By Louise Jensen

“It’s a beautiful mornin’
I think I’ll go outside a while,
And just smile.
Just take in some clean fresh air, boy
Ain’t no sense in stayin’ inside
If the weather’s fine and you got the time.
It’s your chance to wake up and plan another brand new day.” – The Young Rascals

That pretty much summed up the start to our day: bluebird sky, no wind, late winter temps and nine happy snowshoers ready to go for what turned out to be a glorious day on the trail and at the Hut. We had the pleasure of having Savannah Steele, the Maine Huts & Trails trails manager, join us for the day. We met at the Long Falls Dam Road trailhead around 10am and soon headed out on the trail. For the most part, the trail was broken out, but due to the “lake effect” there was a lot of drifting which made navigating a little tricky. Fortunately, we had Savannah along who knows the trails like the backs of her hands and guided us in the right direction. As the lake was frozen and beautifully covered with whirls and coils of wind-blown snow, we snowshoed right on the lake where we were treated to magnificent views of the Bigelow Range, Picked Chicken Hill and Blanchard Mountain.

Although a relatively short hike of just over 2.2 miles, we still worked up an appetite and were famished by the time we arrived at the Hut. Savannah introduced us to the crew, and then chatted with us about the MH&T organization while lunch was being prepared. Food is available for purchase for day-hikers so we feasted on cheese platters, chicken soup, root vegetable bean soup and some incredible butter biscuits. After lunch, Pearl, one of the crew staff, gave us the “talk” that is routinely given to the overnight guests,
and it was very informative.

Lunchtime was leisurely as the Hut is cozy and warm, but we finally broke out of our food stupor and headed back out for the hike back. Clouds started to roll in, no doubt a harbinger of the approaching storm predicted for the next day, which gave our late afternoon vista an entirely different appearance. We took our time heading back while continuing to take in the beautiful mountain panorama. It was a beautiful day!

Louise is the Maine Appalachian Trail Land Trust’s board secretary.  In her day job, she’s the law librarian at Drummond Woodsum. She joined the Board after becoming a trip leader for MATLT. She lives in Portland with her husband and their greyhound Tulah.