Category: Trail

  • Restoring Taft Lodge: A Labor of Love for Historical Preservation

    This article appears in the 2025 Spring Long Trail News and was written by GMC Project Coordinator Justin Towers. One of the larger field projects this summer will be structural repairs to Taft Lodge, the oldest, largest, and second-highest shelter on the Long Trail. After a rebuild in 1996 and successful log replacements in 2016, the…

  • Goodbye Pit Privies! The Conversion to Composters Is Complete

    Goodbye Pit Privies! The Conversion to Composters Is Complete

    For the final project of the 2024 field season, GMC field staff installed a new moldering privy at Wintturi shelter on the Appalachian Trail in Bridgewater, Vermont. A new moldering privy is always an accomplishment, but this build actually marked the last privy conversion in Vermont, a long-awaited GMC milestone. Crews have converted 18 unsustainable,…

  • Trail Talk: Waterbars and Drainage

    This article appears in the 2024 Fall Long Trail News and was written jointly by GMC’s Communications Manager Chloe Miller and Education and Volunteer Coordinator Lorne Currier. When Keegan Tierney, GMC’s Director of Field Programs, interviewed for his job in 2017, he said “You’ll never see me build a waterbar.” A few years later, Keegan…

  • A Mid-Season Report on the Historic Burrows Trail Rehabilitation

    This post was written by Anna Gardner in August 2022. Crew continued work on Burrows every week until October 14, 2022, for a total of 128+ work sites.  Tens of thousands of hikers (and dogs) climb the Burrows Trail on Camel’s Hump each year, and it shows. “I could see the trail widening and where…

  • Hiking During Hunting Season in Vermont

    Hiking During Hunting Season in Vermont

    September 1st marks the start of Early Black Bear Season in Vermont, followed by many other hunting seasons throughout the fall. Hunting is allowed on all GMC owned and managed lands, including along the Long Trail and Appalachian Trail corridors in Vermont.  Please be safe when you are hiking and be respectful of all trail…

  • What’s that String in the Alpine Zones?

    What’s that String? If you’ve hiked Camel’s Hump, Mount Mansfield or Mount Abraham, you’ve seen low-lying white string delineating trails above treeline. Yes, it helps hikers find their way on exposed bedrock. But more importantly, it protects the fragile plants that grow only on the approximately 200 acres of Vermont’s alpine zones. These plants survive…

  • How Trail Crews Fight Erosion

    “Erosion is what causes all the problems on trail,” says Kevin Hart, GMC field supervisor of the Long Trail Patrol. “The main goal of trail crew is to stop erosion.” Kevin’s not talking about bear encounters or overflowing privies or litter in firepits when he says “problems.” He’s talking about trail degradation. You know what…

  • Explore New Trails with these List Challenges

    Cindy Griffith and Ira Sollace are list people. They tackle lists of peaks and trails to reach places they’ve never even heard of, like Cow Mountain. Cindy recently found that one on the NorthWoods Stewardship Center’s list of mountains in the Northeast Kingdom region of Vermont. The couple completed the NEK 20 in October of…

  • Section Hiking the Long Trail over Three Winters

    Sue Johnston and her husband, Chris Scott, park at the Route 9 trailhead in Bennington. No hikers greet them, nor do they expect any to at 3 a.m. on a March morning. Chris says his goodbyes as Sue slips into socks, boots, and Microspikes. She heads northbound up the Long Trail carrying enough gear for…

  • Winter Camping Do’s & Don’ts for a Successful Trip

    This article was written by John Plummer, VHCB AmeriCorps member & GMC group outreach & field coordinator. Winter camping can be very rewarding. There are no bugs, there are fewer crowds, you can see further through the forest. However, travelling in winter is challenging and poses risks that don’t exist at other times of the…