Signs of spring starting to show Time change will light up evenings

Have you checked your internal clock lately? The days are getting longer (more than two hours, 45 minutes longer than Dec. 22) and the sun is getting warmer.

You say the past few days haven’t felt much warmer? Arctic blasts, you say? Subnormal temperatures? It’s all a minor inconvenience. Heck, we’ll have some of what the southern states have had the past few days sometime around June, just you wait and see! (Let’s see, that’ll be 12 or so weeks – just three months, a quarter of a year- why that’s less than an instant in the grand scheme of things. In the meantime, keep an eye on the Weather Channel and see how uncomfortable all those people running around in shorts and T-shirts look trying to stay cool. Why, I’ll bet they’d trade places anytime.)

Just to prove it, I’ll ask Jeanne in our office here next week when she returns from Florida where she and her family have spent a week probably sweating to death in Orlando at Disney World. I’m sure she’s had a miserable week and longs for the crisp breezes we’ve been enjoying.

This weekend we get to lose an hour when we set the clocks ahead. Now we’ll see ol’ Sol rise an hour later, around 7 a.m. on Sunday vs. 6 a.m. or so on Saturday, but we’ll have an hour more of daylight on the other end with Saturday’s sunset at around 5:40 p.m. and Sunday’s around 6:40 p.m. Now when we get out of work in the evening, there may be some light.

While I await leaves to grow to the size of a mouse’s ears and abundant open water, I’m going to visit the western part of our state this weekend where there’s some snow. My plan is to hit The Forks and explore the area on foot and by snow sled with the folks at Northern Outdoors. If you can’t beat winter, you might as well join it. And March is the best month for this kind of trip. I’ll fill you in when I get back.

Katahdin in winter

In the meantime, my alter ego, Brad Viles, is freezing his skinny little butt off climbing Mount Katahdin this weekend. If he’s not frozen into a Popsicle he may entertain us next weekend with a tale or two of his slog on skis into the park at Abol and a frosty ascent of the ice-covered rock pile with a group of friends. Good luck, Brad and company.

Maybe he should sign up with Jon Tierney of Acadia Mountain Guides in Orono who is taking a small group of folks from across the country to climb Mount Katahdin – not so much for the challenge but to help at-risk youth who benefit from Summit for Someone, the country’s leading volunteer organization devoted to providing significant mentoring during wilderness trips for urban teens.

According to an e-mail I got from Sharon Kitchens at SK Public Relations in South Portland, Summit for Someone is a series of benefit climbs supporting the at-risk teens served by Big City Mountaineers, a nonprofit organization that provides life-changing wilderness experiences for “under-resourced” urban teenagers. Summit for Someone’s programs combine a team mentoring trip format with Outward Bound-like experiences.

Each participant on this trip to the summit of Katahdin has raised a minimum of $3,500 to put toward sponsoring outdoor activities for at-risk youth.

“The climb will begin with a half-day ski into the base of the mountain to a winter camp at Chimney Pond. Once there the group will have instant access to the biggest Alpine terrain east of the Rockies. The view from Chimney Pond alone is worth the ski in,” Kitchens said.

The next two days will be devoted to learning about backcountry winter camping and mountaineering, then applying these new skills to attempt the summit of the highest point in Maine. And the fifth day will be spent returning to the trailhead where the summiteers’ feet will have a well-deserved rest. This trip is physically demanding but requires no previous winter climbing or camping experience, Kitchens said.

Tierney is an accomplished climber, guide, paramedic, and instructor in wilderness medicine and, I’m told, one of the most well rounded and technically skilled guides in the world. Acadia Mountain Guides Climbing School is a full service year-round climbing school based in Bar Harbor and Orono.

The trips will run March 14-18 and 21-25. For more information visit: summitforsomeone.com or acadiamountainguides.com

Watch for spring

Friends of Unity Wetlands is taking a more laid-back approach to their wait for spring. They say spring is so slow arriving here even busy people have time to watch it happen. And if you take a day in each of the upcoming months, they’ll be glad to show you just what is happening in the arrivals terminal.

All you’ll be expected to do is take a walk with them. After each walk, you will have a chance to get to work and make a creation of your own in the Unity Wetlands Education Center, 93 Main Street.

“Three Mornings to Explore a Slow-Motion Spring in a Busy, Busy World” will be led by instructor Nancy Tyndall of Milkweed Puppet Theater. All ages are welcome, but those ages 6 and under should bring a helper. The series kicks off on St. Patrick’s Day, March 17, with “Spring is Here Long Before the First Daffodil Blooms,” Jennifer Brockway of the Friends of Unity Group said in an e-mail. After this walk, the group will make some tiny wild houses and plant a tiny eggshell garden.

The next walk in the series is entitled, “What’s Happening in the Woods?” It will be on April 21. Most likely, many changes will be evident since the previous walk. “Bring sharp eyes to help find out what has been happening. Come find out why frogs that wear masks like ponds that dry up, and where beautiful flowers bloom without any petals,” Brockway said.

The series will end on May 12 with “Welcome Back Birds.” The woods should be busy by this time with all kinds of activity with birds returning from faraway lands. “Welcome them back by making your own bird puppet that can open its mouth to sing,” Brockway suggested.

All programs run 9:30-11:30 a.m. and begin at the Connor Mill Trailhead on Albion Road in Unity. Space is limited and preregistration is required for each walk. There is a suggested donation of $5 per person or $10 per family per session. Participants may sign up for individual sessions or the entire series. To register or for more information, call 948-3766 or e-mail FUW@uninets.net.

Jeff Strout’s column on outdoor recreation is published each Saturday. He can be reached at 990-8202 or by e-mail at jstrout@bangordailynews.net.