Amanda Jones, of Shrewsbury, Pa., sets up a ground cloth Friday where she intends to spend the week camping on the Colby College campus in Waterville during the Appalachian Trail Conservancy Conference. "I'd rather be outside than inside, even if it's raining, but it's not going to," Jones said. She is one of the estimated 150 tenters for the week at the conference, which offers participants excursions from the coast on Penobscot Bay to the western Maine mountains.
Erik Koeppel explains his studies of the natural landscape prior to a final painting that he envisions in a revivalist style similar to the landscapes of the mid-1800s. Koeppel was one of four speakers Friday during the afternoon session of the Art and Land conservation symposium happening concurrently as part of the Appalachian Trail Conservancy Conference on the Colby campus in Waterville.
Holly Sheehan, who manages the Maine Appalachian Trail Club's Caretaker & Ridgerunner Education Program, and Tony Mullin confer during registration Friday at the Appalachian Trail Conservancy Conference at Colby College in Waterville. Sheehan and Mullin provided directions to participants arriving at the conference.
Laurie Foot helps her husband, Gary Nero, both of Lynchburg, Va., assemble a wall of their pop-up camper Friday in the RV parking lot at the Colby College campus in Waterville. Foot said they attended the last Appalachian Trail Conservancy Conference in Virginia. Foot and Nero had just spent time camping and hiking in Canada, and they are attending the conference before returning home.
Ray Ronan, left, and Tony Barrett move items across the Colby College campus Friday in Waterville before the start of registration for the Appalachian Trail Conservancy Conference. Ronan, a retired Special Forces soldier, said he joined the Maine Appalachian Trail Club after completing a thru-hike in 2000. Ronan is the editor of the club's guide book and Barrett serves on the executive committee.
Participants line up to register for the Appalachian Trail Conservancy Conference on Friday afternoon on the Colby College campus in Waterville. The conference runs until this Friday and includes workshops, excursions and hikes, as well as the camaraderie among fellow hikers from various Appalachian Trail clubs.
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