Excerpts from Field Notes on
Illegal Off-Road Vehicle Use
Today I walked FR 307 from its lower end, near the Robert Scott house in Glastenbury, to its junction with FR 313. I then followed FR 313 to its end, and followed the snowmobile trail beyond it toward the summit of Glastenbury Mountain. I went as far as the extensive corduroy installed to cross a stretch of boggy conifer forest. At this point I was about 700 feet below the summit, and probably two miles from it by trail. (This is just a guess.)
ATV tracks strongly suggest that these roads are traveled more by ATVs than they were last year. Today is Thursday; it rained heavily on Monday and Tuesday; yet half a dozen ATVs had traveled the lower portion of the road in the two midweek days since the rain, and several traveled all of the distance I walked today (six or seven miles each way). Increased ATV travel was especially noticeable on the entrance of the snowmobile trail toward MacIntyre and the Kelley Stand Road (FR 6). ATV travel on the snowmobile trail at this point has been frequent enough this summer to flatten and kill grass and other small vegetation. This was not true last summer, nor was it true as of June 6 this year, the last time I checked this point.
Although I did not reach the Appalachian Trail-Long Trail, reports from Green Mountain Club ridge runners and others indicate that visits by ATVs to the summit are common, and this route clearly is a main approach. Thus, the approach route of FR 307 and FR 313 is one that significantly adversely affects the experience of hikers on the Appalachian Trail.
A so-called gate was recently installed at N 43 degrees 59.782’, W 73 degrees 05.793’ (19 feet GPS limit of accuracy)), which is a short distance before the end of the improved portion of FR 313 at N 43 degrees 59.604’, W 73 degrees 05.783’ (21 feet) . However, the gate consists merely of several vertical steel posts with a five-foot opening in the center, and it is completely ineffective against ATVs. It is clearly signed against wheeled vehicles, but ATV operators ignore the signs and go through the gate. It appears that two steel posts with holes designed to accommodate a cable were installed in the wrong places, so no cable can be fixed across the openings between the posts. Some other method of blocking this gap may be planned, but I could see no evidence of it.
The new barrier does effectively stop four-wheel-drive trucks, but there is no indication that they ever went further than the end of the improved portion of FR 313 (N 43 degrees 59.604’, W 73 degrees 05.783’ (21 feet)), where an earlier gate was bypassed by an ATV detour through the woods. This location is only about a quarter of a mile beyond the current barrier.
Rebuilding the new barrier so it is an effective gate would be one possible structural solution to reducing ATV crossing and trespass on the AT from this direction. However, it would be more effective to install a proper gate where FR 307 crosses the first Forest Service boundary (N 43 degrees 00.608’, W 73 degrees 06.510’ (24 feet)), which is now marked by a sign announcing the purchase by the United States government of 4,000 acres of land. This boundary is much closer to highways, which would make access for enforcement and gate maintenance easier and cheaper.
If the Forest Service ever acquires the Trenor Scott property, the best location for a gate would then be just above Fayville, where there is a disused gate at what is apparently the boundary between the town road and the start of Scott’s private road system, 275 feet above the bridge over Fayville Branch at Fayville.
On my way in to Fayville, I noted tracks of an excavator, made before the recent rains, but still clearly evident. The machine apparently was used to deepen and reconstruct 42 waterbars on FR 307 and FR 313, some on Scott land and some on Forest Service land, all beyond Fayville. Many of the waterbars are new, located where formerly there were neither culverts nor waterbars. The repairs seem to be a recognition that continuing and increasing use of the roads by ATVs and four-wheel-drive trucks is forming ruts that channel water, which threatens to damage the roads. Probably the excavator was also used to install the new barrier.
Just before the clearing at Fayville, an ATV trail heads into the woods bearing 210 degrees magnetic at N 43 degrees 00.343’, W 73 degrees 06.789’ (18 feet limit of accuracy). This is on Scott land, and the bearing suggests it is unlikely it would reach Forest Service land.
A fairly well traveled ATV trail leaves the snowmobile trail and heads downhill bearing approximately 165 degrees magnetic at N 43 degrees 59.437’, W 73 degrees 05.177’ (39 feet). It is impossible to tell from appearance whether this is a spur trail leading to a remote camp or some other destination, or an alternate ATV approach to Glastenbury Mountain from some point on the periphery of the backcountry. If it is an alternate approach, gating FR 307 and/or FR 313 will not affect it.
I turned around at the far end of the snowmobile corduroy (N 43 degrees 49.551’, W 73 degrees 04.766’ (23 feet)), which I estimated by pacing to be 465 feet long.
Photo Identifications
396: Town sign at the start of FR 307, near the Robert Scott house, indicating that the selectmen consider this segment of the road to be an unmaintained town road.
397: Excavator track on FR 307 between Robert Scott house and Fayville.
398: Deepened and rebuilt waterbar on FR 307 above Fayville. There are 42 such repaired or newly installed waterbars on FR 307 and FR 313.
399: ATV and four-wheel-drive tracks over a repaired waterbar on FR 307.
400: Well-worn ATV tracks at the junction of FR 307 and the snowmobile trail toward MacIntyre and the Kelley Stand Road (FR 6), indicating increasing use of the snowmobile trail by ATVs.
401: Fresh ATV tracks on dry gravel on FR 313 at its junction with FR 307.
402: ATV and four-wheel-drive tracks on FR 313.
403: New so-called gate on FR 313 (N 43 degrees 59.782’, W 73 degrees 05.793’ (19 feet)). The center gap is five feet wide.
404: Left side of new gate on FR 313 (N 43 degrees 59.782’, W 73 degrees 05.793’ (19 feet)). Note two posts apparently intended to accommodate a cable at the extreme left.
405: Right side of new gate on FR 313 (N 43 degrees 59.782’, W 73 degrees 05.793’ (19 feet)).
406: Sign at new gate on FR 313 (N 43 degrees 59.782’, W 73 degrees 05.793’ (19 feet)).
408, 409: ATV tracks on FR 313 beyond the new gate.
411: Sign at end of FR 313 (N 43 degrees 59.604’, W 73 degrees 05.783’ (21 feet)).
412: ATV track on the snowmobile trail between the end of FR 313 and Glastenbury Mountain summit.
413: ATV trail bearing approximately 165 degrees magnetic from the snowmobile trail between the end of FR 313 and Glastenbury Mountain summit. Photo location N 43 degrees 59.421’, W 73 degrees 05.176’ (39 feet).
414: Worn ATV ruts on a dry portion of the snowmobile trail between the end of FR 313 and Glastenbury Mountain summit, indicating regular travel.
415: The start of the snowmobile corduroy on the snowmobile trail between the end of FR 313 and Glastenbury Mountain summit. Photo location N 43 degrees 59.664’, W 73 degrees 04.022’ (36 feet).
420, 421: The far end of the snowmobile corduroy on the snowmobile trail between the end of FR 313 and Glastenbury Mountain summit. Note ATV ruts in the earth at the end of the corduroy. Photo location N 43 degrees 59.551’, W 73 degrees 04.766’ (36 feet)
422, 424: Views of posts apparently intended to accommodate a cable at the new gate near the end of FR 313. Location N 43 degrees 59.782’, W 73 degrees 05.793’ (19 feet).
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