[at-l] Baker? Katahdin?

[ellen at clinic.net (Bob C.)]

>"...>what am I supposed to do? Change it simply because you repeated your
>question? Engage in pointless hypotheticals?" TJ replies to a simple question,
>about if not AMC, who would be a better steward of 20 miles of the
>100-mile-wilderness.

But since he refuses to answer another simple question, "What was the source of
what you claimed to have "learned" about AMC's planned development?" I'm forced
to believe that he had no source, that he was simply engaging, perhaps  not in
"pointless" hypotheticals, but deliberately destructive hypotheticals.

I can understand why TJ is reluctant to expand on his claims. Most are simply
factually wrong.

For instance, when he says:

>"...The AMC will also buy, expand, and operate?the several Paper Company rental
>cabins at the North end of the 100 Mile. One is just 1/2 mile from the Hurd
>Brook Lean-to."

The North end of the 100 mile wilderness has been bought by the Nature
Conservancy, which has said it will operate its 43,000 acres as a wilderness, so
there are no "paper company" rental cabins for AMC to buy. The only cabins I've
ever seen in the area are on Rainbow Lake, quite a few miles from Hurd Brook.
Great Northern, the former owner, didn't rent them, they used them to entertain
visiting company officials and important customers.

Nor, for that matter has MATC known about "this" for months. No one has known
about the "plans" that TJ claims to know about. A few of us who are interested
in protecting the 100-mile-wilderness knew that AMC was negotiating to buy land
in the area and were encouraging them to do so.

 Had we known what TJ claims now to know, we would not have been encouraging,
 but actively opposing AMC. Luckily much of what TJ claims is mostly a figment
 of his or someone's imagination.

 A bit of history. The first I heard of AMC's interest in Maine land was five
 years ago or so, when the club joined in efforts to protect Tumbledown
 Mountain, a beautiful, heavily used, small mountain many miles from the AT. AMC
 briefly talked of buying a corridor through the area and locating "huts" a days
 hike apart. There was opposition to huts and AMC quickly abandoned the idea.

  The next I heard was two years ago when a real estate broker that called
  itself a "creator of great estates" listed 32,000 acres south of Whitecap
  Mountain. Piles of brush from logging operations were bulldozed flat and hay
  blown over the top to impress buyers with the alleged "wilderness," and the
  site advertised in a popular magazine aimed at Maine tourists and expatriates.

  There was a flurry of interest by conservation groups, including the MAT Land
  Trust. But we were just beginning to organize and wasn't in a position to bid.
  AMC, however, joined with others and did bid, unsuccessfully. The Whitecap
  parcel was purchased by a Canadian forest liquidator/developer.

  AMC then quietly negotiated with IP to purchase land to the west of Whitecap,
  Gulf Hagas and the Barren-Chairback range, which it bought on Dec 3, and
  announced on Dec. 9.

  The only plans AMC has announced is the construction of 50 miles of new trails
  as soon as it explores its new holdings to figure out where they might best
  go, and the construction of overnight facilities a day's hike apart.

  Many of us have severe misgivings about a hut system in the
  100-mile-wilderness. I would have loved to discuss the pros and cons of what I
  consider a very real threat of a new hut system in a very precious region.

  Unfortunately, TJ broadly circulated his frivolous speculations, on this and
  other lists, damaging the reputation of both MATC and AMC, and focusing hiker
  attention on non issues.

  AMC is now pretty much home free with their real plans. All the club needs to
  do now is offer a compromise hut system as an alternative to the paved roads,
  and power lines, and hydroelectric dams that TJ dreamed up.

  Weary