Andy used AMC's newly improved governance and financial support like a starting block. He brought on more professional staff, set specific numeric targets, and nearly doubled AMC's membership in six years by investing in marketing and direct mail. "Sometimes we'd groan about Andy's numbers," Graff laughs when he recalls those early years. "But he was not going to forget about our goals. Not next week. Not next year. Not ever."

"Aspirational," Andy calls them, the many just-around-the-bend destinations he helped map and reach during his tenure, any one of which would qualify as a success. But, taken as a whole—2010 results of 1.6 million acres protected, 100,000 members, 16,000 volunteers, 1,500 miles of trail maintained, 40,000 adventuring kids, 8,000 outings, and 150,000 lodging nights, along with achievements like building the Highland Center, launching the Maine Woods Initiative, increasing the endowment to $50 million, and balancing the budget for 23 years—and you end up with people like Tom Wagner, the White Mountain National Forest's supervisor, saying, "I see Andy as a visionary."

Doug Foy is the friend who got Andy's name onto the list of candidates for hire. "I'm quite proud of that," he says. For many of the 25 years he served as president of the Conservation Law Foundation, he and Andy worked collaboratively, along with leaders of many other conservation organizations. It was this collaborative approach, and the relationships Andy built with state leaders, members of Congress, and others in Washington, D.C., that eventually created the Northern Forest Alliance, enhanced the Highlands Coalition, and preserved funding for the Land and Water Conservation Fund. "Andy's reach has extended well beyond the boundaries of the AMC," Foy says.

Meanwhile, Andy was also moving the organization's educational and research programs forward, working with staff and volunteers to create the Teen Wilderness Adventures and A Mountain Classroom programs, and to expand the Youth Opportunities Program. Out of Pinkham, a growing research team had started monitoring air quality and endangered alpine plant species, studying wind power development and, most controversially at first, using the dam relicensing process as a conservation tool. "You couldn't even wear an AMC T-shirt in town!" Graff says when asked about the tumultuous period following Androscoggin River dam relicensing negotiations in northern New Hampshire. In the end, AMC protected more than 40,000 acres and guaranteed public access to hundreds of launch points, as well as whitewater releases for paddlers and more than $20 million in river enhancement funds. More recently in Maine, AMC has focused on forest ecology and sustainable forestry.

It was in the intense jobs-versus-the environment atmosphere of the mid-'90s that AMC entered the process of U.S. Forest Service renewal of its permit to operate its huts in the White Mountains. AMC anticipated opposition, following the conflict over the dam license. Instead, at the public hearings, "hundreds of people came out of the woodwork, people who'd come to the huts for generations," recalls Andy. "AMC Love Fest," ran one local headline. "It was a real turning point for AMC," says Graff. "We said, 'We've got to work closer with communities.'"

Over time, AMC focused staff resources on exploring economic revitalization of the struggling mill town of Gorham, N.H., and those surrounding it, committed to hiring locally, and launched local school programs. It was this community-based work, says Andy, that shaped the biggest collaborative project in AMC's history, the Maine Woods Initiative (MWI). Partnerships with local communities in Maine have contributed to the project's success.

Back on the Mount Willard Trail, Andy takes a seat on the granite ledge, warm in the sun. When I ask him about the history of MWI, he pauses, his gaze taking in the wide view—Willey Slide, Webster Cliffs, and Mount Chocorua beyond. "When the White Mountain National Forest was proposed in the early 1900s," he says, "a lot of people said, 'These people are nuts!' But if they did that for our generation, what can we do for the next?"

As Andy tells it, AMC was ready to do something big once again. The organization was fresh off another ambitious project—the successful construction of the Highland Center in New Hampshire, which was designed to make it easier for individuals and families to get outdoors by providing free programs and free use of L.L. Bean gear. Over six years, AMC proceeded to buy and conserve almost 70,000 acres in Maine's 100-Mile Wilderness, with the aspirational goal of creating, as Gabriel calls it, "a world-class wilderness recreation destination that's sustainable in the long term." Today, there are three wilderness lodges spaced a day's ski apart, including a new "green" post-and-beam lodge building at Gorman Chairback Lodge and Cabins, more than 80 miles of trails, access to countless gorgeous lakes, protection of a section of the Appalachian Trail corridor, and the assurance that the land and the people who love it will benefit from AMC's expertise in conservation, education, and recreation. "Andy's created a real legacy for the club and far beyond," says Graff. "He's a tough act to follow, but he's built a frame and context for the organization to continue to change and adapt."

AMC's next president will inherit Andy's parting aspirational goal. It's called Vision 2020. "The goals for Vision 2020 might seem like a big stretch," says Delia Clark, a six-year board member who grew up hiking the huts, "but setting them so high raises everybody's energy." In addition to continuing to shape MWI, Vision 2020 sets the course to broaden, strengthen, and diversify the AMC community; to continue leading the way in regional conservation; and to get lots more kids outside, 200,000 each year through AMC's programs and another 300,000 yearly through AMC's influence.

"Getting kids and families outside is a huge opportunity to make a difference!" Andy says as we hop the stream just before the trailhead. We've made good time, with half an hour to spare before Andy's next meeting.

Five hundred thousand, a ten-fold increase from where AMC stands today.

"That's a big jump," I say.

Andy says, "It's a start."

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