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PHOTO: The Maine Outing Club at their cabin in Carrabassett Valley near Sugarloaf Mountain. (Orion-Bay Tucker photo).
CARRABASSETT VALLEY – The University of Maine’s Maine Outing Club’s cabin near Sugarloaf Mountain has been selected for renovation by the Magnolia Network’s “Maine Cabin Masters,” and the club is fundraising the $20,000 by Sept. 1 needed to complete the project.
“Maine Cabin Masters” is a docuseries that follows Kennebec Cabin Co., of Manchester, as the crew renovates camps across Maine.
The show gets thousands of applications a year from camp owners who want to participate. Orion-Bay Tucker, Maine Outing Club treasurer, said that the student group entered their cabin for consideration at the suggestion of a former member’s father. Tucker said he and the other club leaders figured that, on the off chance that they were chosen, the renovations would be a great way to celebrate the club’s 100th anniversary in 2023.
The club members were shocked – and thrilled – when the cabin was selected. The Maine Outing Club’s cabin is an important part of the club’s history. The original 1926 cabin at Chemo Pond was used as an off-campus trip destination for teaching basic camp skills before the building moved to Orono in 1938. In 1958, the club leased land near Sugarloaf Mountain from Scott Paper Co. to build a cabin that could be a central hub for club ski trips. Tucker said the cabin hosts dozens of students every winter.
“We as a club just want to get more people to experience outdoor recreation and we do a really great job with that in the fall and in the spring, but it’s difficult in the winter,” he said. “One of the highlights of the club has been the cabin and the access to Sugarloaf Mountain and the camaraderie it brings.”
The cabin has always been bare-bones. The club applied to “Maine Cabin Masters” with the goal of addressing basic structural issues to ensure a safe and fun student bonding experience and the renovation will include replacing the sagging foundation, swapping propane lights with electricity, improving insulation and ensuring safe fire escapes from the top floor.
Tucker said the Maine Outing Club told the Cabin Masters crew that they hope to keep the simple charm that makes the cabin special.
“It’s special because it’s this rustic four-walled wood structure that, while it’s degraded over the years, the memories that people have there really haven’t,” Tucker said. “When we talked to them, we said we wanted to keep that culture, so we advised them to keep as much as you can intact but just make it structurally sound. They are doing some extra things, but they didn’t tell us because they want it to be a surprise.”
Maine Cabin Masters began the work June 21 and are expected to finish Sept. 1. The episode will air next season on Magnolia Network.
“Maine has a long tradition of outdoor sports and recreation, many members of our team are University of Maine graduates,” Chase Morrill, owner of Kennebec Cabin Co., said. “We are proud to be involved in the preservation of such a unique cabin that is a part of so many Mainer’s past and future.”
Tucker said the club hopes area businesses and UMaine alumni will chip in on the $20,000 budget. Any extra money raised will go to wish-list items requested by the students that fall outside the necessary structural upgrades.
“When we posted about this on the Maine Outing Club on Facebook, there were so many comments like, ‘Oh, I practically lived there in the eighties,’ ‘I remember splitting wood,’ ‘I remember meeting the love of my life here, ‘ ” Tucker said. “It’s cool to scroll through the comments and see how the cabin has changed so little.”
For more information, visit the Maine Outing Club at ourmaine.edu.
