Vermont State Parks

Now that the snow has melted and the temperatures are warmer, most of us want to get outside and hike! But, mud season is not a good time for hiking in certain areas. Rain and melting snow at higher elevations are keeping many of Vermont's hiking trails wet and muddy. When hikers tramp on saturated soils, they cause soil compaction and erosion as well as damage to the trail and surrounding vegetation. Please help protect the fragile trails this time of year by staying off muddy trails. Higher elevation soils take longer to dry out. This year mud season is early. A trail may be dry at the trailhead, but is muddy at a higher elevation this time of year. If you notice this happening, please turn around! Trails at lower elevations, dirt roads, and recreation paths provide excellent places for early spring walking. Below is a list of great places to hike during mud season and please visit our hiking page at http://www.vtstateparks.com/htm/hikingtrails.htm...

 The former Will Monroe house On a recent blog post, "A Question Asked and Answered: Some Really Interesting Camel's Hump History", we shared a question asked by a park visitor about the history of Camel's Hump , and a really interesting answer from Stewardship Forester, Gary Sawyer. Well, Doug, our park visitor, came back with a few more questions for Gary, and here's how it went: Doug: My sister recently found a hand-written journal kept by our father when he and two other lads from Montpelier hiked the Long Trail from Duxbury to Rutland in August of 1921. Here is an excerpt of his first day account: "Brock, Lindsay and Jones left Montpelier at 3:00 P.M. Sunday with every expectation of rain. Arrived the Callahans 4:00 P.M. Packs weighed about 35 lbs. each. The first half mile was somewhat of a torture to our untrained muscles. Stopped about 6:30 at the Boy Scout camp for supper. The rest of the way to the top was so steep that our noses ...

Tin huts on Camel's Hump clearing We get questions of all kinds in our reservation call center, many relating to the history of certain land parcels. We're always amazed by what we learn, and thought you might be interested in this one: A person wrote to us about the restoration of Camel's Hump as follows: "I came across some old photos of tin huts on the upper portion of the mountain that were used by hikers and, I guess, maintained by the GMC back in the 1920's and 1930's. I understand that those intrusions have since been removed and wonder if you can tell me when this laudable action took place?" Gary Sawyer, Stewardship Forester for the Vermont Department of Forests, Parks & Recreation is my go-to guy for all things Camel's Hump. He knows everything about 'The Hump'. He sent some photos and this reply: Camel's Hump hotel  During the mid to late 1800’s, into the early 1900’s, it was quite popular for folks from ‘down-...

Help Green Mountain Club achieve Project 10,000 by the end of their centennial year (the end of March) by joining ! The club is currently supported by over 9,800 members but has an important goal of having 10,000 members by the end of its centennial year, this month ! For anybody who loves the Long Trail and all the other great projects GMC does, it's the perfect time to make a difference! Plus, any new members who join before March 11, 2011 will be entered into a drawing to win great prizes from local businesses. The Long Trail is a rugged footpath that spans the ridge of the Green Mountains from Massachusetts to Quebec, crossing through approximately 120 miles of state lands, including Smuggler’s Notch , Underhill , and Camel’s Hump State Parks. GMC exclusively maintains Camels Hump and Mt. Mansfield State Parks. The Long Trail exists because of the Green Mountain Club, a 100-year-old non-profit organization that built and maintains it. Since 1910, GMC volunteers have worked c...