Excerpts from Field Notes on
Illegal Off-Road Vehicle Use
Today I again checked the Old Rootville Road, which climbs from Manchester up the northern side of the ravine of Downer Glen to Prospect Rock and beyond. The Appalachian Trail-Long Trail follows this road for about three quarters of a mile, so this is one of the places where ATV use can affect the AT-LT experience.
The road continues to be heavily used by four-wheel-drive trucks, mainly in connection with the hunting camp in the inholding at the end of the road. Today (Wednesday) was during the second week of the rifle deer season, and the camp was occupied. I stayed on Forest Service land, gave the camp a wide berth, and was only occasionally within sight of the red-blazed Forest Service boundary marking the extent of the camp property.
The snow that fell on the morning of November 25 lingered as a continuous cover of an inch or so, so it was easy to see tracks indicating the traffic of the last couple of days.
I followed the snowmobile trail (VAST trail 7F4) heading eastward from the end of Old Rootville Road toward VAST (Vermont Association of Snow Travelers) Corridor 7. This trail has been used by ATVs since my last visit on September 17; the ruts in the trail were much deeper than before.
I followed the snowmobile trail about two-tenths of a mile beyond its junction with the ATV trail leading to the inholding, then bushwhacked about three tenths a mile northwest, and struck the ATV trail leading away from the inholding northeasterly through the Green Mountain National Forest. One hunter had walked out this trail, eventually stopping and sitting on a downed log, where he left half a dozen Tootsie Roll wrappers before returning to camp.
I followed the inholders’ ATV trail to its end, taking GPS readings periodically after I passed the farthest point I had reached on the trail on earlier visits. The more remote reaches of the trail have been much less used than the stretches closer to the inholding. The ATV trail eventually joins an old skid trail and follows it uphill just short of a point where the skid trail branches in several directions, where both ATV use and brush clearing stop.
However, along one of the branches of the skid trail (bearing approximately 340 degrees magnetic) bushes and branches up to two centimeters in diameter have been lopped at heights varying between knee- and waist-height. Apparently they were cut when snow was deep. Lopped stems can be found along the skid trail to its end, and continue for a short distance into the woods, eventually becoming impossible to follow. This pattern suggests that the route, though not an authorized trail, has been used for snowmobiling.
GPS Coordinates on Trails
Inholders’ Trail
GPS readings obtained 9/17/03:
N 43 degrees 09.286’, C59.580’ (21 feet)
N 43 degrees 09.438’, W 72 degrees 59.660 (17 feet)
N 43 degrees 09.611’, W 72 degrees 59.538’ (19 feet)
N 43 degrees 09.730’, W 72 degrees 59.398’ (23 feet)
GPS readings obtained 11/26/03:
N 43 degrees 09.727’, W 72 degrees 59.424’ (18 feet)
N 43 degrees 09.728’, W 72 degrees 59.388’ (20 feet)
N 43 degrees 09.834’, W 72 degrees 59.408’ (18 feet)
(ATV trail joins an overgrown skid trail bearing approximately 240 degrees magnetic)
N 43 degrees 09.857’, W 72 degrees 59.486’ (18 feet)
(ATV tracks & brush clearing end)
N 43 degrees 09.869’, W 72 degrees 59.823’ (18 feet)
N 43 degrees 09.920’, W 72 degrees 59.566’ (20 feet)
(Skid trail ends)
N 43 degrees 09.939’, W 72 degrees 59.609’ (22 feet)
(Snowmobile trail appears to continue, approximately 340 degrees magnetic)
Photo Identifications
526, 527: ATV ruts on snowmobile trail 7F4 about a tenth of a mile beyond its junction with the Appalachian Trail.
528-530: AVT ruts through a wetland on the inholders’ ATV trail.
529: Lopped brush stems in an old skid trail beyond the end of ATV travel on the inholders’ trail, suggesting snowmobile travel here.
520: Logs cut to facilitate passage of ATVs on the inholders’ ATV trail. Location: N 43 degrees 09.717’, West 72 degrees 59.424’ (18 feet).
|
|
More