A nice piece on working as a caretaker on the Long Trail, reprinted with permission from Long Trail News, Summer 2014.
Category Archives: People
HutNews October 2015
(Alaska Huts Logo, used with permission)
INCREASES IN HUT USE REPORTED
Informal reports from the Appalachian Mountain Club Huts, 10th Mountain Division Huts, and San Juan Hut Systems indicate that demand for their services is strong and usage continues to increase. AMC and 10MD report occupancy rates are up approximately 4%-5% over last year. AMC huts are experiencing their third year in a row of record occupancy. they are on track to beat last years record of 43,000 visitors by up to 3,000 more visitors. AMC and SJH are thinking about how to meet the growing demand, and expansion plans are under consideration.
A “Classic of the Green Mountains”
Benton MacKaye’s 1900 Hike Inspires Appalachian Trail
by Larry Anderson
The Long Trail “is a project that will be logically extended,” forester and conservationist Benton MacKaye prophesied in his pathbreaking October 1921 article, “An Appalachian Trail: A Project in Regional Planning,” which appeared in the Journal of the American Institute of Architects. “What the Green Mountains are to Vermont the Appalachians are to the eastern United States. What is suggested, therefore, is a ‘long trail’ over the full length of the Appalachian skyline.” When MacKaye first publicly broached his idea for the Appalachian Trail, he thus offered the then-uncompleted Long Trail as a model for his vision of “a series of recreational communities throughout the Appalachian chain of mountains from New England to Georgia, these to be connected by a walking trail.”
Founders Profile: The San Juan Hut System — a father-daughter story
Joe and Kelly Ryan
A father-daughter story
by Sam Demas
Joe Ryan built his huts to provide people an affordable backcountry journey to enjoy nature, to learn outdoor skills, and to benefit with health and healing. A generation later his vision is a reality — beyond what he had imagined — and continues to evolve in partnership with his daughter Kelly Ryan.
Founder profile: Joe Dodge, hutmaster extraordinairre
Following are three informative tributes to Joe Dodge from the AMC Archives, Dartmouth College, and the Boston Globe (see editors note below). While Joe was not technically the founder, he was the dynamo that expanded, organized, and shaped the huts into a system, and who took the huts to a whole new levels of operational effectiveness and hospitality. For more on Joe, see William Lowell Putnam’s affectionate, informal biography Joe Dodge: “One New Hampshire Institution”
Founder Profile: Fritz Benedict 10th Mountain Division
Frederick “Fritz” Allen Benedict, 1914 – 1995, founded the 10th Mountain Division Hut in the early 1980’s. It has grown into the largest hut system in the USA. His vision, energy and experience were key ingredients in this remarkable story. It is in part a tale of a young man’s formative dreams coming after a lifetime of preparation.
[Louis Dawson has lived and studied the history of 10th Mountain Division and their website includes a history of the hut system and a separate history of the U.S. Army 10th Mountain Division (about which many books have been written). The following notes are intended to supplement Mr. Dawson’s history.]
Book review: “Bold Spirit: Helga Estby’s Forgotten Walk Across Victorian America”
In an attempt to prevent foreclosure on the family farm, Helga Estby and her daughter Clara, ages 36 and 18, walked from Spokane, WA to New York City in 1896. They walked over 3,500 miles in 7 months and 18 days. Taking into account stops “aggregating about two months” to work and to recover from injuries and illness, they may have averaged about 20 miles a day, though they often walked considerably faster. Their satchels weighed about 8 pounds and did not include a tent or blankets, but did include lanterns for night walking. By today’s standards, their thin leather ladies shoes and foul weather clothing were shockingly inadequate.
Founder Profile: Larry Warren — Maine Huts and Trails
FROM HERE ON, YOUR LIFE WILL NEVER BE THE SAME: LARRY WARREN’S BIG IDEAS
Profile by Sarah Braunstein Photographs by Matt Cosby
Larry Warren arrived in Maine expecting a weekend away; he ended up shaping the region in innumerable ways.
I HAVE HEARD FROM VARIOUS PEOPLE THAT LARRY WARREN IS A VISIONARY.
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