And the special Long Trail cookies were a creative and tasty treat as well.
You can see all the photos from the meeting here.
Supporting documents:
2024 Draft Annual Meeting Minutes
All 2024 Annual Reports
Proposed By-Laws changes (1/5/2025)
MEETING SUMMARY: The 50th Bread Loaf Section of the Green Mountain Club (GMC) was held on the evening of Sunday February 2 at the Champlain Valley Unitarian Universalist Society (2 Duane Ct) in Middlebury. The GMC is the founder and maintainer of the Long Trail, the oldest long distance hiking trail in America.
The meeting was attended by over 100 members and guests. Section President Beth Eliason opened the meeting with a review of section reports, approval of 2024 Annual Meeting minutes and commentary followed by a vote to approve on minor revisions to the Bread Loaf Section by-laws. We then enjoyed updates from two special GMC guests: Mike DeBonis, Executive Director of the GMC and Nancy McClellan, GMC Board President. The business portion of the meeting concluded with the presentation of and election of the slate of nominees for all positions on Bread Loaf's 2025 Executive Committee.
Special guest speaker Will Amidon presented “Making the Green Mountain State.” His engrossing presentation included the geologic basis for Vermont's creation, and geologic snap shots of local Addison county features and landscapes including ancient river deltas that underlie Bristol, as well as his hypothesis that Otter Creek once ran where the Lemon Fair river now flows until it was interrupted by a change in the height of land near where the Lemon Fair originates. More details on Professor Amidon are below.
Guest speaker Will Amidon discussed how the landscapes of west-central Vermont evolved over geologic time. He began with a walk-through deep time geology and finish with the most recent glaciation. The talk drew on examples from popular outdoor destinations illustrated with geologic maps and high-resolution LiDAR-based topography. Amidon is a geologist who grew up in Charlotte Vermont, graduated from CVU in 1997 and Carleton College in 2001 before receiving a MSc from UC Santa Barbara in 2004 and a PhD from Caltech in 2010. He now lives with his wife and two daughters in Cornwall, Vermont. His passion for backcountry skiing has helped him connect deeply with the central Green Mountains over the past 15 years.