Appalachian Mountain Club

The Appalachian Mountain Club (AMC) is one of the United States' oldest outdoor groups. Created in 1876 to explore and preserve the White Mountains in New Hampshire, it has expanded throughout the northeastern U.S., with 12 chapters stretching from Maine to Washington, D.C. The AMC reported a membership of nearly 90,000 in 2005, who mix outdoor recreation, particularly hiking and backpacking, with environmental activism. Additional activities that it conducts include cross-country skiing, whitewater and flatwater canoeing and kayaking, sea kayaking, sailing, rock climbing and bicycle riding. It has about 2,700 volunteers, who lead roughly 7,000 trips and activities per year.

The AMC was founded by Massachusetts Institute of Technology Professor Edward Pickering, who invited fellow Boston academics and vacationers to form a group interested in mountain exploration. The group helped map the White Mountains and in 1888 built the first of eight High Huts in the range, designed after similar facilities in the Alps that gave hikers a place to take shelter.

In 2003, the AMC purchased 37,000 acres (150 km²) of land east of Moosehead Lake and southwest of Baxter State Park, along the 100-Mile Wilderness portion of the Appalachian Trail, as part of their Maine Woods Initiative. They have converted a portion of the purchase to a nature preserve, logged a portion, and are running a sporting camp called Little Lyford Pond camps about two miles (3 km) away from the trail. They are considering purchasing more sporting camps in the vicinity.