Speaker Series

27th Annual James P. Taylor Outdoor Adventure Series

For more than a hundred years the Long Trail has inspired Vermonters to seek adventure in the Green Mountains and beyond. The James P. Taylor Outdoor Adventure Series, named after the man who first envisioned the Long Trail, brings such adventures to you through stories, photographs, and videos. Join us for inspiring presentations that will transport you to mountains and waterways near and far as we celebrate twenty-seven years of the Taylor Series—a great way to spend an evening!

Admission is $5 for members and $8 for nonmembers; kids under 12 are free. Tickets are available at the door only. Proceeds support local sections and the GMC Education Program.

Upcoming Taylor Series Events

Vermont’s Original Rail to Trail: The Long Trail and Logging Railroads

Preston Bristow
Friday, April 26, 6:30 p.m.
Montshire Museum, Norwich
Hosted by the Upper Valley Ottauquechee Section

Vermont’s logging railroads lacked the scale of New York’s Adirondack Mountains, where no fewer than 22 logging railroads reached deep into old growth forests. Vermont also lacked villainous timber barons like New Hampshire’s J.E. Henry, the notorious White Mountain railway “wood butcher” famously quoted as saying, “I never see the tree yit that didn’t mean a damned sight more to me goin’ under the saw than it did standin’ on a mountain.” Yet logging railroads did penetrate the Green Mountains, and three are intertwined in the history of the Long Trail.

Previous Shows

Searching for White Blazes: Hiking the Long Trail in Winter

Mary Lou Recor
Thursday, March 21, 7 p.m.
GMC Visitor Center, Waterbury Center

The Long Trail Guide rightly states that the Long Trail is “not designed for winter use”: white blazes, dense woods, deep snow, remote trail, short days. Mary Lou will recount her trail-breaking, route-losing adventures over fourteen years of winter day hikes to reach that magic 270 miles.

The Mountains of Home: A 500-mile Vermont Adventure

Pavel Cenkl
Thursday, March 14, 7 p.m.
GMC Visitor Center, Waterbury Center

Over 7 days in June 2018, Pavel combined a day-long, 213-mile bike ride south through Vermont with a run north along the Long Trail from North Adams to the Winooski River. He had planned 10 days to complete the entire 500-mile adventure – with running companions joining him every step of the way on the LT – but an injury cut short the run about 80 miles from Journey’s End. This is the story of this Vermont Climate Run, and how the running community came together for an impromptu relay across the northern sections of the LT to help complete the run and to show how important community is to building resilience. Pavel Cenkl is Associate Dean, Faculty, and Athletic Director at Sterling College in Craftsbury. He has spent the past 5 years working on the Climate Run project – completing endurance adventure runs in arctic and subarctic Scandinavia (and now Vermont!) to help foster dialogue about individual, community, and ecological resilience.

History of Lost Ski Areas in Waterbury/Stowe Area

Brian Lindner
Thursday, March 7, 7 p.m.
GMC Visitor Center, Waterbury Center

When you visit Stowe Mountain Resort today you are seeing the result of nearly 90 years of evolution and migration of skiing at Stowe. The early skiers would not recognize where we ski and ride today. Today’s skiers are surprised to learn that the sport started miles from today’s location. This program will trace how skiing moved up to Mount Mansfield in a process that traces back to the earlier part of the last century.

Hidcote Manor and Gardens of the Cotswolds

Charlotte Albers
Friday, March 8th, 7:30 p.m.
Richmond Free Library, Richmond
Hosted by the Burlington Section

Charlotte Albers is a landscape designer and consultant who speaks widely about plants and garden design. Join us for her slide show and talk about Hidcote Manor, a masterpiece of Arts and Crafts gardening in rural Gloucestershire, in the British Cotswolds. Characterized by hedged rooms, stunning vistas, and lavish plantings, Hidcote was developed by Major Lawrence Johnston, an American of legendary vision, plantsmanship, and generosity. An avid plant-hunter, Lawrence Johnston searched the world for unusual and exotic plants to fill his garden. By the time he gave it to the National Trust in 1948, Hidcote had become one of England’s most important and popular gardens and remains so today. Come hear the story of this fascinating estate and see other notable gardens around the Cotswolds region from Charlotte’s recent visit in May 2018.

Black Bear Behavior

Ben Kilham
Thursday, February 28, 7 p.m. (snow date: April 4)
GMC Visitor Center, Waterbury Center

Ben Kilham, a wildlife biologist from Lyme, New Hampshire, has studied the habits of black bears and has rehabilitated orphan cubs for more than 20 years. The subject of news articles and documentaries, including National Geographic’s A Man Among Bears and Animal Planet’s Papa Bear, Ben has also co-authored the book Among the Bears: Raising Orphaned Cubs in the Wild.

From Gletscher to Gipfelkreuze: Exploring the Natural and Cultural Landscapes of the Alps

Jeff & Diane Munroe
Thursday, February 21, 7 p.m.
Champlain Valley Unitarian Universalist Society, Middlebury
Hosted by the Bread Loaf Section

Jeff and Diane Munroe of Middlebury are avid hikers and travelers. Jeff is a professor of geology at Middlebury College, and Diane coordinates community research projects for the college’s environmental studies program. Last year they spent Jeff’s sabbatical abroad, largely in Austria, where Jeff was a Fulbright Visiting Professor at the University of Innsbruck in the spring. In the fall and summer, they ranged the Alps from France to Slovenia, hiking and enjoying local culture. Jeff will share the beauty and diversity of the Alpine landscape, as well as the unease occasioned by the retreat of every glacier they saw.

Northern Forest Canoe Trail: the “Wrong” Way

Peter Macfarlane
Thursday, February 21, 7 p.m.
GMC Visitor Center, Waterbury Center

In the spring of 2013 Addison resident Peter Macfarlane paddled the 750-mile Northern Forest Canoe Trail from the Adirondacks to northern Maine in 28 days in a cedar-strip canoe he designed and built. Five years later he took on a bigger challenge by paddling from Maine to the Adirondacks, bucking persistent headwinds and nine major upstream rivers, riding only four rivers downstream. On June 10, 2018, he paddled into Old Forge, the first recorded passage of the trail from east to west. With photos and video, he will take you through his planning, and then on the roller coaster ride of joyful paddling, loss, exhaustion, despair, and some sublime moments.

This event has been rescheduled from February 7th

An American Ascent (Film Screening)

Tuesday, February 19, 7:30 p.m.
Outdoor Gear Exchange, Burlington

An American Ascent documents the first African-American expedition to tackle 20,310-foot Denali, North America’s highest peak. In a few decades, the United States will be a majority-minority nation as people of color outnumber today’s white majority. Yet many of this future majority do not consider the outdoors a place for them. By ascending Denali, nine climbers challenged this adventure gap and began a history of inclusion among outdoor adventurers. The film addresses overlooked issues of race and the outdoors as it chronicles the challenges of weather, logistics, terrain, and altitude. Screened in partnership with Outdoor Gear Exchange.

10 Years of Adventures in the Southwest Colorado Mountains

Rich Larsen
Thursday, February 14, 7 p.m.
GMC Visitor Center, Waterbury Center

Many of the mountains around Silverton, Colorado, are made of layers of cliff-forming volcanic ash above 13,000 feet. Richard Larsen was introduced to some of these peaks while finishing the One Hundred Highest peaks in Colorado in 2010-2012, and has gone back in recent years to tackle some others of these ‘interesting’ peaks above 13,500′. He will present pictures and narrative about the adventures he and his hiking/climbing partners have had in this area over the last 10 years.

Vermont’s Original Rail to Trail: The Long Trail and Logging Railroads

Preston Bristow
Saturday, February 9, 7 p.m.
Manchester Community Library, Manchester
Hosted by the Manchester Section

Vermont’s Wildlife in a Changing Climate

Tom Rogers, Vermont Fish & Wildlife Department
Saturday, February 9, 7 PM
Enosburg Emergency Services Building, Enosburg Falls
Hosted by the Northern Frontier Section and the Enosburg Conservation Commission

Through colorful photos and captivating stories, the audience will come away with a new understanding of how climate change is affecting wildlife. Rogers will talk about what people can do to help conserve biodiversity in Vermont in the face of these new threats. “From warmer, wetter winters to increasingly severe storms, wildlife faces a variety of challenges from a changing climate,” said Rogers. “We’ll discuss how different species might continue to respond to many of these challenges and what conservationists are doing to address them.”

Hiking Nepal’s Everest Region to Ama Dablam Base Camp

Kristen Bernarsky
Thursday, January 31, 7 p.m.
GMC Visitor Center, Waterbury Center

Trekking the Everest region is the dream of many hikers. Join Kristen Bernarsky, Asia manager at Boundless Journeys in Stowe, to see what this spectacular area offers. From Kathmandu, Kristen flew to the famous Lukla airstrip to start her lodge-to-lodge adventure. She will describe terraced Sherpa villages, trail conditions and food, and tell why her trek culminated at Ama Dablam, the third most climbed Himalayan peak.

Hiking Iceland’s Laugavegur and Fimmvorduhals Trails

Greg Maino
Thursday, January 24, 7 p.m.
GMC Visitor Center, Waterbury Center

Iceland is a hiker’s paradise, and there’s no better way to experience the diversity of terrain than hiking the Laugavegur and Fimmvorduhals trails. Join Greg Maino as he shares his experience and photos, and answers questions about his trip.

Tour du Mont Blanc

Phyl Newbeck and Bryan Harrington
Thursday, January 17, 7 p.m.
GMC Visitor Center, Waterbury Center

Last June Phyl Newbeck and Bryan Harrington completed the Tour du Mont Blanc. The eight-day hike featured incredible views of the Alps and covered about 85 miles in France, Switzerland, and Italy. Come hear their tales of trekking on what has been called the best hike in Europe.

The Northville-Placid Trail: The Oldest Long Distance Hiking Trail You’ve Never Heard Of

Julie Wolfe and Kristin McLane
Thursday, January 10, 7 p.m.
GMC Visitor Center, Waterbury Center

Want to spend time in the wilderness, but only have a couple of weeks? Head for the Adirondacks and the 138-mile Northville-Placid Trail, which plunges deeply into the quietest reaches of Adirondack Park. This historic but lightly used trail bypasses the park’s high summits, trading big views for the solitude of pristine lakes and remote forests. Join Julie and Kristin as they recount their 2018 experiences thru-hiking the trail.

Flying Northbound to the Triple Crown

Nika Meyers (Early Bird)
Thursday, December 20, 7 p.m.
GMC Visitor Center, Waterbury Center

Nika “Early Bird” Meyers completed the Triple Crown of hiking (Pacific Crest Trail, Continental Divide Trail, Appalachian Trail) last summer by dancing up the AT in 78 days and 16 hours. Through photos, videos and art she will share stories of exceptional beauty, emotion, silliness, magic, coincidence, and physical challenge. After 8,000-plus miles of walking, she is glad to return to the GMC, where her love for long trails started.

The Taylor Series is sponsored by GMC’s fourteen sections, local businesses, and other friends of the club.

$1,000+ Corporate Sponsors