 GREEN MOUNTAIN NATIONAL FOREST
Old Job Trail 7-25-02
Wheel tracks indicating regular use of ATVs on Old Job Trail north of Griffith Lake in the Green Mountain National Forest. This portion of the Old Job Trail is closed to wheeled vehicles.
This afternoon I walked the Old Job Trail from the end of FR 30 to Griffith Lake and back, checking for illegal ORV use.
At the large bridge crossing Lake Brook, just north of the turnoff to the John Nichols camp, I found that a prominent jug handle trail has recently been cut so that snowmobile grooming equipment negotiating the bridge does not have to make a right-angle turn at the east end of the bridge. The jug handle is about 16 feet wide and 150 feet long. Permits may be required for that kind of trail alteration.
South of the Nichols camp (beyond the portion of the trail necessary to provide access to the camp) there is regular ATV use of the Old Job Trail, all the way to Griffith Lake and beyond. I photographed fresh tracks in the mud, made since the last rain, which I believe was Monday, July 22.
Also south of the Nichols camp there is an ATV trail turning east of the Old Job Trail toward Long Hole. It is about 400 feet long, and it ends short of Long Hole.
On the stretch of trail between the Nichols camp and Griffith Lake I took several photos of old puncheon and bog bridges bulldozed into the woods. These remnants are now very hard to find, because the most recent widening of the trail moved an immense amount of material to create a very wide trail, and the bulk of the old hiking structures are now buried under berms of dirt, stones, logs, etc. I had not been on this stretch of the trail since the most recent widening, and the extent of change is startling.
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