Vermont’s Long Trail

Vermont’s Long Trail
Length: 270 miles through Vermont, from Massachusetts border to Canadian border; many fine days hikes as well.
Terrain: Ridgeline of Green Mountains, hardwood and conifer forests.
Highlights: Nation’s oldest long-distance trail through exceptional setting; ideal hut-to-hut hiking
For more information: The Green Mountain Club, 4711 Waterbury-Stowe Rd., Waterbury Center, VT 05677 (802)244-7037 www.greenmountainclub.org

Vermont’s Green Mountains are the impressive setting for the famous Long Trail. The 270-mile path visits the highest mountains and wildest scenery in the state as it traverses the ridgeline of the Green Mountains.

The Long Trail, conceived in 1910 as a “footpath in the wilderness,” is the nation’s oldest long-distance footpath, and remains one of America’s best. The trail was built with the support of the Green Mountain Club, the organization that maintains the trail today.

GMC also maintains 175 miles of side trail and five-dozen rustic cabins. The club publishes an indispensable guide to the Long Trail, as well as maps and other useful publications. GMC’s conservation activities include efforts to preserve threatened lands and trails in Northern Vermont.

Long Trail highlights are many, particularly in Green Mountain National Forest in southern and central Vermont, which encompasses the state’s most beautifully wooded areas. Bread Loaf Wilderness, Lye Brook Wilderness and four smaller wilderness areas protect spruce, fir and hardwood forests, steep peaks and plateaus, lakes, brooks and waterfalls. About half the Long Trail is included within the boundaries of the national forest.

Another highlight–and the state’s high point–is mighty Mt. Mansfield, whose rocky summit offers Vermont’s finest views. On Mansfield’s broad shoulder is a botanically rare area of arctic-alpine tundra that attracts researchers from around the world.

One more gem is Camel’s Hump, the rare Vermont promontory untouched by a ski lift or any other development. Up top is an austere landscape of green lichen, gray rock, and alpine plants that have survived since the last Ice Age.

Although a few stretches of Long Trail are walk-in-the-park easy, most lengths are moderate to strenuous. Adding to its difficulty for hikers is the trail’s very design; hikers will find few of the gentle contours or switchbacks typical of newer trails. In this respect, the Long Trail is as stubborn and straight-forward as Vermonters themselves.

Even the Green Mountain Club huts are more spartan than those along the Appalachian Trail and other long-distance trails. Hikers must pack in just about everything–food, fuel and sleeping gear.

In southern Vermont, the first hundred miles of the Long Trail coincide with the Appalachian Trail. Proud Vermont walkers sometimes joke that the upstart AT, constructed a few years after the Long Trail is but a side trail to the Long Trail.

Favorite all-day or weekend walks along the Long Trail include the path between Lincoln Gap and the Appalachian Gap; it’s one of the most scenic ridge walks in Vermont, with views of New York’s Adirondack Mountains and New Hampshire’s White Mountains. The 11-mile hike leads over six mountain summits, three of which are over 4,000 feet. The Long Trail from Lincoln Gap to the Winooksi River is called Monroe Skyline, after Professor Will S. Monroe who located the trail along this ridgeline.

The Long Trail between Little Rock Pond and Clarendon Gorge crosses a valley,, mountains and a dramatic gorge on a suspension bridge. A number of trail shelters en route on the 14.5 mile route suggest an overnight stay.

A must-visit via the Long Trail is Mount Mansfield, elevation 4,393 feet, highest Vermont peak and a National Natural Landmark. The summit ridge supports a rare and beautiful arctic-alpine plant community, flora remnants of an era when ice sheets covered northern New England. Nine trails climb the mountain, but the choice of many is the 9.5 -mile ascent via the Long Trail and descent via Haselton Trail.