Speak with AMC experts for the "411" on hiking, paddling, biking and outdoor safety. Plan a multi-activity itinerary at an AMC lodge or mountain hut in northern New England and the Mid-Atlantic.
Check out the following story ideas for inspiration or read AMC's summer press releases:
- Voluntourism close to home: scenic volunteer trail vacations in New England
- White Mountain hut hiking: creature comforts in the backcountry
- Summer camp for the whole family: multi-generation outdoor adventures
- June White Mountain wildflower hikes
- Not just for kids, not just for families: summer camp for adults 50+
- Discovering Thoreau's Maine: off-the-beaten path wilderness adventures
- Not just a buzzword: sustainable tourism built from the ground up
- Hiking with the kids: tips for getting outdoors this summer with the family
1. Voluntourism close to home: scenic volunteer trail vacations in New England
The benefits of volunteer vacations go well beyond dollars and cents, but with the cost of travel "make or break" for many, close-to-home voluntourism is a win-win.
At scenic locations within four to seven hours of NYC, Hartford, Providence, and Boston, the Appalachian Mountain Club is offering more opportunities to help maintain hiking trails as part of a volunteer vacation crew. The spectacular backdrops for these trail projects include Acadia National Park and Baxter State Park in Maine, the Berkshires in Massachusetts, and White Mountains of New Hampshire.
New this summer, the AMC is continuing to expand on its volunteer trail vacations, adding more teen crews and new lodge-based programs especially for families and volunteers ages 50 and older. Learn More>>
2. White Mountain hut hiking: creature comforts in the backcountry
The Appalachian Mountain Club, more than 120 years after welcoming hikers to its first White Mountain hut, will continue the tradition of hut hiking and mountain hospitality with the opening of its 2009 full-service season.
Freshly prepared dinners and breakfasts, naturalist programs, and comfortable bunks are all part of the full-service experience, bringing creature comforts to overnights in the backcountry. Many of the huts are great vantage points for spectacular mountain views and sunsets, and lower elevation huts are easier hikes for families with younger kids.
The start of the full-service season also marks the return of AMC's hut crews, known for entertaining guests with funny skits, serving up family-style meals, offering naturalist programs, and assisting with trip planning, trail information, and weather reports. Behind the scenes, hut crews pack in about three tons of fresh food and supplies to the huts over three months, and all of the energy used to power lights, refrigeration, two-way radios, fire alarms, and well pumps is produced at the huts using green technologies.
3. Summer camp for the whole family: multi-generation outdoor adventures
The Appalachian Mountain Club this summer is expanding its weeklong family camp program, giving families with kids ages five and older a choice of 17 camps and range of experiences at lodges in the White Mountains, NH, Lakes Region, NH, and the Moosehead Lake Region of Maine.
The AMC is more than doubling the number of Family Adventure Camps that include a full-service overnight at a historic AMC Hut. And families interested in daily break-out programming for teens now have three of these special sessions to choose from, all held at Highland Lodge. Plus every family camp at Cardigan Lodge is offering a teens-only backcountry overnight trip for the first time. AMC’s new “rivers to peaks” itinerary at Joe Dodge Lodge, which combines river rafting and hut hiking in the White Mountains, builds on other unique opportunities for exploring local waterways and mountains at each camp.
Expert-guided, easy-to-moderate hikes and hands-on naturalist programs, including pond studies, forest ecology, and wildlife watching, are part of every family camp and a good fit for all ages. Learn more>>
4. June White Mountain wildflower hikes
Sometime around the summer solstice, long after desert wildflowers and cherry blossoms have peaked elsewhere, swaths of rare alpine flowers begin blooming in shades of pinks, whites, and purples against the dramatic scenery of New Hampshire's White Mountains.
June wildflower hikes range from forested, family-friendly nature walks to challenging jaunts to the star attraction of the June bloom, Mt. Washington's Alpine Garden area. Lesser-known, above tree-line spots and woodland wildflower picks encourage broader exploration to help protect sensitive alpine flower habitats.
Learn more about AMC wildflower activities and packages>>
5. Not just for kids, not just for families: summer camp for adults 50+
Volunteer trail work is the newest AMC 50+ Adventure Camp experience offered this summer as part of AMC's "Older and Boulder" program at Highland Lodge. The camp will offer a blend of moderately challenging trail work throughout the week, plus downtime for guided group hikes, daily social hours, and evening programs. Off the trail, Highland Lodge combines the comforts of lodge amenities, including private rooms and freshly prepared meals, with environmentally-friendly practices.
6. Discovering Thoreau's Maine: off-the-beaten path wilderness adventures
The wilderness that inspired Thoreau has a softer side—paddling on a quiet pond at sunset with the kids, leisurely biking along a woods road, stealing away on a gentle hike to secluded views, spying a moose emerge from the woods, fly fishing at sunrise, and relaxing on a cabin porch without any distractions but a good book. Authentic, off-the-beaten-path experiences like these offer the best of the Maine Woods at AMC's Maine Wilderness Lodges, located in the Moosehead Lake region. Private cabins and freshly prepared meals, part of the iconic Maine sporting camp tradition, make it easy to unwind after a day of exploring. Enjoy hiking, fly fishing, paddling, and wildlife watching in the expansive wilderness that inspired Thoreau.
7. Not just a buzzword: sustainable tourism built from the ground up at AMC's Highland Lodge
Many travel destinations are eager to jump on the sustainable tourism bandwagon, but with loosely defined standards, it's often the case that what qualifies as eco-friendly is not only open to interpretation, but superficial at best.
Built from the ground up, the AMC's Highland Lodge in New Hampshire's White Mountains reflects a focus on eco-friendly tourism that encompasses everything--from an entryway floor mat made of recycled airplane tires to larger-scale details such as triple-glazed windows to maximize solar energy and recycled steel that serves as the structure's skeleton. The lodge's green-friendly practices also extend to programs such as free guided activities for guests, including hikes, nature walks, and outdoors skills programs like family-friendly nature walks, stargazing, nature bingo, learning to identify animal tracks of local wildlife, and becoming a certified AMC Jr. Naturalist. Behind the Scenes Green tours showcase the environmentally sensitive design, materials, and energy-saving features of the Highland Lodge as part of AMC's Green Promise.
Highland Lodge, along with AMC's other New Hampshire lodges and White Mountain huts, was awarded Environmental Champion status, the highest recognition, by the New Hampshire Lodging & Restaurant Association’s Sustainable Lodging Program.
8. Hiking with the kids: tips for getting outdoors this summer with the family
Introducing kids to the outdoors and severing the family's connection to cell phones, email, video games, and other modern day distractions for a few hours or more is daunting when faced with the inevitable chorus of whining. Physical and cognitive benefits of outdoors play won't impress many kids, but tips about planning a hike and other parent-tested tricks for engaging both young kids and teens will improve your chances for a fun family hike. AMC experts have a great deal of knowledge learned firsthand from experience with kids of all ages through programs like AMC's A Mountain Classroom and AMC Family Adventure Camp, plus hikes with their own families.
The AMC's new blog with tips on getting kids outside in the Northeast is also a great resource.
