 GREEN MOUNTAIN NATIONAL FOREST
Catamount Trail to Stratton Pond
A fresh track made by an ATV illegally traveling the Catamount Cross-Country Ski Trail in the vicinity of Stratton Pond.
Today I hiked from the cul-de-sac at the North Brookwood condominium development at Stratton Mountain Resort to Stratton Pond, checking for vehicle trespass. The old road from the cul-de-sac joins the Catamount Ski Trail in about half a mile, and I followed the Catamount Trail to its intersection with the Appalachian Trail at Stratton Pond.
In short, there are tracks from both dirt bikes and ATVs all the way from North Brookwood to Stratton Pond, and in both directions on FR 341 (the VAST Corridor 7 snowmobile trail and recently designated as a mountain bike trail).
I found rocks scarred by snowmobiles on the Appalachian Trail/Long Trail south of Stratton Pond, but there had been so much hiker traffic over the rocks that the scars were dirty and offered no contrast, so I didn't photograph them.
Will League, the GMC caretaker at Stratton Pond, said he always sees ATV and dirt bike tracks on the trail to North Brookwood, which is where he leaves his truck. He sees ATVs at Stratton Pond once every 10 days, on the average. He has not seen them drive all the way to the shore of the pond, as Jim Malloy did when he was caretaker at Stratton Pond. Instead, the ATVs park on the Appalachian Trail where it intersects the Catamount Trail. He does not know where they originate.
Along the segments traveled by vehicles, more Forest Service signs were destroyed than were unmolested.
On the segment of the Catamount Trail between FR 341 and Stratton Pond, it was apparent that there has been a lot of ATV traffic over the years, although the frequency described by the caretaker now is comparatively low. I suspect that there may be a spike of ATV use during hunting season, and that this may happen in other locations on the GMNF as well. It would be a useful project to get some observers into the woods during hunting season to test this hypothesis.
Two Long Trail thru-hikers reported encountering two ATVs at Congdon Shelter on August 13. They said they had seen dirt bikes and ATV tracks on the Long Trail in other places as well, but couldn't remember precisely where.
I also met Todd (he gave me only his first name), who said he was the GMC caretaker at Stratton Pond two years ago. He was visiting the current caretaker. Todd said the gates on FR 341 are generally locked (so drivers should know that using it is illegal). Todd also said that Kim Kinville, the GMNF enforcement officer, spends most of her time ìrunning a drug dogî--using a dog to sniff out drugs at trailheads, picnic areas and campgrounds, so she doesn't have time to ticket trespassing drivers of off-road vehicles.
Much of the Catamount Trail is a typical International Paper legacy road--a trench bulldozed through the woods with rocks, logs and other debris piled in windrows along it wherever convenient.
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