TJ aka Teej
04-05-2006, 19:08
These 'huts" are really hydro-powered, 44-bed log lodges with wood-fired saunas, full toilets and bathing facilities." Yes, many of you are having a deja-vu moment...
Wilderness hut system heads for series of votes
http://pressherald.mainetoday.com/news/state/060401trail.shtml (http://pressherald.mainetoday.com/news/state/060401trail.shtml)
CARRABASSETT VALLEY — Construction of an $11 million wilderness trail hut system in western Maine could begin this summer. The project, which could be complete in 2007, would let skiers glide up to a lodge, take a sauna, have a hot meal and get a good night's sleep on a trail that planners hope will gain national significance.
The first step rests with the Carrabassett Valley Planning Board, which is expected to vote on an application next month.
This week, Larry Warren, president of the Western Mountains Foundation and the visionary of the system, appeared before the board for a preliminary presentation.
Construction of the first hut - actually a hydro-powered, 44-bed log lodge with a wood-fired sauna and full toilet and bathing facilities - will begin in July, Warren said, if the application is approved.
The building would be at Poplar Stream Falls, a few miles northeast of Sugarloaf, on land leased from the Penobscot Nation.
"We're trying to create a resource of national significance. We want to make sure it represents and reflects positively on the community," Warren told board members Thursday.
Board members expressed support, though a public hearing this spring is likely, they said.
The Poplar Stream Falls hut is one of two that are subject to approval by Carrabassett Valley's board. Andover, where another hut would be built, is the only other town involved in reviewing applications. The remaining nine planned huts would fall under the jurisdiction of the Maine Land Use Regulation Commission.
The Western Mountains Foundation has negotiated rights to a 120-mile corridor between Carrabassett Valley and Moosehead Lake, and is working to finalize agreements for the southern belt, between Carrabassett Valley and Newry.
The projected cost of buying the first 120 miles and building the first three huts is $4.5 million, according to Warren. About $2.2 million has been raised, he said.
The cost of the entire project is estimated at $11 million. The project would take five to seven years to complete.
Warren expects that work on a second hut, about 10 miles north of the first, at Flagstaff Lake, will start in September. The third hut, 20 or so miles north of Carrabassett Valley, at Grand Falls, would begin in November.
Once a site is prepared, it takes four days to assemble the log structures, Warren said. Huts will open as soon as they are complete.
Jeff Cole of Gardiner, a foundation board member who is working as an architect on the project, said the beauty of the buildings will be their ability to compliment their setting while being subtle.
"The goal of this trail system is to tell a consistent story," he told the board. "Each hut will tell a different chapter in that story."
The Western Mountains group has joined with the Chewonki Foundation, Outward Bound and Kieve and Wavus camps, and is in talks with Yale University and the Penobscots to offer support and education along the trail and in the huts.
David Herring has been named executive director. Herring spent six years as field supervisor and manager for the Application Mountain Club's hut system in New Hampshire.
Wilderness hut system heads for series of votes
http://pressherald.mainetoday.com/news/state/060401trail.shtml (http://pressherald.mainetoday.com/news/state/060401trail.shtml)
CARRABASSETT VALLEY — Construction of an $11 million wilderness trail hut system in western Maine could begin this summer. The project, which could be complete in 2007, would let skiers glide up to a lodge, take a sauna, have a hot meal and get a good night's sleep on a trail that planners hope will gain national significance.
The first step rests with the Carrabassett Valley Planning Board, which is expected to vote on an application next month.
This week, Larry Warren, president of the Western Mountains Foundation and the visionary of the system, appeared before the board for a preliminary presentation.
Construction of the first hut - actually a hydro-powered, 44-bed log lodge with a wood-fired sauna and full toilet and bathing facilities - will begin in July, Warren said, if the application is approved.
The building would be at Poplar Stream Falls, a few miles northeast of Sugarloaf, on land leased from the Penobscot Nation.
"We're trying to create a resource of national significance. We want to make sure it represents and reflects positively on the community," Warren told board members Thursday.
Board members expressed support, though a public hearing this spring is likely, they said.
The Poplar Stream Falls hut is one of two that are subject to approval by Carrabassett Valley's board. Andover, where another hut would be built, is the only other town involved in reviewing applications. The remaining nine planned huts would fall under the jurisdiction of the Maine Land Use Regulation Commission.
The Western Mountains Foundation has negotiated rights to a 120-mile corridor between Carrabassett Valley and Moosehead Lake, and is working to finalize agreements for the southern belt, between Carrabassett Valley and Newry.
The projected cost of buying the first 120 miles and building the first three huts is $4.5 million, according to Warren. About $2.2 million has been raised, he said.
The cost of the entire project is estimated at $11 million. The project would take five to seven years to complete.
Warren expects that work on a second hut, about 10 miles north of the first, at Flagstaff Lake, will start in September. The third hut, 20 or so miles north of Carrabassett Valley, at Grand Falls, would begin in November.
Once a site is prepared, it takes four days to assemble the log structures, Warren said. Huts will open as soon as they are complete.
Jeff Cole of Gardiner, a foundation board member who is working as an architect on the project, said the beauty of the buildings will be their ability to compliment their setting while being subtle.
"The goal of this trail system is to tell a consistent story," he told the board. "Each hut will tell a different chapter in that story."
The Western Mountains group has joined with the Chewonki Foundation, Outward Bound and Kieve and Wavus camps, and is in talks with Yale University and the Penobscots to offer support and education along the trail and in the huts.
David Herring has been named executive director. Herring spent six years as field supervisor and manager for the Application Mountain Club's hut system in New Hampshire.