My favorite day each spring is the second Saturday of April, when I go to an all-day meeting. Favorite day, an all-day meeting? Yup, this is the beginning of the Maine Appalachian Trail Club season, the annual meeting. It will be at the University of Maine in Farmington.

Not that a lot of us aren't busy all winter doing what used to be called paper work, but now is done by computer and e-mail. As the MATC Group Registration volunteer, I've already received some registrations from colleges and camps for where they want to camp along the AT in Maine this summer. MATC's executive committee has met all winter, dealing with issues that MATC must tackle this year.

Our overseer of lands, Dave Field, who was honored this spring by L.L. Bean for his life-long efforts -- since he was a teenager -- of caring for the AT, has been busy all winter with lots of planning and computer chores. Others are making their plans to get out to their "sections" to do trail maintenance or corridor monitoring. The CARE committee is making its plans to help carry in the equipment for the caretakers at several busy camping sites.

On April 12, we all come together at UMF to conduct the financial business of approving the annual budget, hearing reports of various activities last year, hearing plans for 2008, taking part in workshops, and just plain having fun catching up with each other. (For some of us, catching up on MATC acquaintances means wondering who that guy or gal is over there with white hair. Didn't their hair used to be brown?)

There are some 600 of us altogether, all volunteers except one paid MATC coordinator. The annual letter reminding us that it is time to renew our membership, states that while the membership dues help, the most helpful role members can play is to volunteer on the ground -- the rocks, roots, and mud of the AT.

Most organizations are looking for your financial support. We're looking for you body and your mind to help care for the AT from Grafton Notch in western Maine to the summit of Katahdin.

The annual meeting is a combination informational and business meeting with a chance to ask questions -- and join to help us if you want.

To find it, follow Routes 4 and 27 north at the traffic light from Route 2. When the road makes its first left curve, look for the UMF parking lot on the right. Park there and follow the signs.

I won't follow the road to that curve until after I stop at the good-old-boys'-and ladies' diner on the left for breakfast. If you don't eat breakfast -- perish the starving thought -- you'll find coffee and goodies near the registration desk beginning at 8 a.m. You can browse among old MATC photos, and other club memorabilia, and look through literature, picking some up. There is no charge for the coffee and goodies -- or the day.

The meeting begins at 9 a.m. and continues until 4 p.m. The MATC president will give his activities report as will the corresponding secretary, who writes to the many hikers who contact him with questions about the AT in Maine. Other topics will be a report on last summer's canoe ferry crossing of the Kennebec River at Caratunk, a report from a committee looking into possible new campground sites and what to do about "bootleg" sites -- places hikers camp and cause unintentional problems where there are no MATC campsites, my own report on the Group Registration effort to help groups of hikers not fall over other groups at campsites, reports on AT maintenance activities, and more.

At an open forum Saturday afternoon, you can ask questions about MATC or the AT in Maine.

My question for today is, will you attend? It's a chance for you to move from being a user of the AT to one who helps keep it there.

Don't you want to get hot and dirty moving rocks around for stairs or logs to help build a lean-to? And while you're doing that, you can have the satisfaction of knowing you're helping Maine wildlife -- feeding those blackflies and mosquitoes.

We call that getting bitten by the AT bug.

Western Maine's Saddleback Junior from the east along the Appalachian Trail. Photo by Dave Field.

Milt Gross can be reached for corrections, harassment, or other purposes at lesstraveledway@midmaine.com.

Milton M. Gross Copyright 2008