Experience lodge-to-lodge skiing in the Maine Woods! Travel light and have a private cabin with wood stove, hot shower or sauna, and home-cooked dinner waiting for you at day's end. The Appalachian Mountain Club [AMC] ski trail network is groomed but without set tracks - intermediate skills and comfort with skiing backcountry are required.

The Appalachian Mountain Club [AMC] has put together a wilderness lodge system in northern Maine. Long recognized as the leading outdoor advocacy organization in New England and the oldest of its kind in the country, the AMC is perhaps best known for its facilities and efforts in northern New Hampshire. Its base in Gorham lies in the shadow of Mount Washington, the northeast's highest peak. Pinkham Notch is a hub of hiking and backcountry skiing and the primary access point to Tuckerman's Ravine, renown for its challenging headwall and late-season snow.

Not to be confused with the Maine Huts & Trails system in western Maine, the AMC Maine lodges, while conceptually similar, could not be more different from the MH&T system, or for that matter, it own sister system in New Hampshire.

Situated in the Moosehead Lake Region near Greenville, the AMC lodges lie in an area rich with recreational opportunity. The Appalachian Trail snakes through the region en route to its northern terminus at Mt. Katahdin in Baxter State Park. Hundreds of lakes, rivers and streams provide extensive canoeing and kayaking, including the 92-mile Allagash Wilderness Waterway beginning in the park and ending near the Canadian border.

Within this context, the AMC has purchased and strung together four sporting camps to provide a lodge-to-lodge skiing [and hiking] experience. It should be noted that most of the property remains open to traditional uses including hunting and fishing during the respective seasons.

Camps are linked with point-to-point trails, with each averaging eight miles, through a variety of forest, some relatively pristine and untouched, other portions showing more recent forest management. While this is technically more of a backcountry skiing experience, it is not bushwhacking and breaking trail. All trails are regularly packed by a snowmobile and grooming implement, but no tracks are set.

Trails may be as narrow as six feet wide and perhaps as wide as eight to 10 feet and some are actually old logging roads. Trail surfaces are generally smooth depending on the amount of recent snow and trail usage. Wider light touring skis are recommended, but traditional classic skis would suffice in most cases. The trails are not well suited for skating. By and large, the trails are of intermediate difficulty at most. Skiers should be comfortable with undulating terrain and trail surfaces and not expect a manicured groomed trail experience as they might find at their local Nordic center.

Skiers' gear, including a sleeping bag, is transported by snowmobile from lodge to lodge, but a day pack with essentials for a long day on the trail should be carried while skiing. Each lodge along the route has a few kilometers of additional trails to explore, as well, allowing more skiing opportunities after attaining the day's destination.

A day on the trail can range from three-and-a-half to four hours for the speedy types, to six hours or more, so an adequate base of fitness is recommended. On the whole, however, the trail experience is quite accessible.

Each of the former sporting camps now used as lodges has a fundamental similarity. Camps range from a half dozen to over a dozen cabins, each capable of housing four or more people. All have wood stove heat and range from funky to substantially renovated. These are not luxury accommodations, but certainly quite comfortable. Availability of electricity ranges from limited to not at all. Furnishing are basic: beds, table, a couple of sitting chairs and some may have a basic kitchen for warm weather use. Each camp has a dining building, most of which are more contemporary than the cabins. The more recently acquired camps have added shower and sauna facilities.

Lodge-to-lodge trips are offered by the AMC as two, three- and five-night packages. All trips include three meals a day including a trail lunch. If desired, a registered Maine guide can be provided, as well, but for anyone minimally experienced with the backcountry, it is not necessary. A guide, however, can provide local color, natural and historic interpretation and additional insights to the locale and the experience.

Click here for more information: AMC Lodge-to-Lodge Skiing Adventures 

Courtesy of Cross Country Skier Magazine