Maine Chapter Board Member, Will Richard,  is visiting the area of the northernmost section of the International Appalachian Trail close to Uummannaq, Greenland, home village of some of the Greenland Chapter's leaders. Uummannaq is located at about 71 degrees latitude , about 300 miles north of the Arctic Circle, which is almost the same  latitude as Alaska’s northern-most  town, Point Barrow. For perhaps a decade now, I have been visiting Greenland – with my wife Lindsay  and sometimes solo.   For much of that time, I have wanted to travel on Greenland’s sea ice as I have on the ice of Canada’s Inuit Territory of Nunavut.  But, a major difference is that ice travel in Nunavut is almost exclusively  by snowmobile and komatek (sled) and sea ice on this side of Baffin Bay has become quite limited. In Greenland, ice travel is almost exclusively by dog sledge - but that is apparently changing.  In at least a half-dozen previous trips  to Uummannaq Fjord, I have planned to be here when there is sea ice.  But, with rising Arctic temperatures, there has been no sea ice during my visits in May, June, August, September – even in December and January. Earlier this year, our good friend and frequent visitor toMaine, René Kristiansen of  the Children’s Home in Uummannaq e-mailed me:  this is the year for ice.  So, as a Research Collaborator with the Smithsonian’s Arctic Studies  Center and Research Fellow with…

On the western coast of Newfoundland's Great Northern Peninsula, just 10 kilometers (6 miles) north of Bonne Bay and mid-way through Gros Morne National Park, lies a grassy headland with a geologic stature far exceeding its low-lying geographic profile. Unless IAT thru-hikers decide to camp at the nearby campground or trek the pebbly beach, they are likely to bypass this unassuming site. For more than half a billion years, plants, animals, and sediments have passed this way, many ending their journey embedded in the horizontal layers of rock and fossils now turned on their edge by tectonic forces. In the year 2000, one of these hundreds of layers was designated the global stratotype for the Cambrian / Ordovician boundary in geologic time, as the conodont Iapetognathus Fluctivagos first appeared here approximately 492 million years ago.   For more on Newfoundland's Green Point, go to the IATNL website.  

At the invitation of the Alabama Hiking Trails Society (AHTS), representatives of the International Appalachian Trail (IAT) attended the AHTS Annual General Meeting, where they delivered a presentation on the history and development of the IAT.  The meeting was held in Columbiana, Alabama on March 9 and 10.  Don Hudson, IAT Maine Chapter President and Dick Anderson, IAT Founder and Maine Chapter Treasurer, represented the IAT and gave the Saturday morning presentation. The presentation was well received, and there was great interest in the continuing development of the IAT. The AHTS trails include many miles of trail through the southern Appalachian Mountains in Alabama, south of the Appalachian Trail at Springer Mountain, Georgia. Dick and Don asked members of AHTS to consider becoming a Chapter of the IAT. John Calhoun ("Mother Nature's Son"), a thru hiker of the IAT--Crow Head to Katahdin 2007-- and member of AHTS, guided Don and Dick on a trip to the summit of Flagg Mountain, the southernmost thousand foot mountain in the Appalachian Mountain chain in North America. Don was thrilled to get to Flagg Mountain, having heard about the mountain for many years. Both Dick and Don had a wonderful time and thanked the folks at AHTS for their great "southern hospitality". For more information about AHTS, please visit their website at www.hikealabama.org …

Andrew and Kristin Graves Andrew Graves, Management Officer of the American Embassy in Reykjavik, Iceland, has decided to plant some roots in Maine, and the IAT Maine Chapter recently organized a special dinner to welcome him and his wife Kristin to Portland. The dinner served a second important purpose, as several board members in attendance will attend the first international meeting of all chapters of the International Appalachian Trail scheduled for June 15-16 in Reykjavik.  The Maine delegation will be led by IAT founder Dick Anderson, and include geologists Walter Anderson and Robert Marvinney, as well as Will Richard, Earl Raymond and Maine Chapter President Don Hudson.  In addition to the board members, Cheryl Marvinney, Lindsay Dorney, Phine Ewing and Maureen Ellerton will complete the Maine delegation. Though Earl and Maureen were unable to attend the dinner, Thomas Urquhart and Amy MacDonald, Herb Hartman and Lucy Martin, Anne Anderson, Geraldine Wolf, Bob Lemieux, and Seth Levy completed the party. An important and symbolic event will be held at the American Embassy on June 15th for representatives of all IAT chapters, as well as Ambassadors and Consuls that represent IAT member countries in Iceland.  Although originally planned for just over 20 people, the reception will likely include over 50 people once all of the chapters make their final travel plans.  Andy Graves spoke to the group about how he landed the job of running the embassy in Reykjavik, and he painted a wonderful picture about what to anticipate and expect from a visit to Iceland in June. …