A few years ago, rotting sills caused AMC’s Kinsman Pond shelter, built in 1966, to sag. Rather than make minor upgrades to a structure that had walls sullied by graffiti,
AMC decided it needed to be replaced.

With approval from the U.S. Forest Service and the Appalachian Trail Conservancy (ATC), AMC launched a project to demolish and rebuild the structure on the Appalachian Trail at the junction of the Kinsman Ridge, Kinsman Pond, and Fishin’ Jimmy trails in the White Mountain National Forest. Construction began in September 2007 and ended the following month.

“The last time AMC built a new shelter or replaced an existing one was [the Imp Shelter in] 1981,” says AMC Backcountry Management Specialist Hawk Metheny, who oversaw the Kinsman project. “The structure is very similar to Imp, which has received the most favorable comments from the public due to its craftsmanship and rustic appearance.”

Once the design passed muster, funding for the $45,000 project was secured through AMC, the ATC, and the Vandenburgh family. AMC member Donald E. Vandenburgh, Sr., 87, taught his children backpacking in the White Mountains; their donation of $10,000 was a way of giving back.

The Wooden House Company founder John Nininger, who was an AMC trail crew member in the 1970s, created the new shelter off-site. Accommodating 16 guests more comfortably than its predecessor, the structure includes durable, weather-resistant materials: the white pine logs are treated with a wood preservative; the porch is crafted with cedar, a fairly rot-resistant wood; and the roof’s red cedar shingles lie atop an impermeable ice and water shield.

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A private landowner on the north side of the Kinsman Ridge allowed AMC to use his property as the staging area. Pieces of the deconstructed shelter were airlifted to the worksite by JBI Helicopter Services of Pembroke, N.H. “We lowered one course at a time and put it exactly where it was going to rest,” Metheny says.

Vandenburgh’s sons, Doug and Rich, also contributed their elbow grease to the project—and their father visited the shelter once it officially opened in October 2007. “When people like us can work so closely with AMC and make it a meaningful project, that’s exciting and really rewarding,” says Doug Vandenburgh, 57.

Judging from the positive feedback Metheny has read in the shelter’s register, the new structure is a hit. “It was personally satisfying to build a structure that will be around for more than 50 years,” he says. “You don’t get those opportunities too often.”