Needless to say, the phone has been ringing off the hook in reservations and our website had its biggest spike ever. The same article has also appeared in the Pittsburgh Post Gazette and the Seattle Times. These are very exciting times for MH&T as we have gone national almost overnight! In the event that you missed reading it, you can click on this link to read the on-line version.

All of us at MH&T are looking forward to participating in the first-ever Great Maine Outdoor Weekend (www.greatmaineoutdoorweekend.org) on March 2-4. We’re among several dozen organizations and businesses across the state hosting more than 60 activities that weekend designed to celebrate being active outside in Maine

“There’s something for everyone in the outdoor offerings that weekend,” observes MH&T Director of Marketing, Conrad Klefos.  “People can choose from a spectrum of introductory activities—most of them free of charge—ranging from cross-country skiing and snowshoeing excursions to more unusual events like a sled dog demo, digging for winter steamers, and night ‘owling.’”

MH&T is offering two events. The first being a free guided snowshoe walk to be held on Saturday March 3^rd. Participants should meet at the Gauge Road Trailhead at 10:00 AM. The group will be guided into Poplar Stream Falls Hut for lunch. The second event will be a guided XC ski trip into Flagstaff Hut on Sunday March 4^th.  Skiers should meet at the Long Falls Dam Road Trailhead at 10:00 AM Sunday morning. Skiers and hikers for both events will  have an option to purchase lunch at the hut or to pack in their own trail lunch.

Check out the full listing of events, complete with a locator map, and don’t forget to explore the Facebook page as well!

This new Maine tradition, which will happen twice each year (with the next weekend planned for September 28-30, 2012), is organized by the Maine Outdoor Coalition, which MH&T belongs to. This newly formed alliance of organizations and companies is working collaboratively to connect Mainers with the natural world.

We look forward to seeing you out in the woods and on the trails March 2-4!

The 20 K start at the 4th annual MH&T Ski Marathon

Here is a brief account of last Sunday’s MH&T Ski Marathon written by 20K racer Ira Weissman:

It was a crystal clear and chilly day for the 4^th Maine Huts and Trails Marathon. So chilly, in fact, that the 60k was cancelled and those hearty skiers ended up kicking and gliding the 40k instead. We were among the less ambitious crew that chose to ski the mere 20k. Given the crazy winter of little snow and up and down temperatures, it was great to see so many people show up in Carrabassett Valley. Dave Herring, Maine Huts and Trails Executive Director, described the field of skiers as “those who live nearby and had a chance to train; those who don’t live nearby and who drove here to train; and those who don’t live nearby and who are choosing to ski without training!”

The melting and freezing had made the snow fast but abrasive. In the first six or seven kilometers we wore off our entire coating of klister! A quick re-wax with VR30 and we were back in business. Despite the hard snow, the trails were very well tracked and, for the most part, the skiing was wonderful. Parts of the Narrow Gauge had been washed out in last fall’s hurricane, so a bypass was cleared and groomed. This was probably the most challenging part of the course. But the challenge of the bypass vanished after returning to the Narrow Gauge and getting into a fast rhythm back to the Outdoor Center.

Back at the Outdoor Center after the races everyone had a chance to cool down and chow down on the delicious homemade stew, wraps, and dessert bars. Plenty of neat prizes were awarded to both the top performers and the winners in all age brackets. New this year was a raffle – one skier won a season’s pass for next year worth almost $400! And…coming attractions will include special events next year to celebrate the 5^thyear of the marathon.

The last leg of the race at the Sugarloaf Outdoor Center

So, was it worth all the hard work and super cold weather? You bet it was. These trails wander through some beautiful mixed hardwoods and there is nothing quite so awe-inspiring as coming around a bend to be face to face with the magnificent Bigelows. This year I took a look inside one of the “huts” and I was quite impressed with how beautiful and well outfitted they are. Not only am I planning on skiing in the race next year, I’m thinking of when I can spend a few days staying in the huts and skiing at a more leisurely pace. 

The featured chef for this event will be Chef Michael Gagné of Georgetown, ME. Michael Gagné is a highly acclaimed chef who, for eighteen years, was the Chef/Owner of Maine’s five-star restaurant, the Robinhood Free Meetinghouse, referred to as “a culinary oasis” by The New York Times.  In 2008, Gagné was honored with the prestigious “Chef of the Year” Award by the Maine Restaurant Association.  In the last decade, Michael has also launched Gagné Foods, Inc. www.gagnefoods.com, a Bath, Maine-based quality specialty food company producing a line of products including Cream Cheese Biscuits which won the coveted medal for Outstanding New Product at the 2006 National Association of the Specialty Food Trade event.  About Gagné’s cuisine, the Boston Globe has described it as “deliciously divine” while the Portland Press Herald has declared it “as good as it gets.”

The gourmet four-course meal (hors d’oeuvres, starter, main and dessert) will feature the finest local ingredients, and each course will be paired with a carefully selected fine wine. The cost will be $250 per person or $450 per couple. The price includes the gourmet dinner, wines, lodging at the hut, and the traditional MH&T full American breakfast the following morning. An optional gear shuttle for both in and out of the hut is also included. The proceeds will benefit Maine Huts & Trails’ non-profit mission. Space is limited to 44 individuals. Reservations can be made by calling 877.634.8824.

Whew! Sitting down to write a blog post is a lovely break from what has so far been a wonderfully hectic weekend. Twenty-eight guests on Friday and forty-six guests on Saturday mean a busy crew! Of course, I ought to mention that these past few days have had the best skiing of the season so far, too. Between cooking, skiing, and dishes, we’ve been quite the busy crew.

Before I started making dinner yesterday, I escaped for a quick ski. Three miles toward Poplar, I heard a rumbling noise. To my great delight, it was one of our groomers in a Pisten Bully! I quickly stepped off to the side of the trail and waved gratefully to him as he zoomed by, leaving fresh tracks behind him. Every day for the past four or five days, I’ve said “These are the best ski conditions so far this season.” And every day it’s been true! Hopefully the trend will continue leading up the marathon and school vacation week.

When I got back from my AWESOME ski, I set right to work making dinner while guests began to arrive. Jenny and Tim greeted them, chatting about ski conditions and, of course, the dinner menu. We served war bread, lentil soup, chicken curry (and a vegetarian version), brown rice, and applesauce cake. Dinner went smoothly (hooray, and phew). After we served all the courses, the crew was surprised by the sudden lack of noise. We then decided the best part of dinner is the sound of people who are intensely focused on a delicious meal.

As usual, I didn’t think to take pictures at dinner, but I did think to grab my camera in time for breakfast this morning. This is what 40-plus people enjoying cinnamon raisin bread, oatmeal, and sausage looks like:

This past weekend's guests at Flagstaff Hut enjoying breakfast Sunday morning.

Even if it’s raining in Portland, the skiing up here is great! Reservations are coming in quickly for school vacation week and weekends in March, so make sure you give us a call and get some skiing in this winter. We look forward to hosting you!

Ellen

Everyone knows easy ways to conserve energy: turn out the lights when you leave a room, unplugging electronic devices when they’re not in use, closing the door to keep the heat in…  But here at the huts, one of the most energy-hogging things that we do is use water! Heating and pumping water uses lots of heat and solar energy. Showering, in particular, uses lots of energy, and often at times when the sun isn’t shining. Using a lot of energy when we’re not getting solar power is a drain on our battery bank and forces us to rely more on our backup generator. To help conserve energy and raise our guests’ awareness of our energy usage, we turned one shower stall into the Three Minute Shower Challenge! 

Guests who opt for the challenge have fair warning.

Successful guests join the wall of fame!

 So far, it’s been pretty popular! We haven’t had anyone come out of the shower still sudsy and ask for another token, which I think means we can draw two conclusions. First, we have some serious-energy saving guests and second, a three-minute shower is something most people can do. Plus, if you’re a little competitive, trying to beat the shower timer is always a bit of an adrenaline rush!

Does anyone time their showers at home? Can you think of any other ways to help the crew and guests save even more energy?

People responded to the new snow instantly with both Saturday and Sunday turning out to be very busy days on the Maine Hut Trail. Lunch was a very popular event for Poplar Hut on Saturday as many Sugarloafers decided for an alternative activity to alpine skiing. The hut-to-hut experience is now as good as it gets. With the long range forecast for continued winter-like weather and a long term snowy forecast, the outlook for February hut-to-hut adventures are terrific! No need to hold back now, be sure to make your plans for a hut-to-hut adventure now. Here is a great video which will give you a peek at what a hut-to-hut adventure is like. Enjoy! 

Strawberry Streusel Bars

We had these at our mid-season crew meeting last week and they were a big hit. I cut them a bit on the large side, but everyone who started out by saying “I’ll just take a half” ended up finishing a whole streusel bar! I figured that was a sign I should share them with you guys, so here goes:

1 cup butter, softened
2 cups brown sugar
2 eggs
2 ½ cups flour
2 cups uncooked rolled oats
1 teaspoon almond extract
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 teaspoon baking soda
zest of half an orange
¾ to 1 cup of strawberry jam or preserves

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease a 13×9 pan.

Beat butter and brown sugar until just mixed (small lumps are okay). Add eggs, flour, oats, vanilla and almond extracts and baking soda and mix until just combined. (It won’t cohere completely, but that’s okay!)

Put 2/3 of the mixture into the greased pan. Spread with a layer of strawberry jam—it doesn’t have to be thick, but be sure to spread it out to the edges. If your preserves are particularly chunky, you may need a bit more jam. Add the orange zest to the remaining mixture and sprinkle that over top of the jam.

Bake until the crumbs on top are golden brown and a bit crispy-looking, about 30-45 minutes. (If you have a convection oven or your oven is on the hotter side, I recommend checking at 20 or 25 minutes.)

Sunday night’s activities will definitely go onto my list of favorite Maine Huts moments. After a delicious dinner of fresh buttery biscuits, beef stew made with local meat, green beans and pumpkin cake, we embarked on an energy tour! Some of our guests chose to go on the tour for the second night in a row, so I had to top Saturday night’s tour by showing everyone how the insides of the composting toilets are set up and what the inside of the Clivus looks like. (That’s right—they weren’t satisfied with seeing the finished compost. They all climbed up to see inside the Clivus. No one managed to spot any worms, though; I guess worms are somewhat elusive creatures.)

After the energy tour, the WWP presented an evening program. One of their adult leaders shared a folktale, and the students shared some of the writing they had finished at the hut. Of course, all of their writing was done by hand, so they couldn’t leave me a copy to share with you! I hope to post some of their writing once it has been transcribed. Signing off to go skiing!            

The Wabanaki Writers came to Flagstaff to play as well.

Specifically, from the Gauge Road Trailhead to Poplar Hut is skiable and the section of trail from The Long Falls Dam Road Trailhead to the Big Eddy is skiable. Skiers can also access Flagstaff Lake which is frozen and snow covered. The rougher sections of trail between the huts are not skiable. So the bottom line is that one is able to ski into the huts but skiing hut to hut wil involve some hiking.

Grand Falls Hut Master Michael Downing has been enjoying the new snow at his hut!

There is no need to hold back. Get your skis and ski into Poplar Hut or Flagstaff Hut for some great backcountry hospitality!