hoosick Falls, NY.  We met at 9 a.m.  and put on our snowshoes at the entrance to Woodford State Park.  We headed south along the west side of Adams Reservoir before heading east cross country.  We investigated beaver flows.  Tracks of animals were visible - coyotes, mice, squirrels and moose.  We then headed south and west as a blizzard began making visibility poor.  Lunch was in a protected area of fir trees with sandwiches provided by Dave and Jayne.  Our compass direction was then north on the east side of the reservoir returning to our start point.  Distance covered about three and a miles in 3 and 1/2 hours.      
           -Bob Whitney

New Executive Director for GMC

GREEN MOUNTAIN CLUB ANNOUNCES NEW EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR

WATERBURY CENTER, Vt., March 26 –– The Green Mountain Club’s Board of Directors announced today the appointment of Michael DeBonis as the organization’s next Executive Director. Mike is currently the Executive Director of the Forest Guild, a national non-profit forestry organization.  “It is an honor to have the opportunity to join the dedicated team of staff and volunteers at the Green Mountain Club. I very much look forward to getting back out on the trail in Vermont,” said DeBonis.

Mike is a native Vermonter and longtime member of the Green Mountain Club. He and his wife Jennifer will be relocating from Santa Fe, New Mexico where the Forest Guild is headquartered. Mike grew up hiking, camping, and backpacking in the Green Mountains and has hiked both the Long Trail and Appalachian Trail. A Peace Corps volunteer in Jamaica, he also served as a park manager for Lake Carmi State Park in Vermont. Mike has a bachelor’s degree in Natural Resource Management from Johnson State College and a master's degree in Forestry from Yale University.

“We have been impressed by Mike’s intellect and his quick understanding of the issues,” said Jean Haigh, President of the Green Mountain Club. “Mike’s strengths and experiences lie in the areas of organizational, financial, and personnel management – skills that he has used to successfully manage organizational change within the Forest Guild, and which are very important to the Green Mountain Club.  And he already has a number of positive and collegial relationships in Vermont. Mike is very much a fit for the club!”

The Green Mountain Club looks forward to officially welcoming Mike as its new Executive Director in mid-May.

The Green Mountain Club is recognized by the state of Vermont as  "the founder, sponsor, defender, and protector" of the Long Trail System.  With its 273-mile footpath, 175 miles of side trails, and nearly 70 primitive shelters, the Long Trail is the oldest long distance trail in the United States. In addition to the 450-mile Long Trail System, the club also maintains Vermont’s Appalachian National Scenic Trail and many hiking trails in the Northeast Kingdom in collaboration with partners including the U.S. Forest Service, Vermont Department of Forests, Parks and Recreation, and the Appalachian Trail Conservancy.

Contacts:             Maisie Howard, Interim Executive Director - (802) 241-8322

Trail Work Trip

Saturday March 8 Bob Whitney and Marge Fish went into Bromley Shelter, which the Manchester section of GMC maintains, and sandpapered off the graffiti that some rude people had put into the shelter. Then Bob carried out on a pack frame the old catcher from the composting privy. This had been weathering for 6 years, ever since it had been replaced by a beyond the bin catcher. Thank you Bob!

Wheeler Pond Trip

Five hardy souls from the Manchester section of GMC spent two nights and three days up in the Northeast Kingdom, We stayed at the rustic Wheeler pond camps (go tot he greenmountainclub.org site and look for Wheeler Pond Camps on the tabs on the left hand side to get information on the amps and rentals).
We braved below zero nights, though we were toasty inside with the wood stove, and had beautiful, blue bird skies and sunshine for our hikes. We hiked trails that were packed out so only had to use traction devices. On thursday we were joined by three members of the NEK section including club president Jean Haigh for a lovely hiked in the Nulhegan Basin.

Snowshoe over Bromley

join us on Sunday 2/16 to snow shoe over Bromley Mtn - with all this new snow it should be a great trip - detail on the activities calendar

Hiking Annapurna slide show

Join us for the adventure of hiking in Nepal and climbing Annapurna via the slides and stories presented by Jim and Bev Philip this Saturday evening at 7:30 pm at the Londonderry Volunteer Rescue quad buidling at 6068 Rt 100 in Londonderry  VT

Hike up Stratton Mtn

Please note the time for the Stratton Mtn hike has been changed to meeting at 9:30am at the Bondville Post Office

Weather cancels hike on the Catamunt Trail on 1/11

Heavy rain forecast for today led to a cancellation of the hike on the Catamount Trail scheduled for today - a true hypothermia producing forecast.

Stratton Pond Snowshoe

Seven of us greeted the New Year with our hike to Stratton Pond on a cold but beautiful day.