Good news from the Appalachian Mountain Club this week, which reported that they have just purchased the 29,500-acre Roach Pond tract in Maine’s North Woods. The land abuts the 37,000 acre Katahdin Iron Works property the AMC already owns. So what this means is that hikers, cross-country skiers, even mountain bikers will have the opportunity to go on a 63-mile-long corridor of conservation land near Greenville north to Baxter State Park, home to mighty Mount Katahdin. Instead of hut-to-hut hiking, the cornerstone of the AMC’s legacy in the White Mountains of New Hampshire, you’ll be able to venture from historic sporting camp-to-sporting camp. The purchase provides a permanent connection between four sporting camps, used for over a century to bring “sports” up from Boston and New York to fish and hunt.

AMC bought the Roach Ponds parcel from Plum Creek Timber Company for $11.5 million. The purchase is part of a planned 400,000-acre conservation network negotiated between Plum Creek, AMC, The Nature Conservancy, and the Forest Society of Maine. Plum Creek Timber Company was recently given the right to build 975 houses and two resorts on the shores of Moosehead Lake, so this is more or less a consolation prize for environmental groups. The Moosehead Lake real estate plan is currently being appealed by the National Resources Council of Maine.