The #WEOUTSIDE program wrapped up another successful season with a visit to Mahoosuc Guide Service. Proprietors Kevin and Polly have been great friends of #WEOUTSIDE right from the start, and they are one of the most renowned and respected guiding outfits in Maine. They lead wilderness canoe trips in Maine (and Canada), lead workshops, host trainings, and, most importantly for teenagers – run sled dogs!

These kids had a great day with Polly and Kevin and Helen, learning about making wooden canoes, enjoying a meal by the fire, taking in the scenery of the A.T. and Mahoosuc Range, and meeting the dogs. Many of the dogs Mahoosuc Guide Service has retire but they stick around so there are many furry friends to meet and enjoy. Guiding is a great profession and one day these kids might have dogs of their own!

The Winter #WEOUTSIDE program hosted a graduation lunch for the participants and their families recently, in order to celebrate their accomplishment in completing the program. The program was started in 2023 by the Maine Association for New Americans, with assistance from the Maine Appalachian Trail Land Trust, and has continued across four cohorts of kids through all seasons. (MANA has also started several adjacent programs for moms, elders, and academic achievers.)

It is important to celebrate the accomplishments of the kids in the program – sometimes it can be hard to step outside our own experiences and not just think “well, they were outside having fun”. These kids have braved trying circumstances to arrive in Maine, have lived in unstable housing situations (at best), are learning a new language and culture, and then we took them out in the cold and snow to learn about the outdoors in Maine. They could have stayed home but made a choice to head out with the #WEOUTSIDE program to learn so many new things – from what to wear in the cold and snow to how to be safe in remote areas of Maine. They had tons of fun along the way but have learned skills that can get them ready for their lives and futures in Maine.

The Maine Appalachian Trail Land Trust is proud to participate in this great program with MANA!

The winter #WEOUTSIDE crew had an amazing overnight trip up to the Bryant Pond 4H camp for a whole bunch of winter activities as we finished up the season. Special thanks to Reid, Mary, Chelsea, and everybody at the camp for hosting the group and teaching everybody so much!

First, we headed out onto the ice in the warm spring sunshine for some ice fishing with the Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife. Chelsea from IF&W is an amazing teacher and showed the kids how to check the ice depth (19 inches), how to drill the holes with an auger, and how to set up traps and get the depth right. She’s also great at conjuring up fish no matter what the conditions might dictate – they started getting little Yellow Perch all over the lake! And then Will took the crown by reeling in a 12-inch splake – enough to save to cook up and eat later.

The 4H camp also has a climbing wall, which is a great activity when mud season arrives. After an excellent lunch, all the kids hit the wall with gusto, with most of them making it to the top on at least one of the four separate courses. Will took the crown again by ascending all of them. Even MANA program staff Marie got up to the top!

There was an evening hike, some quiet time for hanging out and Uno, then a trip out on the ice under clear, moonlit skies. It’s great that these kids get to experience the Maine outdoors and get ready for their futures here in Maine by enjoying all that nature has to offer here.

The #WEOUTSIDE Winter 2025 program rolls on – this time with a trip to Mt. Abram for some downhill skiing. Mt. Abram has been a great partner for the program and others like #GOALS – the mountain is friendly, easy to learn on, and attracts people from all over the place. All of the kids we’ve brought to the mountain have had a great time and all of them have gone from not ever being on skis to heading up the chairlift and down some real runs. A couple kids even hit up a blue square trail!

We have beautiful weather, not too cold, fresh snow and no crowds. Everybody geared up and hit the magic carpet run to get their ski-legs under them. As usual, it was hard to keep some eager kids from heading right over to the chairlift for some shredding action. Still, a couple of them were heading up even before lunch. After destroying three pizzas, six orders of fries, and six orders of chicken tenders, the whole group was out on the slopes again. The fun didn’t end until the lift was shut down at 4pm.

Check back for more on our adventures in Maine’s A.T. landscape this winter!

#WEOUTSIDE is back! After another great summer, we’re all set for another great winter. Our first outing in January was to Inland Woods + Trails winter trail network at the Bethel Inn.  IWT has been a wonderful partner for the #WEOUTSIDE program – you may recall the summer trip to mountain bike on these same trails. This time, we were able to use IWT’s ample supply of nordic skis to get out on the trails system and give it a go on the skinnies. As you can see, kids were falling down. BUT you can also see that everybody got the hang of it and was out for the whole first half of the day, practicing and racing around.

After a break in the warming hut for some delicious pizza from the Rusty Lantern gas station down the road ? , we had a fork in the road – more ski or fat tire biking? How about both? A group of the boys commandeered whatever rental bikes were in the shop and headed out. With trails extending into the woods, we knew they would get lost but that was ok since there was a competent volunteer with them. Others continued skiiing, including a few who stayed out even when it started snowing.

Before getting back into the van, there was a massive snowball fight to celebrate the day. It was a great one!

January has arrived and with it, the Maine Appalachian Trail Land Trust’s Community Hikes program has begun. The program has run for over ten years now, taking hundreds and hundreds of participants out in the Maine mountain landscape. If you haven’t come along and want to join, check out the trips posted at the link above. And if you have already, we look forward to seeing you again!

This trip was kind of a warm up hike for the winter session. Maine’s winters have been challenging for the hikes program – they need enough snow for snowshoes and less of icy conditions – but this year has been cold. For the hike up to Table Rock, we needed traction aids but not snowshoes. We had five participants who heading up in temperatures around 0F which is fairly typical for our trips. There was bright sunshine and as we ascended up the flank of West Baldpate Mountain, we warmed with rising sun. The Table Rock Trail is an official A.T. side trail and is popular at all times of the year, but we only saw two other smaller groups on the trail today. We reached the end at lunchtime and were greeted with the massive flank of Old Speck Mountain, the highest peak in the Mahoosuc Range, just across Grafton Notch.

The wind began to pick up and the day was proving to be colder than forecast, especially with little sunlight in the valleys. The group quickly finished lunch and descended. A great 4 hour day, with more hikes ahead for the season.

Tom Lewis, the Maine Appalachian Trail Land Trust’s first board president when the organization was founded in 2002, recently passed away in Oregon. Tom was a native Mainer and longtime resident of Yarmouth, where he worked to develop low income and senior housing projects until 2019.

Tom was instrumental in the Maine Appalachian Trail Land Trust’s early successes, including the protection of Saddleback Mountain and Mount Abraham in 2004. He was the organization’s first board president and served in many roles before finishing up his term as treasurer in 2015. There is a direct line from his dedication to the organization in these early years to the thriving land trust that exists today. He was also on the Appalachian Trail Conservancy’s Board of Managers and was a longtime volunteer for the Maine Appalachian Trail Club, for which he served in many roles.

Beyond dedication to Maine’s A.T., Tom was just a really nice guy who had a wry sense of humor and was always willing to do what it takes to get the work done. He will be sorely missed.

(Full obituary here: https://www.wiscassetnewspaper.com/article/thomas-d-lewis/252658)