Request for Proposals for Training our Trail Crew in Trail Building for the Years 2024, 2025, 2026

Posted on July 13, 2023July 13, 2023 by admin

Maine Appalachian Trail Club (MATC) Request for Proposals for Training our Trail Crew in Trail Building for the Years 2024, 2025, 2026 Background – During the 2024, 2025, 2026 field seasons, the MATC’s Maine Trail Crew will work on remote sections of the Appalachian Trail. Projects will focus on rebuilding and restoring heavily impacted sections of the Appalachian Trail. The Trail Crew will utilize rigging equipment and hand tools to build stone steps, stone stairs, waterbars, and complete short relocations. Scope of Work – To provide five days of training each of the three years to the Maine Trail Crew […]

MATC Annual Meeting

Posted on March 10, 2023April 5, 2023 by admin

Please join us at the Annual Meeting, held in person for the first time since 2019. Saturday, April 22, 2023, 9 am – 4 pm Schair-Swenson-Watson Alumni Center, Colby College, Waterville, ME (Directions) Hear what’s going on in the club. Get ready for a successful season. Highlights include: Barry Dana Barry Dana is a teacher, artist, and former chief of the Penobscot Nation. He grew up on Indian Island in the Penobscot River, where he learned traditional skills and values from tribal elders. Barry creates traditional styles of birchbark baskets, many etched with artwork or quill decoration. Credited with reviving the […]

Advisory to Appalachian Trail Certified Sawyers on Battery-Electric Chainsaw Use

Posted on March 4, 2023March 4, 2023 by admin

While corded electric chainsaws have been available for years, over the last decade, chainsaw construction design has evolved to include battery‐powered cordless designs. As these quieter, lighter tools have become increasingly available, there is increasing likelihood that A.T. Certified Sawyers would prefer to apply these tools in lieu of gas‐powered chainsaws in the course of their work to maintain the A.T.

This advisory aims to provide reasonable considerations to the benefits, drawbacks, and other considerations of these respective design models of saws, that all require adherence to accepted safety practices.

Summer 2023 Trail Crew Projects

Posted on January 27, 2023January 27, 2023 by admin

The Maine Trail Crew is a joint venture between the Maine AT Club and the Appalachian Trail Conservancy that is dedicated to repairing steep and washed-out sections of the AT.Volunteers are welcome to join us for one to six weeks from June 19 – August 24, 2023.Projects run from Monday morning (you must arrive Sunday by 4pm) to Thursday or Friday. Check out the Summer Project List below. For more information about Volunteering with the Maine Trail Crew click here.

Maine Lobster Now Sponsors MATC

Posted on January 27, 2023January 27, 2023 by admin

MATC is happy to announce that Maine Lobster Now is now a sponsor! Maine Lobster Now’s mission is to provide customers throughout the United States with access to fresh seafood. Located in Southern Maine, they are dedicated to establishing lasting relationships with local fishermen in an effort to support the local economy and to continue offering the best products available.

MATC President Speaks with Senator Angus King About Outdoor Recreation

Posted on May 3, 2022May 6, 2022 by admin

MATC President Tom Gorrill speaks with Maine Senator Angus King on the Senator’s podcast – Inside Maine. Tom can be heard from minute 19-39. Listen to other podcasts from Inside Maine here: https://www.king.senate.gov/newsroom/inside-maine-podcast

2022 Kennebec River Ferry Schedule

Posted on April 22, 2022April 22, 2022 by Laura Flight

The official way to cross the Kennebec River is the canoe ferry.

Dave Field: “Loving the Trail”

Posted on March 26, 2022March 19, 2022 by Laura Flight

MATC’s Dave Field was a featured author in the Winter 2022 edition of ATC’s “Journeys” magazine. Dave is a life-long volunteer on the A.T. and has witnessed and instigated many change over the years. The trail you know and love today is in in large part Dave’s doing. Please thank Dave for his dedication to and love of the trail! Check out the article: https://appalachiantrail.org/official-blog/loving-the-trail/

Gordon Clarke – A Remembrance

Posted on February 11, 2022March 27, 2022 by admin

-Craig Dickstein When we joined in the efforts of MATC in late-2005, Donna and I were asked to help Gordon Clarke with the Carrying Place section in the Kennebec District. What a great introduction to Trail maintenance! Not only did Gordon have (and share) the requisite skills, but his passion for the work was infectious. The first trip out in the spring was the best as we got our annual spring wildflower lesson. His love of wildflowers was gained from the days that his wife Karen would join him on the Trail or on one of their many wilderness canoe […]

Group Registrations Coordinator

Posted on January 27, 2022January 27, 2022 by admin

Group Registrations Coordinator MATC’s CARE Committee (ridge runner program) is seeking a volunteer to serve as the Group Registration Coordinator. The job includes: receiving information from groups that register to use and camp along the AT; corresponding with groups to advise them on their itineraries and, if necessary, provide alternatives; communicate with ridge runners in the field to inform them of groups passing through or camping in their areas; collecting data to help improve Trail use; providing feedback to camp groups and the CARE Committee on group usage of AT resources. Recommended qualifications for the position are: familiarity with the […]