Ask Susan,
Your Personal Travel Counselor
Tell me how you really feel about paddling through gorges, water-dancing around boulders and portaging log jams. How about dropping cliffs on your mountain bike or hiking knife ridgelines? I see. Perhaps you are perfectly content paddling flatwater or mountain biking old logging trails? Do you need gourmet meals? Does your exhausted body require a comfy bed? Lie back on your couch with a glass of wine and let me help you solve your trip planning problems.
I am a journalist with 18 years of experience researching and writing about travel, with special emphasis on “soft” adventure travel such as hiking, paddling, biking, camping and skiing. The Internet has made it infinitely easier to research and book travel, but with all the information resources out there, it’s difficult to sort through the conflicting messages and choose the right vacation. My “travel counseling” services can rescue you from the abyss.
Wildlife Conservation Areas: Abundance of Birds, Creatures Delights Patient Paddlers
As we paddled our sea kayaks unobtrusively through the reeds, twigs and shrubs of the Vermont wetland, we watched several osprey soar overhead, hover with rapidly beating wings, then dive with a splash into the water to snatch up a fish now wiggling between their talons.
During our paddle in Maquam Wildlife Management Area in the northern part of the Lake Champlain Basin, we counted five osprey nests. Over the course of several hours, it became clear that each provided a current home to a pair. We also spotted some migratory ducks, including a bufflehead meandering along the shore and a greater scaup scooting across the open water.
It was the first week of May, the weather was sunny and fairly warm…
AMC Opens LEED-Registered Lodge in Moosehead Lake Region
The Appalachian Mountain Club (AMC) has unveiled a new green destination for outdoor recreation in Maine’s 100-Mile Wilderness region: the Gorman Chairback Lodge and Cabins, on Long Pond, between Greenville and Brownville. The new central lodge building is Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED)-registered, making it the first sporting camp lodge in Maine, and one of only a handful of backcountry facilities in the nation, to be LEED-registered. Certification is anticipated later this year.
Overseen by the U.S. Green Building Council, LEED provides a nationally recognized set of industry standards for evaluation and certification of environmentally sustainable construction and design.
The new lodge building at Gorman Chairback was designed by LDa Architecture and Design. The property is off the grid, and power is supplied by...