The Long Trail

The Long Trail is a 270 mile footpath that follows the spine of Vermont's Green Mountains.

It extends from the Massachusetts state line to the Canadian border, and traverses all of the
state's highest peaks.

Completed in 1930, it is the oldest long distance hiking trail in the United States.

It is also regarded as one of the most rugged, because of its tendency to frequently challenge hikers with steep, rocky, muddy, and rooted sections.

The trail is primarily wooded and includes maple, birch, beech, pine, hemlock, spruce, and balsam fir. It extends above treeline a handful of times, with fragile alpine areas on Mount Mansfield, Camel's Hump, and Mount Abraham. Mansfield is the highest point in Vermont, at 4,393 feet elevation.

The path is marked by uniform 2x6 inch white paint blazes, and has almost sixty simple overnight shelters.

Some of the more notable wildlife in The Green Mountains includes black bears, moose, porcupines, beavers, fox, whitetail deer, and peregrine falcons. I did not see any these creatures on my end-to-end hike (Except deer), but plenty of other hikers have had better fortune.

HISTORY

Some four hundred years ago, the French explorer Samuel de Champlain sailed inland from
the Atlantic Ocean, and made his way south to a large, unnamed freshwater lake. His account:

I noticed… some very high mountains on the
eastern side [of the lake], on the top of which
there was snow. I made inquiry of the savages
whether these localities were inhabited...they
told me that the Iroquois dwelt there, and that
there were beautiful valleys in these places,
with plains productive in grain…with many
kinds of fruit without limit...

He was looking upon what would be called The Green Mountains, which in French literally
translates as les Vert Monts.

In 1909, a man stood on top of a mountain in Vermont when he had an idea. The nearby Adirondacks of
New York and White Mountains of New Hampshire summoned the praises of numerous
outdoorsmen, while his beloved Green Mountains of Vermont were vastly overlooked. He envisioned
a hiking trail that could link all the range's best mountains... a long trail.
He was James P. Taylor, on misty Stratton Mountain.

Taylor organized a meeting that was held on March 11, 1910 in Burlington. Twenty-three people were present and named themselves The Green Mountain Club. They mobilized and took to the woods with saws, axes, and shovels. Approximately one hundred miles of trail were cut before a single
shot was fired in World War One - 1914.

Over two hundred miles of trail were finished by 1920, with fourteen overnight shelters.

1930 saw the completion of The Long Trail. A celebration was held at The Long Trail Lodge near Killington - The Green Mountain Club's early headquarters. Flares were fired from mountaintops up and down the state to mark the event.

The Green Mountain Club is still going strong today, with almost 9,000 members protecting Vermont's scenic forests and mountains that embody The Long Trail. Some 500 volunteers maintain the trail and assist the club, often giving up their spare time to do hard labor in the woods.

The southern 100 miles of The Long Trail coincides with the well-known Appalachian Trail, which runs from Georgia to Maine. The Long Trail actually served as the inspiration for The Appalachian Trail. Benton Mackaye, the primary visonary of The Appalachian Trail, claimed that he was sitting in a tree on top of Stratton Mountain(Same as James P. Taylor) when he had the idea for a trail that would stretch over the length of the Appalachian Mountains. In his 1921 essay that spawned the AT, Mackaye wrote: