Green Mountain Club

Maintaining & Protecting Vermont's Long Trail Since 1910

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Help Support the Busy Trail Season Ahead

December 30, 2021 by Mike Debonis Leave a Comment

map showing 2021 field season projects
The 2021 field season was one of the busiest in recent history. You can make the 2022 field season just as successful with a year-end donation.

What a year! This past field season was one of the busiest in recent memory with an extraordinary amount of work accomplished, thanks to your support: seven new privies; reconstruction of multiple shelters; bridge repairs; and major trail work on the northern Long Trail, around Stratton Pond, and at Bolton Mountain. I had the pleasure of seeing much of this work first-hand while completing my third End-to-End hike of the Long Trail this summer.

Emily Proctor Shelter repair.
Emily Proctor Shelter repair. Photo by: Scout Phillips

The investments made this year not only address current needs, such as the increased popularity of hiking, but are set to have lasting benefits for decades. As I visited the recently reconstructed Emily Proctor Shelter, I thought of all the hikers that will end their days here for the next 50 years. Each of the seven new privies will be in service for more than 30 years. And some of the new trail hardening infrastructure that I walked on, north of Route 242 on my way to Jay Peak, should last 20 years or more.

Helicopter airlift at Stratton, July 2021.
Helicopter airlift at Stratton, July 2021. Photo by: Chloe Miller

It takes careful, advanced planning for us to complete these projects, and we can’t do it without your support. In July, we airlifted more than 18 tons of construction material into five different backcountry sites to be turned into new privies, shelters, and tent platforms at Stratton Pond, Kid Gore, Melville Nauheim, and Seth Warner sites.

Material stack brought in by airlift at Seth Warner; l-r: Emily Hollander, Kati Christoffel, Zack Chastain
Material stack at Seth Warner; l-r: Emily Hollander, Zack Chastain, and Kati Christoffel

Currently, neat stacks of materials sit dormant in the woods, waiting for next year’s professional crews and volunteers to turn them into new backcountry facilities. A new, fully accessible privy in the back-country typically requires a combination of professional staff and volunteers to bring the materials to the site and build the structure over the course of several planned workdays.

As we move into 2022, we will continue investing in the future of the Long Trail: we have more work on the northern Long Trail to complete, a new shelter slated for Stratton Pond, and additional privies to convert. To make this happen, we need financial support from donors like you.

map showing planned 2022 field projects
2022 is shaping up to be a busy year of important trail work, privy conversions and new shelter building to add capacity to the trail. I hope you can support the trail by making a year-end gift to GMC.

Today  I ask you to make a year-end donation to support this important work in 2022. Your gift now will make a difference in what we can accomplish and have a lasting impact on the Long Trail. I know so many of you have already stepped up this year to support the Long Trail, so I thank you for considering a year-end gift to support our work for next year.

Filed Under: News, Trail

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two side by side images showing a small container of soil and water

Ask a Science Teacher: Why is the Long Trail so Muddy?

March 27, 2023

Vermont — and especially the Long Trail — is known for being sort of muddy. We even have an official fifth season, "mud season." Why is Vermont (sometimes known as "Vermud") and the Long Trail so muddy? Why is the Long Trail so muddy? To answer, we asked Joe Bahr, newly minted author of the … Read more

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Mission

The Green Mountain Club is the founder and maintainer of the Long Trail - the oldest long distance hiking trail in America. Established in 1910 to build this trail stretching the length of Vermont, the club now also maintains the Appalachian Trail in Vermont and trails in the Northeast Kingdom in its mission to "make the Vermont mountains play a larger part in the life of the people." Read more...

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