This week’s flooding damaged popular trail networks across Vermont — and while the impact could have been worse, officials are only starting to take stock of the fallout.
The storm fell in the middle of one of the busiest seasons for through-hiking on the Long Trail, the famed 270-mile route snaking along the main ridge of the Green Mountains.
Some portions of the north-south trail were damaged in the flooding, according to the Green Mountain Club, which maintains the Long Trail network. As of Friday morning, the club had closed a handful of trail segments and access points to the public.
Early assessments of some of the most popular segments found that the damage could have been far worse, said Chloe Miller, the club’s communications manager, on Friday. She said the club’s field staff, pulled from their sites in the backcountry for safety this week, would all be back out next week, conducting more thorough inspections.
The club is not telling hikers to stay off the trails completely, but rather, to exercise “extreme caution” and use good judgment if they want to head out. Hikers should keep in mind that Vermont’s emergency resources remain taxed statewide, Miller said, and many trailside communities are grappling themselves with destruction from floods.
“The services and, sort of, attitude around welcoming and serving through-hikers might be interrupted or limited,” she said. “When planning around resupplying or spending nights in town, people may need to adjust their expectations.”
Miller said the initial assessments suggest that damage to the Long Trail was not as severe this week as it was following Tropical Storm Irene in 2011.
As of Friday morning, crews had closed the Long Trail between Bamforth Ridge and the Winooski River footbridge, as that stretch was flooded and “contains numerous live electric fence wires,” according to the Green Mountain Club’s flood updates webpage.
Adrienne Bartlett, the club’s northern lead caretaker, said she helped survey the damage this week and encountered “thigh-high water” along the trail at the Winooski River Wednesday. “We had some infrastructure disappear down the river,” she said Friday.
Still, Bartlett said she was “pleasantly surprised” at how well the trail seems to have held up, though is expecting to find more water damage and drainage issues.
The suspension bridge that takes the trail across the Lamoille River is also closed because of flooding, according to the club’s website. Crews have closed the Forest City Trail bridge near Camel’s Hump, too, and they built a temporary bypass around the Peru Peak Shelter bridge while that structure gets assessed further for damage.
Miller said many through-hikers who were out on-trail before the storm hit have decided to postpone or outright cancel the rest of their hikes. “There was just so much going on and so much unknown,” she said, speaking about the past week.
“I’m sure some people will start to continue where they left off, but I haven’t seen many reports of that right now.”
Rail trails closed statewide
This week’s flooding has also led officials to shutter the state’s rail trail network. As of Friday afternoon, the Vermont Agency of Transportation was continuing to urge people to stay off those trails because of flood damage, downed trees and uncertain conditions.
The network includes the Lamoille Valley Rail Trail, which runs from Franklin County to Caledonia County; the Missisquoi Valley Rail Trail, which crosses Franklin County; the Delaware & Hudson Rail Trail, which runs across parts of Rutland and Bennington counties; and the Beebe Spur Rail Trail, a short lakeside path in Orleans County.
State officials were set to commemorate the opening of a fully connected Lamoille Valley Rail Trail at a ceremony on Saturday, July 15. But the event — which was set to feature a marathon bike ride from Gov. Phil Scott — was canceled earlier this week because of the storm.
The 93-mile trail passes through Lamoille County towns that were among those hardest hit by the flooding in northern Vermont. Part of the trail appeared under a foot of water in Cambridge Tuesday; by Thursday, the trail had become a rocky, jagged mess.
Amy Tatko, a spokesperson for the transportation agency, said in an email Friday that VTrans was assessing the conditions on all four rail trails, and expected to have details available on the status of the network by the middle of next week.
