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Reports from Committees... Camps Report
Juliane and Mike are both strong hikers: For the second year in a row, Mike completed all NH 4,000 footers during the calendar winter (on his weeks off!). Juliane, who completed the Pacific Crest Trail in 2007, will hike a section of the Appalachian Trail in April and May after leaving Gray Knob. You can read Juliane’s online journal on the RMC website. This spring our caretaker will be Ariana Johnson. Ariana comes to us with strong outdoor skills from her experience as a teaching intern at Sterling College, as well as emergency medicine: her most recent job was as an Emergency Room Technician in Exeter Hospital and she is an AVSAR volunteer. Ariana will be manning Gray Knob for April and May. One of the benefits of the tough economy is that the RMC receives a larger pool of applicants, and more qualified candidates. It was tough picking the two summer caretakers! One of our two caretakers is Jamie Trombley, who is majoring in environmental studies at Colby Sawyer. Jamie is a Leave No Trace Master Educator, with outdoor leadership experience through the National Outdoor Leadership School. She is looking forward to learning the landscape, but also interacting with visitors and the community. Gray Knob will be staffed by Hunter Hague, an environmental studies and English major at St. Lawrence University. Hunter’s previous work experience includes managing his family’s sugarbush in Bradford, NH, and three years selling cordwood from his family’s woodlot. This spring and summer, we will be improving the RMC composting toilet system, as we adopt the “batch bin” system of composting. This system is used by the USFS, the AMC, and the GMC, and is an efficient system for composting human waste in the White Mountains. We will begin with Crag Camp and Gray Knob, and will upgrade the Perch in 2010. When the Log Cabin outhouse was rebuilt a few years ago, we changed that outhouse to a batch-bin system. This project has received the input and collaboration of Pete Antos-Ketcham, former Gray Knob winter caretaker and current GMC facilities manager, and who literally wrote the book on the batch composting system. Look for an article describing this project in the next newsletter, or come lend a hand on June 13-14 for a volunteer work weekend at the camps. So this summer, come on up and witness the newest in composting technology, stop in to meet the friendly caretaker, or spend an hour or so sitting on Crag’s porch in the warm sun!
The 2009 trails season is eventful and exciting for many reasons. After nearly 15 years, the trails baton passed from Doug Mayer to Cristin Bailey and Mike Micucci. Cristin comes to the RMC with many years of trails experience, having been the NE trails manager for AMC and now a trails manager for the USFS in the Saco District. Mike has been with the RMC since he was a caretaker at Gray Knob during the Cretaceous period and has been cycled on and off the board in many capacities, including Trails co-chair. Together, Cristin and Mike have pulled together a tremendously competent crew from a candidate pool that was as deep and talented as any in recent memory. The crew will be moving into Randolph and their home at the Stearns Lodge in early June and after three intense days of orientation, followed by a potluck supper at the Lodge, the crew will begin patrolling on June 8th. Returning from last season will be Benzo Harris, Fiona Jensen and Ben Lieberson. New to crew will be Caitlin Johnson (who comes over from AMC), Deva Steketee (from Rivendell Trails Association), Johanna Stansfield (just returned from South America teaching English) and part-time Randolphians Spencer Eusden and Liz Pfeffer. Without a doubt, the most difficult aspect of putting this year's crew together was turning away some exceptional candidates.
Also new for the coming season, Chris Fithian, a past TC member and Field Supervisor, will be taking our ever-expanding volunteer program to new heights. In the past, the RMC has relied heavily on volunteer work trips and in this coming year, the effort of our volunteers will be especially important as we try to fill the gap created by eliminating the fall trail crew who usually do the critically important job of drainage cleaning and put the finishing touches on summer projects. The entire Board is hopeful that the volunteer program can fill this role and keep our trails to the high standards we've come to expect. The first of the volunteer work trips will be on June 6th, as part of the National Trails Day celebration sponsored by the American Hiking Society. This trip is planned for the Inlook Trail (prepping for a big project later in the season), and at press time we expect that Trails chair emeritus, Doug Mayer will be leading. Please stay tuned for more information on work trips and if at all possible, sign on and join in or better yet, come on as a trip leader. Dates and locations will be set later, once we've had a chance to patrol and see just what needs doing, and announcements will be on the web site www.randolphmountainclub.org and in the Randolph Weekly. Of course, you can always just call Mike at 603-466-2824 or email him. With concern about the budget, it's nice to bring a bit of good financial news. As part of the federal stimulus program, the RMC has been awarded a $14,000 matching grant to do trail work on the Northern Presidentials. At this time we expect that the money, passed through the USFS, will be used on the Howker Ridge trail. This incredibly beautiful trail has been sadly neglected over the years, and is now greatly in need of drainage control work. This grant will certainly assist us in fielding a crew for that vital project. Thank you, President Obama! Also exciting is the new Mount Crescent Trailhead project [see article elsewhere in this Newsletter]. This badly needed addition to the Community Forest will protect access to the popular and enjoyable RMC trails in the Crescent Range and will improve parking and access to the Dernbach yurt, to be managed by the RMC for members and guests as a more accessible overnight location for families and others to enjoy the Randolph outdoors. Your contributions to the trailhead project are most welcome. In closing, the RMC, like so many groups and organizations sees challenges in the coming year. The trails co-chairs, the Board and the crew will be working extra hard to complete our jobs to the best of our abilities. That said, it would be very nice if, when paying dues this year, each member could toss in a little extra to support RMC activities that are important to them. Here's to seeing you all out enjoying the RMC trail system in the coming season! Back to Table of Contents - RMC Newsletter, Summer 2009
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As
I write this in early April, the sun is warm, the days are long,
and Lowe’s Path is turning into a sheer wall of water ice…..it
must be the end of another winter at the RMC Camps. We were fortunate
this winter to have two seasoned caretakers, Juliane Hudson and
Mike Foster. Both did a superb job at the always-fun winter chores
of digging out Crag Camp’s privy from snowdrifts, keeping
the water flowing in the spring (which they managed to do all
winter), and enjoying sunset walks along the Perch Path and full-moon
hikes through the winter alpine zone. They worked well together,
overlapping at times, notably during one of the major storms
this winter as they put in a team effort to shovel snow.
The
crew will be led by returning field supervisor Curtis Moore,
who has a depth of experience related to trail work, caretaking
and leading that will serve the RMC very well. Curtis and the
crew will focus on finishing up work started on Israel Ridge
in 2008 and move onto a major project on the ever-popular Inlook
trail. Remember to wave and say hi when hiking past our hard-working
crew members.