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30% Discount on all AMC Maine Lodges in March

First opened as a private sporting camp in 1867, it’s hard to top the locale of Gorman Chairback, located on the shores of Long Pond in the shadows of the Barren-Chairback Range. Reopened a year ago after a major renovation by the Appalachian Mountain Club, Gorman Chairback’s locale gives you the opportunity to snowshoe and cross-country ski deep into Maine’s 100-Mile Wilderness, only to return back to the lodge for a home cooked meal and a seat by the roaring fire. Gorman Chairback is one of three historic Maine lodges run by the AMC that are now offering a 30% discount on rates in March for a two-night stay. The AMC maintains over 80 miles of trails in the region during winter so go out and play. 
 

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Family Fun with the Trustees of Reservations: the North Shore

Most people affiliate the Trustees with that glorious stretch of Atlantic Ocean shoreline called Crane Beach, recently named one of the “Top 10 U.S. Family Beaches” by National Geographic Traveler. Today’s itinerary will get you to Crane Beach and the adjacent Crane Estate, which looks incredible after a $2.1 million restoration of the Grand Allée, but first we want you to work up a sweat before swimming in the ocean waters. 


Choose between a mountain bike ride in the fishing town of Gloucester or a short hike up a hill in Andover that rewards you with vistas of Boston’s Prudential Center. At Gloucester’s Ravenswood Park, ten miles of former carriage path trails wind through hemlock-covered grounds, leading to a must-see overlook of Gloucester Harbor. The crushed gravel and wide trails is ideally suited for novice mountain bikers. Not to mention, it’s a great way to escape the Cape Ann crowds in summer. 

At Andover’s Ward Reservation, opt for the 1-mile (round-trip) climb up Holt Hill. You’ll stroll through forest and alongside meadows past old stone walls. Keep on climbing the grassy trail until you reach the short summit overlooking the expanse of Merrimack Valley and yes, the Pru. 

Four and a half miles long, Crane Beach in Ipswich is known for its smooth surf and dunes. Members of the Trustees can obtain a parking sticker for $75 and park free for the entire summer at one of New England’s best-loved beaches. New this summer, Crane Beach will be open late to offer Drive-In Movies, including a snack bar. Also don’t miss being on Crane Beach during low tide (around 11 am) on August 22nd, when Dutch artist Theo Jansen will create one of his signature “Strandbeests” to coincide with an upcoming show at the Peabody Essex Museum in Salem. It’s impossible to describe. Just check it out! 

Soak up the sun and then make your way to the Crane Mansion or Great House. This spring, The Trustees announced the launch of an initiative to celebrate its cultural sites with a new “Bringing Our Stories to Life” campaign. Not surprisingly, the Crane Estate, the property the Trustees consider the crown jewel in their collection, is at the forefront of this initiative. Children will like the new tour, “Guest of the Cranes,” where it’s 1929 and you’ve just arrived to visit your good friends, the Cranes. After touring the mansion, walk down the striking Grand Allée, with camera in hand, and stop at the recently renovated Casino, which originally served as an elegant pool and entertainment space used by the Crane family. The Casino is now open to the public for lawn games, and inside you can play pool and buy ice cream.

If your plans include one of the Thursday night concerts on the grounds this summer, you might be wise to spend the night at the bottom of the hill at The Inn at Castle Hill. The 10-room inn, where children 12 and over are welcome, was recently voted the top property on the North Shore by North Shore Magazine. The setting is hard to top. Look out from their wraparound porch onto miles of uninterrupted salt marsh and beach. 

Breakfast at the Inn at Castle Hill takes full advantage of the eggs and milk farmed just down the road at the Trustees’ 1000-acre Appleton Farms. Open to the public, Appleton is the oldest continuously operating farm, in existence since 1638. Stroll on grassy trails past rows of veggies to the Appleton Old House. Better yet, go on a Quest, an outdoor scavenger hunt and follow the clues to a hidden box at the end. Pick up a pocket-sized Quest Detective booklet and you can go questing at a dozen other Trustees sites located around the Greater Boston area. Also note that Appleton Farms’ eggs, cheese, yogurt, milk and grass-fed beef will soon be found at the Boston Public Market, ready to make its debut in July. Though don’t use that as an excuse not to visit the farm in person. 
 
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Time to Go Apple Picking

There’s no better fall activity in New England than hitting an orchard, trying the variety of apples, buying homemade cider, and tasting the warm, just made doughnuts. We have photographs of the kids picking apples every year, and like the trees, they seem to sprout up far too quickly. My son has a short break from college and is coming home tonight, so I’m hoping to get to the orchards on Sunday. I’m a fan of cortlands and macs, which are probably gone by now, but I don’t care. It will be great to get out there and climb those trees, even when I’m not supposed to be climbing those trees! Have a great Columbus Day Weekend and keep active! 

 
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Voluntourism in Kenya

I’m in Kenya the next two weeks researching a handful of stories. I’d like to share with you the pitches that were accepted as assignments. Given the current worldwide recession, visiting Masai Mara merely to spot the Big Five from your open-air Jeep or quaff sundowners from your luxury tent seems slightly self-indulgent. That’s why luxury tour operator Micato Safaris offers its clients a chance to give back by participating in its partnership with AmericaShare, a nonprofit foundation Micato Safaris established twenty years ago that supplies education, food, clothing and shelter to thousands of children living in the Mukuru slum in Nairobi. Clientele who arrive or depart from Nairobi participate in Micato’s “Lend a Helping Hand on Safari” program. During these one-day philanthropic excursions to the Mukuru slum, travelers visit the community, plant trees, and donate much-needed supplies. More often than not, the inspiration and urge to help out doesn’t end that day. Many Micato Safaris veterans have become involved in AmericaShare’s School Sponsorship program, which enables needy children to attend boarding school in Nairobi. One recent visitor even helped fund the Harambee House and Women’s Centre, a community center and boys’ dormitory run in part by women with HIV.
 

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September is the Perfect Time to Visit the Finger Lakes

Known for its award-winning Rieslings, the Finger Lakes deserve its reputation as one of the best spots in America to go wine tasting. Yet, its mix of rolling hills and lakes also lends itself well to adventure, especially in September when the summer crowds are gone. At the southern end of Seneca Lake, we hiked alongside a handful of waterfalls in the famous gorge of Watkins Glen. The next morning, my wife and I kayaked through a cattail-laden marsh and saw countless herons, turtles, and a beaver. Talk about adventure—a 40-pound carp jumped out of the marsh and slammed against my arm as I shrieked. But my favorite part of the weeklong trip was a quiet bike ride along a peninsula that juts into Keuka Lake. Start your ride from Keuka College and follow East and West Bluff Roads as they pass the small waterfront cottages with cute names like Hide N’ Seek. There’s one killer hill on the 20-mile ride that takes you atop a bluff, before cruising downhill back to the college. Afterwards, we rewarded ourselves with a lobster roll and glass of semi-dry Riesling at Heron Hill’s outdoor café. We were fortunate to book the next two nights at the Black Sheep Inn in Hammondsport, on the northern tip of Keuka Lake. Owners Debbie Meritsky and Marc Rotman spent over 6 years refurbishing the rare octagonal-shaped house, which celebrated its 150th birthday in 2009.

 
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Top 5 Dream Days in 2016, The Magical Sunsets of the Okavango Delta

There were so many highlights of our 9-day trip with Abercrombie & Kent to Botswana and Zambia in September that it’s hard to pick one day. I loved watching the elephants swim across the Chobe River on the Namibian border, spending an hour with a leopard on a tree in the Okavango Delta, surprising a rhino after an early morning drive, meeting Jabu, a massive African elephant who helps locals overcome their fear of wild animals, canoeing past hippos on the Zambezi River, watching the pounding waters of Victoria Falls plunge to the bottom of the chasm from the Zimbabwean side, and listening to our wonderful guide, Kebby, describe each and every bird like the brightly colored lilac-breasted roller and the southern carmine bee-eater.  

But most of all, I loved each and every sunset, a massive orb of fiery red, orange, and yellow sun that sets the bush aglow before darkness descends. There are few things in life as magical as a sunset in Africa. Late afternoon on our third day of the trip we were picked up at Chief’s Camp and treated to a mokoro ride. In a traditional canoe, a guide poled us through the tall grasses on a leisurely paddle, Botswana’s version of a gondola ride. The sun started to set and the tall reeds surrounding us were aglow. When the paddle ended, we celebrated the last embers of light on land, vodka tonic in hand nibbling on meaty biltong. That’s as close to perfection as it gets in the world of travel. 
 
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Nova Scotia Week: Trout Point Lodge, the Quintessential Canadian Retreat

When I think of the ideal Canadian property, I imagine a small timber lodge cut from rough-hewn spruce right next to a running river where you can walk out in waders and fly-fish for trout. A chunk of pristine wilderness thick in a forest of old growth pines, hemlocks, and stately birches, so far from civilization that the night sky twinkles brightly. A boutique resort that caters to your every whim, from dinners of fresh lobster and scallops probably caught off the coast of Nova Scotia that day, to a hot tub, sauna, massages, and guitar strumming around the fire pit at night. Throughout my years of Canadian travel, I must have stayed at over 250 resorts in the country, but it doesn’t get much better than the Trout Point Lodge. Less than an hour’s drive from where the Nova Star ferry arrives in Yarmouth, you drive down a long dirt road into the resort and soon hear the rushing water, welcoming you to the Tobeatic Wilderness Area. The only member of Small Luxury Hotels of the World in Atlantic Canada, expect to find wood everywhere—from the thick logs cut into the bathroom walls to wood floors in the rooms to a hot tub made from wood boards to the whimsical sauna, set in oversized wooden barrels. At dinner, you’re given a choice of activities to sample the next day, be it hiking with a naturalist, fly-fishing, mountain biking, or paddling one of the many nearby rivers and lakes. Then you head out to the fire pit and wait for the sky to shine. In 2014, Trout Point Lodge received certification as the world’s first Starlight Hotel from the Starlight Foundation, and is considered by astronomers to be one of the finest places in North America to view the night sky. Peer into lodge’s new Meade 10" telescope and you just might make out the rings of Saturn. 

 

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