Hidden Valley Nature Center (HVNC) has the recipe for a great winter afternoon outdoors. The best part about this recipe is that it’s easy, and you can change the recipe to meet your tastes!

Starting on January 2, every Saturday, from 11:30 a.m. until the pot is empty, HVNC will be serving up soup made and donated by local restaurants. It’s worth planning your day around.

Here’s what we suggest:

Arrive to HVNC by 10:30 a.m. Ski, snowshoe, walk, hike, bike, or run the Four Hut Tour. No snow is no excuse! Make your way from the Yurt to Two Dog Hut to Hermit Hut, and finally to the Little Dyer Pond Cabin. This way you can check out all the buildings for your next overnight stay, and you get to see Little Dyer Pond.
By that time you will have worked up a good appetite, so stop in at the Barn and have a bowl of soup. Maybe a cup of coffee or hot chocolate, too. Your $5 donation is an easy, delicious way to help support outdoor recreation opportunities.

Then,set out again for Couch Hill and return via Kidney Pond, or maybe Log Brow Loop. The afternoon loop should feel a little shorter since you’ll be full of great chili or chicken noodle soup.

Participating restaurants include (in this order, starting on January 2): Sarah’s, the Publick House, Treats, the Alna Store, Sheepscot General, Sarah’s again, and Rising Tide. They’ll all be great!

HVNC is one of four organizations merging on January 1, 2016 to create Midcoast Conservancy, a new organization whose mission is to support and promote healthy lands, waters, wildlife, and people in the mid-coast through conservation, education, and recreation. Midcoast Conservancy will serve much of Waldo and Lincoln counties, providing over 60 miles of publicly accessible trails, fields trips and programs designed to help people of all ages deepen their curiosity of the natural world, and 6300 acres of conserved land that are open to the public for non-motorized recreation. For more information, visit HVNC’s web site (www.hvnc.org), write to us at info@hvnc.org, or call 207-200-8840.