 GREEN MOUNTAIN NATIONAL FOREST
FR85 to MacIntyre
Mudhole churned by ATVs on a trail south of FR 85 northwest of Glastenbury Mountain, in the proposed Glastenbury Mountain Wilderness. This photograph was taken at the end of a long spell of extremely dry weather, ATVs cause even more damage to this trail in wetter weather. Location coordinates by GPS receiver: N 43 degrees 01.704', W 73 degrees 03.656' (29 feet limit of error).
Today I hiked south from the south end of FR 85 along a snowmobile trail to its crossing of the South Fork of Roaring Branch, at a place marked on the map as MacIntyre. I continued south on the snowmobile trail to its junction with one of the former Scott family logging roads. All of my route is within the proposed Glastenbury Mountain Wilderness.
Both four-wheel-drive vehicles and ATVs use the snowmobile trail as far as MacIntyre. ATVs (but no 4WDs) use the trail between MacIntyre and the Scott road.
Since last summer, the local VAST club has installed trail naming signs and destination signs. The trail I followed is marked 'tower' at each junction, so it evidently goes to the tower at the top of Glastenbury Mountain.
On the way to MacIntyre the snowmobile trail crosses an unnamed tributary of the South Fork on a bridge that cannot accommodate four-wheel-drive vehicles. Some 4WDs ford the brook at a small wetland, but there are tracks approaching the snowmobile bridge as well. Those tracks would not have been made by members of the snowmobile club, since they know the bridge can't handle 4WDs. Therefore, the trail is attracting 4WD use by nonmembers of the club. South of FR 85 the trail was much more rutted by 4WDs than it was last year.
The bridge over South Fork has been replaced since last summer, when it consisted of a wood deck on wooden stringers, supported in its center by steel lolly columns in the brook bed. It is now an impressive steel truss bridge with a pressure-treated lumber deck and approach ramps. The main truss span is 67 feet long and the approach ramps are 12 feet long (measured by boot lengths); it is 6 feet wide on the deck, and the cross members supporting the side braces are 10 feet wide. It rests on large concrete footings that apparently were hauled in rather than poured in place.
In many places the snowmobile trail is muddy and/or badly eroded from wheeled traffic, though we are in a serious drought during the driest time of the year. The stretch from MacIntyre south is much less eroded, but there are some bad spots.
It is evident from the short distance (about half a mile) I walked on the Scott logging road that, although the road is traveled, this area is much less used than other areas of Glastenbury accessible to vehicles. There are no fire rings or other evidence of camping in most of the old log landings, which is very unusual in the Green Mountain National Forest.
The road itself is well made, with a thick layer of gravel and good drainage ditches. It is roughly equivalent to a GMNF Class 3 road, and much better than the old International Paper roads I have seen in the GMNF in the vicinity of FR 325, east of FR 71 and north of Kelly Stand toward Stratton Pond.
Tracks indicate the road is traveled by ATVs as well as four-wheel-drive vehicles.
|
More