Wayne has a new toy and it's nothing like Jim's. Jim claims that once locked in, his toy (or as he calls it his second midlife), will climb straight up walls. Kayden and Ethan took turns riding shotgun in the dark on Christmas night after hearing that it made their uncle's rebuilt Jeep feel more like a Prius. Not to worry, both of my adult children returned in one piece, which has been my long standing agreement with Jim.
Similar to my agreement with their Uncle, Wayne's new toy puts our children at ease with their wandering parents out in the wilds of Vernon. It was Seth who showed me the Onx App on his phone after I asked him a question about the south western most corner of the Vernon town forest. Now Wayne's phone is suddenly Invention # 127 - Gyro-Homing Device (Fantastic Four vol. 1 #109). It seems however, that reducing the chances of us getting turned around in the woods, has increased my personal anxiety by knowing exactly where we are. Sometimes, like with my choosing to not inspect what Jim's second midlife actually looks like, willful ignorance can be bliss; and sometimes ...
Many a passing conversations had led us to believe that Cersosimo Lumber Company,. Inc owns large swaths of land in north Vernon. With Vernon being a mere 20 square miles, it begs to question exactly what constitutes a swath of land. Vermont bill H233 which passed the House in 2017, aims to reduce "forest fragmentation" of undeveloped land. As near as I am able to discern, Vermont's natural resource entities have determined that blocks of undeveloped land of 50 acres or more are in pressing need of conservation and for this reason I am considering 50 acres to be a swath. I am in no way pointing fingers at the lumber industry as being a fragmentary agent as such industries are one of the sited purposes for conserving blocks of undeveloped forest land.
With our new Gyro-Homing Device in hand, gone are the days of spontaneously traversing over unposted lands without concern of being unwanted trespassers.
Before consulting with Onx, Wayne and I had planned on parking in the Water Trough Hill pull off on 142 for our meandering hike into north Vernon. Onx however, revealed a swath of rectangular shaped land owned by Renaud Gravel Inc. and west of the Gravel Inc. land, lay three to five land divisions to be crossed on our way to the Roaring Brook Wildlife Management state owned land as shown in blue in the above image.
Wayne decided that we should park instead at the pull off located just after the bridge on Broad Brook road. The plan was to hike to the southeastern corner of Fort Dummer State Park and follow as best we could, the property line along the Lesure land and Cersosimo's, to RBWMA. Onx made it seem that this would be a quick hike in; but what we found once we put boots on the ground was one of our most wild hikes in Vernon to date.
Technology aside, Wayne, Kayden and I set out for some good old fashioned leisurely fun.
Under these conditions, we should reach our goal in short order
When hiking in Vernon, hills are to be expected.
Kayden wasn't convinced that we should continue hiking without a well marked trail. Wayne and I on the other hand, often find ourselves without clear trails. An unexpected fence at the top of the hill forced us to the east. We soon discovered that this fence is a part of the VT Welcome Center property on I91 N.
Our first glimpse of a tributary running north into the Broad Brook.
Evidence that other more sensible hikers reached their destination before we did.
The fence, the tree on the fence and the bank left us with two options. I'm still not convinced that we chose the right one.
Nothing ventured nothing gained, Kayden takes the lead and plans our decent.
Saturated thick organic matter gave way under our feet. Here, Kayden finds herself in the trees.
Wayne regains his balance with the help of a downed tree while Kayden switches back.
A look back to where I finally sat down and slid the final length on my bottom.
Wayne and Kayden wait for me to pick my way across the slope. I want to point out, that I would have turned around and headed for home at this point if the way back wasn't at the top of that hill!
Our reward for getting to the bottom was discovering that we had to cross the brook.
Grateful to be on relatively level and dry land, we walked until Wayne located survey marker #1. We still aren't sure why this marker is in the middle of no place in particular on Fort Dummer park land.
Making our way to the Lesure property, we noticed a distinct change in the age and size of the trees. Perhaps we had at last found the peace that the trailhead graffiti eluded to.
Wayne standing among these giant trees reminded me of our trip to see the Coastal Redwoods at Muir Wood National Monument which is north of San Francisco, CA. If you are unfamiliar with John Muir and his work with American land use and conservation, here is a brief
synopsis of Muir's legacy.
It's been a while since this area was last logged.
Cersosimo's boundary. We were close to learning why RBWMA set aside land in this area.
We crossed an old logging road which begged us to question if there was an alternate way into this area. As far as we could figure however, this road ends before it reaches the Broad Brook. I was beginning to lose hope of finding an easier path back to the car. Unless Uncle Jim showed up with his second midlife, we were hiking back up that hill.
Upon reaching the RBWMA, we realized that we had come unprepared to scale its icy ridge.
We settled for taking pictures of ice falls.
I'm uncertain of exactly what the state is protecting in these rocky ledges and I am reserving my guess to prevent misinformation.
This area is a good example of how Vernon's working landscape coexists with conservation efforts.
Kayden removed a balloon (pictured), a bag and cans from the woods.
Time to find our way back to the car.
We located a deer trail while on the hill and followed it up. When I hear residents state that, "people can do what they want to on their land", I wonder why land owners don't always recognize that natural communities also own the land.
Part 2, Further thoughts:
As I was sliding down the hill on my bottom I couldn't help but wonder how we found ourselves on this wild and crazy route across Vernon. I realized that I couldn't blame mother nature herself. There were plenty of more reasonable ways into the woods! The real question weighing on my mind: how did all of these man-made obstacles pop up without us noticing?
"The improvement of forest trees is the work of centuries. So much more the reason for beginning now" George Perkins Marsh
Over the past decade, there has been a renewed back and forth conversation of sorts taking place between Vermont's many arms of government regarding Act 250. I have included in Further Reading, one such conversation. Vernon is a "one acre town" while one of our largest land stakeholders depends on unfragmented tracts of forested land for their industry. What many may have forgotten however, is that Sustainable Development has been a part of the Vermont conversation since 1847 when Marsh delivered his lecture on sustainable farm practices to the Agricultural Society of Rutland County.*
Starting one hundred and seventy five years ago, three generations of families; Marsh - Billings - Rockefeller from the town of Woodstock, VT, worked to promote and carry out the belief that it is imperative that development and land conservation work as in partnership and not as adversaries. A visit to Vermont's sole national park should be on every Vermonters 2022 bucket list. -Norma & Kayden Manning
Note: the dimensions of Vernon in this article has been edited and is now based on Martin Langeveld's research.
*The 1847 Lecture that predicted human-induced climate change, The Guardian
*Man and Nature, G.P. Marsh, The Public Domain Review
Marsh-Billings-Rockefeller National Historical Park
Part 3, Further reading:
In towns with no zoning, reopened Supreme Court decision has big implications for Act 250, VTDigger
How a small quarry could have a big effect on Vermont's land use law, WCAX 3
Forest Fragmentation, Vermont Natural Resources Council
Act 250 and Forest Fragmentation, VNRC
Act 171 and Planning for Forest Blocks and Habitat Connectors, State of VT Agency of Natural Resources
Forest Fragmentation, TORC
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