By Peggy Yocom
What are Rangeley’s best hikes? How can you select food and gear, and still keep your pack light? Learn this and more from seasoned outdoor enthusiasts at the Rangeley Trail Town Festival on Sept. 1 from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Try your hand at free games, contests, and activities for everyone—all at Haley Pond Park on Pond Street, near Ecopelagicon.
See if you can get all the answers to adventurer Doug Dunlap’s Foot and Paddle Quiz that will take you all around the Festival site for clues. Then, stump Doug with your own question about the area’s mountains, lakes, and more. Play hiker boot toss. Make your own survivor bracelet with Rowenna Hathaway of the Rangeley Regional School’s PTA. And, bring those rocks you found to the Rangeley Rock Doc, Dr. John Slack, of the United States Geological Survey (Emeritus) who will identify them and tell you their place in the geological history of the region.
Enter the raffle to win outdoor equipment and clothes. At about 3 p.m., see how fast you can eat a pint of Gifford’s “Muddy Boots” in the Ice Cream Eating Contest, the favorite event of the Festival ($2 kids, $3 adults, free to Appalachian Trail [AT] hikers). Then, gather ’round the campfire for a marshmallow roast.
At 12:30 p.m., come tap your feet to the best Franco-American music in the country—the Don Roy Band of Gorham. Founders Don and Cindy Roy have just been awarded the highest honor the United States can bestow on folk and traditional artists: The National Heritage Fellowships Award. Partners in life and music for nearly 40 years, Don and Cindy have played at Wolf Trap, the National Folk Festival, Carnegie Hall, and more. They will perform with Matthew Shipman and Erica Brown.
Featured author Jeff Ryan will be on hand to talk with you about his two books on the Appalachian Trail (http://jeffryanauthor.com). His program and that of the Don Roy Band have been funded through a generous grant from the Appalachian Trail Conservancy.
All day, Maine outdoors organizations will share first-hand information about how to hike safely and how to care for local woods and trails. Dan Simonds of Rangeley and Victoria “Tori” Jofery, the caretaker at the AT’s Piazza Rock Lean-to, with tell about the work of the Maine Appalachian Trail Club. TRAC (Trails for the Rangeley Area Coalition) will share details about its weekly hikes and paddles. The Rangeley Lakes Heritage Trust will hand out maps of its many trails and tell about its latest plans to preserve land for Rangeley’s future. Also coming will be Maine Appalachian Land Trust, High Peaks Alliance, and Maine Master Naturalist Program.
Artists and crafters whose work highlights the outdoors will line Pond Street, including photographer Richard Neal; Brad Cook, author of Trail Dreams; Billdad Soap of Stratton; and Rangeley’s traditional wood carver Rodney Richard, Jr., now of Pownal, who will demonstrate jackknife and chain saw carving.
The Marble Family Farm food truck from Farmington will sell their award-winning “Hotties,” whole-wheat pocket-shaped crusts filled with a variety of vegetarian and meat options for both breakfast and lunch. Many Rangeley restaurants within walking distance will be open, too. And the Rangeley School’s Outing Club will bring their ever-popular popcorn machine.
On the evening before all these activities, the Trail Town Festival presents the Maine Outdoor Film Festival at 7 p.m. in Rangeley’s Lakeside Theater. Donation is $6; $3 for AT hikers and children under 12.
Rangeley is one of only 35 towns along the 2,180-mile AT to be named an official “Appalachian Trail Community.” The town received this honor from the Appalachian Trail Conservancy to honor Rangeley as a community that actively protects all of its natural, cultural, and recreational resources, including the AT, which runs from Georgia to Mt. Katahdin. For more information on the Rangeley Trail Town Festival, call Linda Dexter of the Ecopelagicon, 864-2771; join us on facebook; and visit our website: http://rangeleytrailtown.com
