 GREEN MOUNTAIN NATIONAL FOREST
Old Stage Road West of Heartwellville
9-5-02
Four-wheel-drive and illegal ATV tracks on the old logging track leading south of Old Stage Road (Forest Road 73) toward Mud Pond. The photo was taken after months of very dry weather; conditions undoubtedly are worse in wet weather.
Today I checked FR 73 (also known as the Old Stage Road) for about 3 miles west of Heartwellville for all-terrain vehicle and four-wheel-drive incursions off the road into the Green Mountain National Forest. This road is commonly believed to be open to ATVs, partly because it once was designated as a winter-only ATV trail. It is also sometimes asserted that it is a town road and the Readsboro selectmen permit ATV use. Regardless of its status, incursions into the GMNF from the road show that ATVers do not stay on a trail they apparently believe has been designated for them.
The designation of FR 73 as a winter ATV trail has been withdrawn because the ATV club with which the GMNF had a cooperative agreement is defunct, according to a sign posted at the parking area at the west end of the road (near Vermont Route 8). However, not all of the ATV route markers have been removed from FR 73.
I found that ATVs and four-wheel-drive vehicles leave the road at every opportunity, except northward into George D. Aiken Wilderness. The large area of the GMNF south of the road appears to be laced with trails heavily traveled by ATVs and, in some instances, 4WDs, judging by evidence I saw when I walked into the maze of trails shown on the topographic map. It appears that every trail in that large section is used by ATVs. Tracks indicate ATV use is more prevalent than 4WD use, which is logical, since many of the trails are much more easily traveled in an ATV than in a 4WD.
ATVs use the maintained portion of FR 73 regularly, although the tracks are often obscured by other traffic to the point that they can be detected only by someone on foot.
Further observations:
0.10 mile west of the start of FR 73: Corridor 9 East snowmobile trail leaves the road bearing magnetic north. The trail is regularly used by ATVs, despite a sign banning wheeled vehicles.
0.87 mile: ATV tracks bear 335 degrees magnetic away from FR 73. The map suggests they are joining a portion of old road that parallels FR 73. Junction: N 42 degrees 49.998', W 73 degrees 00.761' (29 feet limit of accuracy).
East end of the first bridge (which crosses the West Branch of the Deerfield River): ATV and 4WD tracks leave the road in both directions. The spur to the north ends in about 100 yards at a clearing used for camping. A bridge, its deck gone and stringers rotting, once crossed the West Branch here. The tracks to the south appear to parallel FR 73 on the south. Junction: N 42 degrees 50.116', W 73 degrees 00.915' (31 feet).
1.95 miles: ATV tracks leave the road on the south side. The junction with FR 73 is N 42 degrees 50.284', W 73 degrees 01.843' (27 feet).
N 42 degrees 50.252', W 73 degrees 02.335' (29 feet): ATV and 4WD tracks head south toward Mud Pond on an old logging road that I will call Mud Pond Road. The gated driveway to a camp on the shore of Mud Pond marked on the map as Camp Casino starts at the same point. (Camp Casino is on an inholding.) Mud Pond Road is a series of mudholes all the way to Mud Pond. Just north of the pond (at N 42 degrees 49.931', W 73 degrees 02.403' (34 feet)) is an ATV trail connecting to Camp Casino. Mud Pond Road continues beyond Mud Pond, apparently heading toward Stamford Pond and other destinations south of FR 73. I turned around at N 42 degrees 49.786', W 73 degrees 02.667' (29 feet), about five minutes' walk south of Mud Pond.
The topographic map indicates a gate at the western end of the improved portion of FR 73, but there is no gate. A row of boulders once blocked the road next to a sign saying the road is closed by the selectmen, but the boulders have been pushed aside.
A gated road to the south at this point leads (according to the map) to another camp on private land, this one on an unnamed pond along Reservoir Brook, which drains Stamford Pond. I walked this road the short distance to the GMNF boundary.
N 42 degrees 50.303', W 73 degrees 02.858' (38 feet): An old road bears northerly to the site of a former hunting camp on a site leased by Richard Myers in the area that became George D. Aiken Wilderness. The Myers camp was burned after designation of the wilderness. The road is well blocked by boulders and not evident to a casual observer. It has received no vehicle traffic for years.
N 42 degrees 50.305', W 73 degrees 02.922' (21 feet): ATV and 4WD tracks bear away from FR 73 at approximately 172 degrees magnetic.
N 42 degrees 50.355', W 73 degrees 03.074' (39 feet): A former ATV trail heads northerly into George D. Aiken Wilderness. The entrance is not obvious to someone traveling faster than a walk. It has not been used in years, and becomes progressively fainter as it penetrates the wilderness. I stopped following it at N 42 degrees 50.663', W 73 degrees 03.091' (31 feet).
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