Fiddlers and Fiddlehead Fest

Saturday, May 21, 2016 11- 6pm at Patten Lumbermen’s Museum, 61 Shin Pond Road – Patten, Maine FREE Admission. Donations support the Patten Lumbermen’s museum endowment fund.
Sponsored by Katahdin Woods & Waters & Patten Lumbermen’s Museum.
Rain or Shine… Fiddlers and musicians from around the state will take the stage. Enjoy artisan demonstrations, museum tours, children’s activities and local craft and food vendors.
Cast Iron Cook Off at 12:00pm.
Bring your favorite fiddlehead dish to the Cast Iron Cook Off. From the entries, judges will choose two chefs to compete in a fast-paced show-down featuring fiddleheads and several "mystery ingredients". When the dust settles, the chef with the most innovative fiddlehead dish takes home the coveted "Cast Iron Fry Pan Award".

When a Simple Walking Trail Headed North From Maine, and Made Conservation History

by George Neavoll
The photo on the IAT’s handsome new website of Herb Hartman, Maine’s former state parks director, nailing an International Appalachian Trail marker to a tree stirs vivid memories. I helped clear the first mile of what today is the Richard B. Anderson Trail along the forested spine of Mars Hill Mountain in far eastern Aroostook County in 1995. I took a photo that ran shortly after with my Maine Sunday Telegram column of Dick nailing a similar marker to a yellow birch there.
Don Hudson, who later would succeed Dick as IAT president, remarked that come Spring, this portion of the trail would be a leafy green bower. I actually had done little of the trail-clearing, but this still made me feel pretty good!
Few knew, then, that the trail was to be, in time, a 12,000-mile footpath through 11 countries and jurisdictions, extending in a horseshoe from Maine and Atlantic Canada all the way to Norway’s Svalbard archipelago and south to Morocco.
The “Appalachian terranes,” the ancient landforms these places embraced, would be the basis for the future International Appalachian Trail. They once had formed the Appalachian-Caledonian mountains of the “supercontinent” Pangea before “plate tectonics” under the Atlantic Ocean separated them into their North American and European/North African components.
The story of “our common geoheritage” is reflected in the new “Pioneer Geologists” link on the IAT’s website.
“NOW, A TRAIL for two countries,” we had headlined a piece about the new IAT in 1994, which was envisaged then as a trail linking the highest points in Maine, New Brunswick and Quebec. I experienced my first iconic Maine sporting camp when I sat in on an early meeting of the IAT board at Robinson Twin Pine Camp on Millinocket Lake in 1995, gathering material for future columns and editorials.
I later was on Mont Jacques-Cartier in the Chic-Chocs of Quebec, still gathering material but also looking for the Woodland Caribou making their last stand south of the St. Lawrence River. (I didn’t see them.)
Later still, in 1997, I was elsewhere on the Gaspe Peninsula watching the most amazing display of the Aurora Borealis over the Gulf of St. Lawrence anyone in our IAT group could remember.
The notion of a two-nation trail soon changed, with the involvement of Walter Anderson, former state geologist, and others who had done pioneering work of their own on the theory of plate tectonics. The trail’s potential exploded when they applied the theory to the Appalachian-Caledonian geology that created the footprints of the prehistoric mountain chain.
It wasn’t long before an IAT delegation was aboard an icebreaker crashing through the sea ice from Sydney, Nova Scotia, to Port-au-Basques, Newfoundland, on a trip to help establish a chapter there in 2003. (When one of the meetings dragged, Will Richard, noted northland photographer and author, suggested he and I take a drive into the Blow-Me-Down Mountains west of Corner Brook. It was there we encountered first one, then more Boreal Chickadees, a “Life Bird” for this longtime birder. I was psyched.)
I RETURNED after my retirement to my native Oregon, shortly after the trail’s grand expansion into Western Europe and Northern Africa was starting. Now I look out my apartment window in Portland’s Goose Hollow at the sleeping Cascade volcanoes of Mount Adams, Mount St. Helens and, away to the north, Mount Rainier. (Fabled Mount Hood is out of view around the corner of my building.) These are “the shining mountains,” as David Simons called them, a continent away from the mountains, rivers and valleys of the IAT.
Still, I think of those magic times as a witness to conservation history when a simple walking trail headed north from Maine and became a major, ongoing effort to bind men and women with their mountains and their Atlantic Rim heritage.
“The Atlantic Ocean may have been dividing us for eons, but the International Appalachian Trail is well on its way to bringing us back together”, concludes an article on the IAT in the current issue of Earth Heritage magazine.
In a world divided by hatred and strife, it needs the healing presence of an IAT more than ever.

IAT North America Meeting held at Mabou, NS

On April 8 & 9, IAT North America held its Annual Spring Council Meeting in Mabou, Nova Scotia. The two-day event held at Duncreigan Inn was an opportunity for the U.S. and Canadian chapters to gather to discuss common issues and joint initiatives, as well as provide updates on regional and international progress.

IAT Annual AGM – May 6 – 8 Presque Isle Maine

Please Join us for the IAT Maine Chapter Annual Meeting in Presque Isle Maine May 6-8, 2016
We are looking forward to a fun filled weekend with our IAT friends and colleagues in Presque Isle Maine! In addition to our annual meeting of the members and the board, there will be plenty of opportunity to socialize and take in a variety of topics including:
Sun Edison Wind Farm Tour/Geology at Mars Hill MountainAlaska to Maine – Snowmobile Ride of the Millennium (after dinner presentation – open to the public)History & Geology of the IAT, with website, maps & guide informationUpdate on Trail RelocationUMPI Outing ClubBeyond LimitsAroostook BirdersDriving the Solor SystemNative American & First Nations CultureAcadian History & CulturePaul Cyr PhotographyInterhemispheric Aspects of Climate ChangeMatt "Gator" Miller, 2015 AT Thru-Hiker & IAT-ME Hiker (after dinner presentation – open to the public)Stars Over Presque IsleHaystack Mtn. Geology Field Trip & Ashland Logging Museum Visit
We hope you can join us! To register, mail registration form and payment to Maine Chapter IAT, PO Box 916, Gardiner, ME 04345 or make a payment online by going to the IAT website annual meeting page. Please forward registration information to carolgay@gwi.net.
Registration and payment is due by April 29, 2016.
Lodging reservations must be made with Presque Isle Inn & Convention Center directly at 207-764-3321. Ask for IAT reduced rate.
You can also show your support by becoming a member with a $25 donation.

2016 AGM Dedicated to William (Bill) H. Forbes
The Maine Chapter of the International Appalachian Trail (IAT) dedicates the 2016 Annual Meeting on May 6-7-8, 2016 to Bill Forbes. Bill, a Maine Paleontologist, was a long time member of the IAT whose knowledge, expertise and many contacts helped in the concept and trail designation in Maine and the Canadian Maritimes. Born in Presque Isle 1931 and passed in May 2011, Presque Isle, after a long battle with cancer.
Bill viewed Aroostook County as the gateway to the world. His love for science and particularly geology started before high school and remained a central theme throughout his life. Bill was a scholar in the traditional sense. He had a voracious interest in many areas of the natural sciences and resources worldwide. Bill’s passion was focused research and teaching at the University of Maine at Presque Isle (UMPI). He was beloved by his students and colleagues at UMPI where he quickly advanced to full time instructor in geology in 1971, and was promoted from Associate to full Professor of Geology in 1985. He was co-discoverer of the land plant fossil, Pertica quadrifaria in northern Baxter Park and upon an act of the Maine state legislature, it is now designated as Maine’s official fossil. He eventually was invited to apprentice under a specialist in paleo-botany at the U.S. Natural History Museum in Washington, DC and was recognized worldwide for his discoveries and research in paleontology. For his many contributions to Appalachian geology and the International Appalachian Trail, The IAT is honored to dedicate this annual meeting to member William (Bill) Forbes, including his wife Warrena and family.

2016 Stars over Katahdin

Save the date… Saturday, October 1st for Stars over Katahdin on Katahdin Woods and Waters Overlook on the Loop Road. Camping with tents is available on the overlook that night only.
Chats around the Campfire at 6pm. Bring your picnic supper.
More updates to come!
Nancy Hathaway, M.Ed., LpastC

Save the Date – Annual Meeting – May 6-8

Mark your calendar for May 6-8th for the IAT Maine An

nual Meeting! We will be heading to Presque Isle Maine for this years event. We are working on a packed filled program with something to interest everyone. We will keep you posted once the program is finalized. We hope you can join us!

North American AGM – Mabou

We are looking forward to attending this years North American Annual General Meeting. The meeting will be held in Mabou, a small Canadian rural community located in Inverness County on the west coast of Nova Scotia’s Cape Breton Island. There will be representation from all IAT chapters and each will report on their activities over the last year. We will be discussing participation at the 2017 ATC Bienniel in Maine and at ALDHA in Williamstown in October 2016. We will also be discussing ways to promote the new Pioneers web site section and the progress of the geopark in Newfoundland and Labrador. Stay tuned for results of the meeting!

Friend of the IAT, Ed Werler Passes

Ed Werler died at 102 years of age, in Waldoboro, Maine, on February 5th.http://stronghancock.frontrunnerpro.com/book-of-memories/2374246/Werler-Edward/obituary.php He was a gentle man and lived a good life. Ed was an early fire warden on Deasey Mountain, now on the route of the IAT; a Baxter Park Ranger managing the burros that transported gear to Chimney Pond from Roaring Brook; a Maine state park manager; and subsequently the state park system’s southern district supervisor. In his book, The Call of Katahdin, Ed vividly recounts his move to Maine with his wife, Mary Jane, in 1947, his love of the outdoors, and his work in the north woods. Following the death of his wife of 50 years, he married Martha Day, who predeceased him, the widow of artist Jake Day.
On his 100th birthday Dick Anderson presented Ed with a photograph of the fire tower cab on the summit of Deasey Mountain, which had been newly painted by an IAT work crew, and an insulator from the former telephone line to the cab.
A routed sign, ED WERLER TRAIL, has been placed at the intersection of the original fire warden’s trail to the summit of Deasey and the Old Telos Tote Road along the East Branch of the Penobscot River, by the mountain’s owners, Elliotsville Plantation Inc.

Wonderful Winter Cross Country Ski and Snowshoe Trip in KWWRA & IAT-ME!

Cheryl & Kirk St. Peter.

If you are looking for a winter adventure that’s great fun in a beautiful, uncrowded wilderness area, then plan a cross country ski trip in the Katahdin Woods & Waters Recreation Area (KWWRA- http://katahdinwoods.org/visit/), on part of the IAT-ME between Matagamon and Bowlin Camps as soon as possible! You can tailor the trip to your liking and can combine wonderful home cooked food and comfortable lodging with wilderness adventure and rustic lodging, beautiful scenery, and even snowmobiling, if desired.

Lindsay & Mike Downing at Mt. Chase Lodge
Over the Martin Luther King weekend, IAT-ME Board Members Kirk and Cheryl St. Peter, headed to the Shin Pond area for the grand re-opening of Mt. Chase Lodge (http://mtchaselodge.com/) by the new owners, Lindsay and Mike Downing, and decided to combine it with a cross country ski trip, which made the weekend a complete blast! You can either plan the trip yourself or get pampered and go with Lindsay and Mike on a guided hut trip (http://mtchaselodge.com/xc-skiing/), where they do all the planning and cooking!
Either way, you’ll want to stay overnight in one of two free backcountry huts (either Haskell Hut or Big Spring Brook Hut, or both) along the groomed trial, excellently maintained by Mark and Susan Adams, KWWRA Managers. If you plan a trip on your own, contact them at lunksoos@gmail.com or 207-528-4042 (until April), to see when either or both of the huts are available. Trail maps are available on their website and they will email you mileages and a hut usage FAQ. Both huts have wooden sleeping platforms, a propane cooktop and lights, a woodstove, pots/pans, dishes, cups and cooking utensils. Haskell Hut can sleep up to 8 and Big Spring Brook Hut can sleep up to 16.

Mark Adams just heading out to groom the trails

Registering at Matagamon gate kiosk
Matagamon Wilderness (http://www.matagamon.com/) is located just across the river from the northern trailhead and the friendly Christianson family who owns it will shuttle your gear to a hut for you ($25pp round trip) and start a fire in the woodstove, so you can carry just a daypack with water, snacks and emergency gear and arrive at a warm hut! You can also get a home cooked meal at their “Momma Bear’s Kitchen,” resupply in their store, and/or stay in one of their comfortable cabins before and/or after your ski trip.

Beautiful East Branch of Penboscot River

Northeast Mountains of Baxter Park, including the Travelers
On the way in to Haskell Hut or after you get there, take the groomed ½ mile side trail to Stair Falls, “…the handsomest falls I ever saw…as regular as a Stair Case” according to Jonathan Maynard, Surveyor, on September 11, 1793.

Getting to a warm Haskell Hut
Just 0.7 mile south of Haskell Hut is Haskell Rock Pitch and Haskell Rock, also well worth a visit, either as a side trip from the hut or on your way 5 miles south to Bowlin Camps (http://www.bowlincamps.com/), where you can leave a vehicle earlier for just $10 overnight, get a meal and/or spend the night in one of their comfortable cabins, or you could even have Mt. Chase Lodge shuttle your vehicle there for you.

Haskell Rock Pitch
After spending a quiet night at Haskell Hut by the woodstove, reading all the hut journal entries, listening to music, and heating our dinner on the woodstove (although the propane stove was available, why start it?), Alan Christianson arrived promptly at 9 am the next morning, as requested, to pick up our gear and we skied the 5½ miles back to Grand Lake Road on the IAT (Messer Pond-Orin Falls Tote Road). On our way out, we met four other skiers coming in – two staying at Haskell Hut for two nights with four other friends and two staying at Big Spring Brook Hut for the night.
We had a wonderful lunch in Momma Bear’s Kitchen, then drove to Shin Pond and checked into Cabin #3 at Mt. Chase Lodge. We cheered as the Patriots beat the Chiefs on a big screen TV in the welcoming lodge with Rick and Sara Hill (Lindsay’s parents and the previous owners) and three snowmobilers who were in Cabin #4 (well, honestly Kirk cheered and I checked emails). Mike and Lindsay cooked a fantastic three course meal for us while everyone else watched the game and although we had to pause the game to eat, it was well worth it!

Welcoming Mt. Chase Lodge
The next morning, after a filling breakfast in the lodge, we drove to Bowlin Camps, parked our truck, and snow shoed across the Bowlin bridge over the river with our skis on our backs up the first mile of the trail north to where Mark Adams had groomed (a few remaining wet places and insufficient snow until the recent storm had prevented his grooming the last mile to Bowlin). From there, we skied 4 more miles up to Haskell Hut and back, again with some excellent views of the Travelers in Baxter.

Crossing Bowlin’s Bridge over the River

Snowshoeing with Skis
After another night in a cozy cabin at Mt. Chase Lodge and a filling breakfast there, we said our goodbyes to our wonderful hosts, wished the new owners well, and met with Chuck Loucka, owner of Katahdin Lodge (http://katahdinlodge.com/) on Route 11, and president of Knowles Corner ATV club, to get additional information from him about re-routing the IAT off the roads and onto the ATV trails through the woods from Shin Pond to Monticello. Chuck is incredibly welcoming, also has a great lodge and cabins, and provides family-style meals to guests, whether hikers, hunters, snowmobilers, or skiers!

Heading north from Bowlin with Travelers in the distance
To round out this amazing northern Katahdin region, Shin Pond Village (http://shinpond.com/) is also located in Shin Pond on the way to Matagamon. Owned by Terry and Craig Hill (Rick Hill’s brother, no less), this facility offers camping, cabins, and suites, with a general store, gift shop, guest area with satellite TV, a full service dining area, and gas for snowmobilers and vehicles. We’ve stayed there many times in the past and have thoroughly enjoyed every visit.
Between the five first rate facilities for lodging and meals, the incredible views and unlimited opportunities for recreation in any season, our only question si how soon can we plan our next visit to this remarkable area? If you haven’t been to this area recently or at all, you are definitely missing out on one of Maine’s most beautiful and welcoming wilderness areas. So.. when is your next visit?

Stars over Katahdin

Photo by John T. Meader, 2015
The recent event, Stars over Katahdin, was a fabulous time!
Stars over Katahdin was co-sponsored with Katahdin Woods and Waters who hosted this event on the Overlook off the KWW Loop Road, east of Katahdin Lake and Baxter State Park. This particular area of the North Maine Woods is one of the very few large areas of dark skies, because of low light pollution, east of the Mississippi River. We would like to thank recreation directors Susan and Mark Adams of KWW for their generous time given to help make this happen and Roxanne and Hannah Quimby, Lucas St. Clair for making their land available for this and other recreational activities.

Photo by John T. Meader, 2015
The cloudy sky opened at 9pm and around 10:30/11:00pm a dome of clouds from the west closed the show.

Photo by Maureen Ellerton
IAT Board member Earl Raymond told stories to eight students from the Colby Outing Club. He spoke of the history of the surrounding land as we scooted around moose scat going up Barnard Mountain. The view under mostly clear deep blue skies was refreshing. I was happy to benefit from Earl’s stories. Maureen Ellerton was also an inspiration to the younger students.
While hiking the mountain trail, we met “Chizzlin Cheswick”, a 4,000-mile hiker going from Key West to Newfoundland, sitting in the Katahdin lean-to. He recently completed the Appalachian trail after starting from Miami, Florida with hopes to complete the Eastern Continental Trail to Newfoundland.

Enjoying campfire supper – photo by Walter Anderson
After hiking we enjoyed some delicious campfire food.

While sitting around the campfire, we listened to some fun and interesting chats that were given by astronomers and geologists. Bob Marvinney, IAT Board member and state geologist, talked about the Geology of Katahdin. Chief IAT Geologist, Walter Anderson, also provided us with some geological information. Walter even brought a specimen of the State of Maine Fossil for “show and tell”!

Photo by Bob Marvinney
We then walked up to the Loop Road Lookout where the telescopes were set up overlooking Katahdin and Millinocket Lake focused on The Garnet, Albireo the double eye of Cygnus, Saturn, galaxies, and on and on. The Milky Way was bright and the attention to detail was beyond words. Special thank you to the following generous astronomers who brought telescopes:
Bob MarvinneyLarry Berz from Maine School of Science and Maine and the Francis Malcolm Planetarium in EastonJames Stepp Dean of Students at UMPIJohn Meader astrophotographer and director of Northern Sky Planetarium who visits school with his domeEarl RaymondBill Rixon with binoculars and stories
Some slept on the overlook under the sky, tents, camper and some in cabins at Lunksoos. Breakfast was served and then a few of us boated down the Sebois/East Branch.