Friday, June 1 – Sunday, June 3, 2018
Hulbert Outdoor Center, Fairlee, VT
The 108th Green Mountain Club Annual Meeting, hosted by the Upper Valley–Ottauquechee Section, will take place at the beautiful Hulbert Outdoor Center on Lake Morey in Fairlee. We have exclusive use of the camp, so there will be plenty of space! You may reserve cabin or tent space for Friday or Saturday night or both.
Load the car with your boots, pack, tent, bike, kayak, camp chair, and favorite campfire clothes (but please not your dog, who is not allowed), and enjoy a fun-filled summer weekend with friends. It will be a wonderful opportunity for GMC members to share stories and club news, and to celebrate our year’s accomplishments.
Registration will begin at 4:30 p.m. on Friday. If you are not attending the board training, please do not arrive before then. Lifeguards will not be on duty, so swimming and boat access from the camp will not be permitted, but there is public access nearby.
Schedule of Events
Friday, June 1
10:00 a.m. Trail work at a location near Hulbert Outdoor Center TBD (check back here for details). Meet at Hulbert Outdoor Center at 10am to carpool to trailhead. Bring lunch, liquids, work gloves, and bug repellent, and dress for the weather; tools will be provided, or bring your own favorites. Contact [email protected] by May 30 to sign up.
3:30 p.m – 5:30 p.m. Board of Directors development training in Danny’s Room (Main House).
4:30 p.m. Registration begins.
6:00 – 8:30 p.m. Registration and welcoming reception with pizza, salad, and refreshments in the Dining Hall (Main House), followed by storytelling. Bring your favorite adventure stories to share.
Saturday, June 2
6:15 – 7:30 a.m. Birding walk. Meet in front of the Main House.
7:00 – 8:00 a.m. Trail run. Join Education and Volunteer Coordinator Rob Rives for a 3-5 mile run. Meet in front of the Main House.
8:00 – 9:00 a.m. Registration and complimentary breakfast in the Dining Hall (Main House). Sign up for afternoon activities.
9:00 – 11:45 a.m. Annual Meeting in the Dining Hall (Main House).
9:00 a.m. – 6:00 p.m. Kids’ activities in The Cave (Main House). Arts and crafts and games will be provided all day for children. There are also outdoor play spaces. Supervision is not provided.
11:45 a.m. – 1:00 p.m. Bag lunch buffet in the Dining Hall (Main House). By reservation only.
11:45 a.m. Silent auction to benefit GMC begins.
12:00 p.m – 1:00 p.m. Board of Directors meeting in Danny’s Room (Main House).
1:00 p.m. Afternoon outings begin (some longer hikes may start earlier – check the schedule). Look for your outing leader in the parking lot.
4:30 p.m. – 5:30 p.m. Yoga in the Arts Building. Some mats provided. Please bring your own if possible.
6:00 p.m. Dinner in the Dining Hall (Main House). By reservation only.
6:45 p.m. Silent auction ends.
7:00 – 8:30 p.m. Speaker, photographer, and adventurer Stephen Gorman: “Expedition to Ultima Thule.” In the Dining Hall (Main House).
9:00 – 10:00 p.m. Bonfire and social hour. Play guitar, banjo, mandolin…the spoons? You never know when an impromptu jam session will start. At the Amphitheater.
Sunday, June 3
8:00 – 9:00 a.m. Breakfast in the Dining Hall (Main House). By reservation only.
8:30 – 11:00 a.m. Trail Maintenance workshop. We’ll cover topics such as pruning and clipping, blazing, and erosion control. No prior experience is necessary. Tools provided. This is valuable for new trail adopters and will take place on the Appalachian Trail. Meet in the Hulbert parking lot.
9:30 a.m. – 11:30 a.m. Section Communications workshop. Learn from other sections their best practices for communicating with members via newsletters, social media, and other online options. In Danny’s Room (Main House).
Outings Overview
Sign up for an outing near the registration tables. All hikes leave at 1:00 p.m. unless otherwise noted. Look for your outing leader in the parking lot. Distances noted are roundtrip.
- Sawyer Mountain. Hike. 3.2 miles. Moderate. 500′ elevation gain. Trail from nearby Avery Road to summit (992’) and back. Trail near and under I-89 is noisy; rough; rock scramble; great view over Connecticut River from cliff.
- Echo Mountain. Hike. 2.2 miles. Moderate. 800′ elevation gain. Trail from Lake Morey boat launch back to Hulbert, over Eagle’s Bluff. Moderate climb to first viewpoint, steep to next one; moderate on way down. Car shuttle. Family friendly.
- Wright’s Mountain. Hike. 1.6 miles. Easy. 400′ elevation gain. Trail from Wright’s Mtn. Rd. in Bradford to lookout (1800’) and back.
- Bill Hill. Hike. 3.0 miles. Easy. 300′ elevation gain. Loop from Tucker Hill Rd. in Thetford to a Valley Quest box on land formerly owned by Noel Perrin, (author of “First Person Rural”), down along Ompompanoosuc River and waterfall.
- Houghton Hill. Hike. 5.2 miles. Easy to moderate. 600′ elevation gain. Mimi’s Trail in Thetford from VT-113 to summit (1481’) and back. Views to Smarts Mtn, Mt. Cube and Moosilauke in NH; Ascutney and Killington in VT. (Designed as x-c ski trail!)
- Flagpole Hill. Hike. 2.4 miles. Easy. 200′ elevation gain. Cross-Rivendell Trail from Taylor Valley Rd. in Vershire to viewpoint and back.
- Bald Top. Hike. 3.8 miles. Moderate. 1000′ elevation gain. Cross-Rivendell Trail from Blood Brook Road to summit (1776′) and back. Views to Smarts Mtn, Mt. Cube, Moosilauke; Franconia Ridge if clear.
- Holt’s Ledge and Trapper John Shelter. Hike. Appalachian Trail. 3.4 miles. Moderate. 1100′ elevation gain. Views to NE. Some steep sections. Leaves at 12:00.
- Moose Mountain, South Peak. Hike. Appalachian Trail. ~4.0 miles. Moderate. 900′ elevation gain. Loop up on A.T. to summit (2290′), down on Nat Thompson Trail past Dartmouth Class of ’66 Lodge (former Harris Cabin). Leaves at 12:00.
- Mount Cube. Hike. 4.0 miles. Strenuous. 1500′ elevation gain. Cross-Rivendell Trail from Baker Rd. (part follows former route of A.T.) to summit (2909′) and back. Steep rock scramble to summit. 200º views. Leaves at 12:00.
- Black Mountain. Hike. 3.6 miles. Strenuous. 1550′ elevation gain. Chippewa Tr. Steep, w/ many incredible views, esp. summit view (2830′) toward Moosilauke. Leaves at 12:00.
- Appalachian Trail Corridor. Hike. 3 miles. Moderate. Bushwhack along AT corridor, learn about stewardship of the trail corridor.
- Cycle from Fairlee to Lyme. Road bike. 25 mile loop. Easy to moderate. Lake Morey, Orford, River Rd south, covered bridge, Lyme, NH-10 N. (Can be shortened to 20 mi. by cutting over sooner to NH-10 N). Bring bike. Helmet required.
- Connecticut River. Paddle. From Orford, NH. Flatwater. Distance depends on wind, current, participants. Bring canoe or kayak. PFD required. Easy.
If you’d like to explore on your own, here are a few options:
- Glenn Falls. Hike. .4-.6 mile. Easy to 1st falls; moderate to strenuous to 2nd falls. 50-75′ elevation gain. Park at old gravel pit opposite VT Fish & Wildlife Lake Morey boat launch. Walk a short distance away from Hulbert on the same side of the road to find the trail (unmarked.) Lower falls in 0.2 mi.; upper falls 0.1 mi. further.
- Cycle Lake Morey. Road bike. ~6 miles. Easy. Around Lake Morey right from Hulbert. Bring bike. Helmet required.
- Paddle Lake Morey. Paddle. From Vermont Fish & Wildlife Fishing Access on west side of lake. Bring canoe or kayak. PFD required.
Lodging
On-site cabins, Tenting, and RV space
Cabins have four bedrooms and two bathrooms each. Each bedroom has two sets of bunk beds; linens are not provided. Groups smaller than four may share a room with others.
Tenting is also available. You can pitch your own tent in a large open field on the property (vehicles can drop off gear but must return to the parking lot). Or, for the same price you can utilize one of the platform tents which each have four beds (linens not included). RVs can park in the parking lot, but no hookups are available.
Saturday Night Speaker
Expedition to Ultima Thule
Last winter, photographer and author Stephen Gorman made a three-week dogsled expedition over sea ice with the Inughuit, or Polar Eskimos—the northernmost people in the world and one of the last true hunter-gatherer communities in Greenland.
For centuries the Inughuit have lived in northwest Greenland, and even by Arctic standards their settlements are remote and their culture unique. Until “discovered” by Sir John Ross in 1818, they believed they were the only people on earth. Inughuit provided Robert Peary with the dogs, sleds, and expertise to reach the North Pole in 1909.
The Inughuit still hunt seals, walrus, narwhal and polar bears on sea ice for subsistence. In summer they hunt narwhal using kayaks and hand-thrown harpoons. Numbering no more than 1,000, they use only ice-age technology to preserve their culture.
Globalization and climate change threaten their way of life, language, and traditions, which may disappear. If they do disappear, a rich body of knowledge will be lost.
Stephen Gorman
Stephen Gorman has photographed and written five large-format books and dozens of articles for national magazines focused on understanding the connections between nature and humanity: how we depend on the ecosystems around us to sustain our material and spiritual lives, how we adapt to and modify the landscapes in which we live and work, and how our ideas of nature shape our relationships with the world.
From an early age Stephen longed to explore and understand his native land and people, and he offers a unique perspective on the conservation issues of our time. He holds a Master’s Degree in Environmental Studies from Yale University, where he studied biophilia—nature’s role in human health, productivity, and wellbeing, and helped found the program in environmental communications.
Steve lives in Vermont with his wife, Mary, and their dog, Josie. He is an avid downhill, backcountry, and cross-country skier, a long distance trail runner, a road cyclist, a whitewater kayaker and expedition canoeist, and a competitive ice hockey player. Find him online at stephengorman.com.
