Skagit Valley Herald / goskagit.com
E12 - Thursday, January 10, 2013
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REENVILLE, Maine — If you love the idea of cross-country skiing or snowshoeing through a snowy forest, stoking a wood stove at midnight, and eating great meals in good company around long wooden tables, then consider a winter adventure in northern Maine. The Appalachian Mountain Club (AMC) operates backcountry lodges in the Moosehead Lake region of Maine near Greenville. In winter, visitors reach the lodges by skiing in, and snowshoeing is popular on nearby trails. The trip is ideal for those who are moderately athletic, game to test their cross-country or snowshoeing skills, and not averse to extreme winter weather. If you’re sociable by nature, you’ll find your fill of community and conversation at the communal dinner tables. If you tend toward the solitary, that too is easily found in the private cabins and big wilderness of Maine. My traveling companion Donna Lawlor and I set off for the lodges from Portland, Maine’s biggest city, in the midst of a nor’easter. The 150-mile car trip took five hours due to the storm. We arrived in whiteout conditions at the AMC’s winter parking lot, where our luggage was picked up by friendly staff on snowmobiles. Guests can have one item per person transported to the lodges this way, so you only need to carry a map and a backpack of basic emergency gear on the trail. It was 22 degrees Fahrenheit with heavily falling snow as we headed to our first destination, Little Lyford Lodge and Cabins, by cross-country ski. The trail was snowed over as fast as workers could groom it. We struggled a bit in the strong winds and blowing snow but slogged on. The
If you go
Donna Lawlor cross-country skis on the Lodge to Lodge trail between camps at the Appalachian Mountain Club’s backcountry wilderness lodge near Greenville, Maine.
Photos by Lynn Dombek / AP
A SNOWY ADVENTURE IN A MAINE BACKCOUNTRY LODGE By LYNN DOMBEK / Associated Press
six-mile trek to the lodge took three hours. The Little Lyford camps were built in 1874 to house lumbermen who worked the forests around the West Branch of the Pleasant River. “The camps inherited their layout from the logging days — individual cabins cluster around a dining lodge that serves meals, with a pond or river nearby,” wrote Sarah Jane Shangraw in the 2005 issue of AMC’s Appalachia journal. And indeed, as we skied down a hill into camp, you
Appalachian Mountain Club Maine Wilderness Lodges: Located 20 miles east of Greenville, Maine, in the Moosehead Lake region; www. outdoors.org/maine lodges. Lodges are open late December to early March and mid-May to late October. Getting there: Nearest commercial airports: Bangor, Maine (70 miles from Greenville) or Portland, Maine (150 miles). Boston is 265 miles away. The drive from Greenville to the AMC winter parking lot is 11 miles on a plowed forest road followed by six to eight miles of groomed cross-country ski trails to access the cabins. Cabins are vehicle-accessible via unpaved roads in summer. Rates: Winter perperson lodging includes sit-down breakfast and dinner plus bag lunch starting at $101 daily for Little Lyford cabins, $66 for bunkhouse. Rates are higher for Gorman Chairback and vary by date. Gear rentals: Northwoods Outfitters in Greenville, www.maine outfitter.com.
could almost imagine the scene 100 years earlier, with the rough log buildings and smoke curling out of the chimneys — until we spied The interior of a two large solar panels on a rustic cabin at south-facing hill. the Appalachian The Lyford crew, led Mountain Club’s by manager Chuck James, Little Lyford Lodge was amiable and welcomand Cabins, a ing. After we were shown backcountry where the weather reports wilderness lodge are posted and the location near Greenville, of the showers, sauna and Maine. The cabin composting toilets, we were has no electricity, is taken to our little cabin heated by a wood stove and lit by gas on a hill. It was outfitted with bunks, a wood stove, a lamp. In winter, dresser and a gas lamp for visitors can reach light (no electricity). Perthe lodges and fect, I thought to myself, as cabins only by I brought in more wood to cross-country stoke the fire. skiing.