Hike Bernardston MA to Vernon Town Forest

 Back in June when Wayne and I were scouting all roads into Vernon as part of a quest to locate state line markers, we decided to drive up Bald Mountain road in Bernardston even though the map showed it falling short of the border. We ended that expedition at the western side of Satans Kingdom at the Norcross Wildlife Sanctuary with a gate on the right, a narrow road to the left, and another hike added to our bucket list. 

It was on the third weekend in September, that we decided we'd better get after that hike as the flying teeth and rainy weather which had plagued us all summer had miraculously relented. Prior to this hike and a couple of summers ago, Wayne and I had found ourselves good and lost in Satans Kingdom Wildlife Management area and so we better prepared and brought with us trekking poles, a backpack with first aid kit, water, our best bug spray and our hiking shoes. What we found however, was a family friendly two and a half hour round trip hike with cell service the entire way.

There is a pull off just before the gate that will accommodate a couple of cars.

We took the narrow road to the left of the gate.

We found the trail wet in some places but otherwise very well maintained.

Though I was able to locate this brook on the map, I wasn't able to find its name. 

 Though the trail is uphill, it is a gradual incline.

We hiked past a second gate about a mile from the first. 

Logging in the sanctuary allows for new growth thus increasing biodiversity. 

There is another choice to be made. You can either go north westerly towards I-91 and an old airport field or head north east towards the Vernon Town forest. We chose the trail to the town forest which is nicely marked by large White Pine perched atop an outcropping. 

Here the trail begins to change from what looked like an old road  to more of  a woodland hiking trail.

We had seen coyote scat along the trail and now began to see deer tracks.

I began wishing that I had worn mud boots!

Red blazes on either side of this tree and a check of Google Maps confirmed that we were at the state border.

Wayne decided to press on to see if we could recognize the town forest trail system and in doing so we skirted the state border heading north east for a bit.

The trail of course split again and so we thought to follow our animal friend's tracks only to discover that they it seemed couldn't make up their minds either. Wayne checked Google Maps once more and discovered that though we didn't recognize the trail, we were in the south western most corner of the Vernon Town Forest. 

Pause for the beauty of the forest around us.

A Black Gum stands at the edge of a swamp in the Vernon Town Forest

We came across the familiar green diamonds of the VAST trail system which is overseen by the Vernon Trail Breakers Snow Mobile Club; but on this day, both directions lead to flooding on the trails.

We decided to hike back to where the trail split and hike towards the old airstrip. Those who know me, understand my delight at finding this cryptic rock on the trail! I think it was trying to inform us that many vehicles had scraped bottom on their way to hunting grounds.

Here the trail turns to mowing and we found a cultivated rosebush along it.

There is a large building which is clearly visible on Google Earth and Wayne later found on a map that there is a pond behind it.

A post leaning against a tree marks the end of Bald Mountain Rd.

The large open airfield isn't far from the end of the road. I-91 is clearly audible at the field.

We decided to hike towards the state line and Roaring Brook Wildlife Management Area. We found an old apple tree along the way and a hunter's blind at the edge of the field.

The vegetation that had been at shin height in the field, changed to waist high about a mile out from Roaring Brook WMA. Wayne and I thought it was better to save the rest of that hike for a winter's day on snowshoes. So we decided to backtrack again and try the hike where Bald Mountain Rd had ended down to the first gate. - Norma Manning 

Vernon in the 802

When Wayne and I moved to the Low Country I decided that I should continue my education at the College of Charleston. Now anyone who has ever attempted to transfer credits from one institution to another soon discovers that each has their own requirements and often credits from one school does not satisfy those of another. For me, it was my history credits that lacked the required pedigree.  I took U.S history at Keene and then UVM required World. Imagine my dismay when I was informed that the history of Charleston would be required. To be very clear, even if I had the history of S.C. under my belt, it wouldn't have satisfied their requirement and I wasn't even a history major. 

As we all have to learn at some point, sometimes you just gotta jump through hoops. Here's the irony however, I've never regretted meeting that history requirement as it has over time gone a long way to helping me to understand and appreciate the people there.  Now there is always a flipside to every album, and I would be remiss if I didn't mention that I've lived in nine states including Vermont where I have lived in four different municipalities. During that span, I have encountered this level of stringent hometown importance exactly twice. I'm not talking about whether or not someone is a sixth generation native Vermonter here, I'm talking about whether or not someone is a multi generational "Vernon" Vermonter.

My brother likes to joke(?) that if you haven't lived in Vermont for 15 years he won't talk to you. It's nice to be on speaking terms with my brother again. Much to his anguish, Wayne who was born and raised in BF lost his VT drivers license when we moved to Hinsdale after the Navy. When our place grew too small I began searching for a new place. I took a liking to Northfield and looked at a few places with a realtor. When I had finally decided on a piece of land Wayne informed me that he would never move to MA.  With that, we settled in Vernon and slowly began to notice that I weren't from around here.

I used to tell Wayne that there was an iron curtain down the center of the CT River and as it turns out I wasn't really that far off in that judgment; however the curtain actually is located at the low water mark on the western bank of the river.  There is quite an involved history as to how in 1624 King James the sixth established that border and how for hundreds of years that boundary was pushed around and wouldn't be definitively settled until 1934 with Bellows Falls, VT being the center of that decision. As with many good stories in history, the border decision regarding the International Paper Company began with a tax dispute.

So there you have it, in 1779 what was Hinsdale, VT and now Vernon, VT was claimed by four states; NY, MA, NH and VT. I encourage you to read the provided links for in them you will find how three miles (1/2 mile in width) of Fall Town Township MA came to be Vernon's. History can be a dangerous thing and not for all of the obvious cliche's.

To accuse a Vermonter of being a flatlander / being from away is to rile up hundreds of years of fight. Never assume that because you pay property taxes in VT that you are a Vermonter -yet. When a Vermonter tells you he won't live in MA, take him at his word even if the history says otherwise; and when an old Vernon family member casually comments that the Broad Brook is at the border of Vernon take their word for it but check your history book to see why it is so.   I'd like to talk more about all of this in person with you, but I'm only 16 years in this town and I can't risk it. - Norma Manning

 The west bank of the CT river and the Vernon Dam 

Bird Pantry

Look closely at this pine in Black Gum Swamp and you will see seeds stored in rows of holes drilled into its bark. Was it a woodpecker who filled the larder or an industrious nuthatch? I really don't know how to tell; but in a 2015 tour of the Black Gum Swamps, Forester Bill Gunther called it the "Sapsucker tree". So perhaps whomever is storing seed is taking advantage of another's hard work! - Norma Manning

Ah-ha!

When I was a teenager traveling out west with my family, my parents excitedly announced that we were standing on the continental divide. You can imagine my lack of excitement when I ceremoniously poured the contents of my canteen on the ground and observed the liquid splatter like any other spilled drink back home. Truthfully I hadn't thought much about that day since except now and then when it served my purposes as bragging rights. But that changed this weekend in Vernon while on a Saturday bird walk led by Biologist Cory Ross.

You know how when you live in one place for a long time it's kind of expected that some things belong in a certain place and when that isn't so you feel like you are lost? It's like when living in Vernon the Green Mountains are always to the west but when you go to Bennington they suddenly are on the right.  It's times like these that I'm unsure if I'm really still in Vermont. Take the Connecticut river for example. If you live from Springfield, VT down to Vernon, the CT is to the east, cross the bridge into NH and the CT is to your west.  When trying to gauge where a child went shopping with their parents you might ask if they crossed the bridge. If the answer is yes it's pretty certain that they were at Walmart in NH.

So what does any of this have to do with a bird walk in Vernon? Well, as It turns out it has a lot to do with it. You see, Vernon has a hundred year old hydroelectric dam that spans the CT across from Cold Brook store on Governor Hunt road. There is a picnic area below the dam where bird watchers can get a pretty good look at any variety of waterfowl on any given day. Standing on the west bank looking east towards NH, we spotted mallard, golden eye and common merganser, pintail, and Canada Geese before we moved on to our next stop on Stebbins road which is left off of 142.  We drove half a minute to where the power lines are and walked a tenth of a mile to an overlook where we saw a flock of robins and a bald eagle. I kept looking over the river to the opposite bank and couldn't quite put my mind to what I was noticing, but something didn't quite feel right. It was cold and the group called it a day but my brain still nagged me into the evening about that feeling you get when something is on the wrong side of the Green Mountains.

It wasn't until I checked my pictures that I put my finger on it. From Stebbins road I was looking west across the CT river but I hadn't crossed over a bridge and I hadn't left the town of Vernon to get to Stebbins road from Governor Hunt road. I enthusiastically spouted, "I found the oxbow!" Wayne looked at me like someone who had just dumped water on the continental divide and mumbled, "We were still on the west bank." Yes that's true, but we were looking west over the river to VT.  Clearly my ah-ha moment was lost on him so I further explained that we could stand at the dam in the morning and watch the sunrise over the CT then go to Stebbins in the evening and watch the sunset over the CT all without crossing the river or leaving Vernon! Wayne otherwise engaged in galactic battle on his tablet, remained unimpressed. I on the other hand learned something very important this weekend.

Sometimes it takes forty years for a person to truly appreciate what's so exciting about that place where water flows west to the Pacific and east to the Atlantic. I hope that someday, one of our four adult children thinks about something lame that I was so excited about and shouts AH- HA! - Norma Manning

View from Stebbins overlook

Mushroom hung to dry by squirrl in Black Gum Swamp: by Kayden Manning 2019