Club celebrates 100 years of Long Trail

The Green Mountain Club held a celebration last week to honor 100 years of its existence and 100 years of the Long Trail, the country's first long-distance hiking trail.

Someone on Vermont Sen. Patrick Leahy's press staff earned the honor for best line in a press release when they sent a notice that began: "What birthday present do you give to a trail that has everything - drop-dead scenery, border-to-border expanse, and a rich 100-year history?"

While the trail is rightly the focus of the celebration, the Green Mountain Club is celebrating itself as well. It's the GMC, after all, that shepherded the trail into existence and has built and maintained the path, its shelters, signage, bridges and other features for the last century.

But the nation's first long-distance hiking trail deserves more than a single day to be feted so there will be events scattered throughout the summer honoring the path through the wilderness.

On May 7, a fundraiser will be held at the Trapp Family Lodge. A reflection on 100 years of memories and accomplishments will be held May 22 at the GMC headquarters in Waterbury Center. The Killington Section will celebrate 100 years of the GMC at a fundraiser June 5. A barn dance is slated in southern Vermont June 16 to kick off four-plus weeks of guided day hikes on the Long Trail that begin the next day. More about these events can be found online at www.greenmountainclub.org.

In addition, more than 900 Long Trail photos have been made available online from the Special Collection archive at the University of Vermont Library. The archive can be viewed by logging on to cdi.uvm.edu. A link is also available from the GMC Web site.

Read all about the celebration on OutdoorsVT.

Contact Darren by e-mail at darren@darrenmarcyoutdoors.com or through his Web site at www.DarrenMarcyOutdoors.com.

Kids and the Outdoors

Read my most recent column about how a chance encounter with a memorial stone led me to thinking about kids and the outdoors.

The memorial -- for local angler who grew up fishing a pond and went on to be a successful bass tournament fisherman -- made me think a lot more about how introducing a kid to the outdoors at a young age can pay dividends down the road.

The column is particularly timely because the National Wildlife Federation is holding its National Wildlife Week beginning Monday to help parents get their kids outdoors.

Read the column at OutdoorsVT.