Disabled people in northern Vermont will finally get a chance to hike on the Long Trail — at least an eighth of a mile of it.
The Lamoille County Planning Commission is working with Timber & Stone, a central Vermont company that specializes in trail building, in constructing a boardwalk at Barnes Camp that will connect with the Long Trail in Smugglers Notch.
The boardwalk will serve two purposes — it will allow people in wheelchairs to experience some of the views the Long Trail has to offer, and will also make for safer passage for Long Trail hikers who previously had to walk a small section on busy, twisty Route 108 through Smugglers Notch.
The boardwalk will be 5 feet wide, allowing two wheelchair users to pass at a time, and will have at least 7-inch-high safety curbing at all times. Some spots, depending on the height of the boardwalk, will also have a safety railing.
Four viewing areas will have interpretive panels about wetlands wildlife and the area’s natural history.
“People tend to protect what they know, and one of the major goals of the boardwalk is introducing the general population to wetlands, the wildlife that lives in them, and the benefits wetlands provide us, like clean water,” said Seth Jensen, principal planner with Lamoille County Planning Commission.
Construction began last week; Timber & Stone owner Josh Ryan expects the project to be finished in November.
A section of the Appalachian Trail in Killington also has a handicapped-accessible boardwalk; “aspects of this were looking to match that,” Ryan said.
In Vermont, the Long Trail portion on the Winooski River is also handicapped-accessible.
Talk of the boardwalk project began almost two decades ago when the Lamoille County Planning Commission outlined its goal of protecting Long Trail hikers who have to walk on the state highway, and allowing more people the opportunity to enjoy the area’s towering vistas.
“Not everyone can enjoy the Notch currently,” said Jensen. He’s heard about families with grandparents who want to walk through Smugglers Notch, only to find there are no handicapped-friendly amenities.
“Those aren’t happy people,” Jensen said. “Those aren’t people who are coming back.”
The Lamoille County Planning Commission runs Barnes Camp, the informational stop on Route 108 in a building that was restored in 2014, in partnership with Green Mountain Club, Stowe Mountain Resort and Vermont Department of Forests, Parks and Recreation.
Plans for the boardwalk were drawn up in 2011 and were redrawn a few times. Twenty percent of the funding came from Spruce Peak, Lamoille Economic Development Corp., the Green Mountain Club, and the Vermont Department of Forests, Parks and Recreation.
The total cost of design, engineering and construction of the boardwalk will be $320,000, Jensen said. About 80 percent of that cost will be drawn from an $800,000 federal earmark through the office of U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders that also helped finance restoration of Barnes Camp, interpretive kiosks in the Notch, and relocating some roadside parking.
Building the boardwalk
Working with wetlands presented unique challenges to the three Timber & Stone workers who have been slogging through the Notch’s natural habitat.
The boardwalk is supported by a series of spiral piers, which are “screwed” into the earth using torque, said Nick Smith, managing engineer of the project.
Each pier extends 12 to 13 feet into the earth.
State regulations allow spiral piers in wetlands, Smith said, so the Lamoille County Planning Commission didn’t need a permit, but it did have to work with state officials to mitigate the impact of construction work on the wetland.
Mechanical gear, such as excavators, is driven on wooden platforms, not directly on the ground, and the Timber & Stone workers have to collect all the sawdust they produce and truck it away. They collect most of it in bins under where they’re sawing, and the rest is vacuumed out of the woods, just like in your living room.
The biggest challenge was the presence of beavers, Ryan said. The animals had built a dam directly in the intended path of the boardwalk, so Timber & Stone worked with the Vermont Department of Environmental Conservation to reroute the boardwalk.
That said, being able to work with wetlands is “pretty awesome,” Ryan said.
“This could open the door for other wetland projects,” Smith said.
For Ryan, the project is personally meaningful, too. Trail design is “all I’ve done since I was 17,” he said, and “I went after this with everything I had. … This is definitely a legacy, hallmark project for us,” Ryan said.
He took one of his daughters to his worksite, “and she said, ‘Daddy, this is just perfect for you,’” he said.
For Mike DeBonis, executive director of the Green Mountain Club, the boardwalk is a good way to get more people onto the Long Trail, even if it’s just a small section.
“Our mission is to connect people with the outdoors. It’s another way for folks to do that. I think in the context of the Notch, we’re hopeful that it will open up the Long Trail to a whole new population of hikers. Not everyone is going to take the time to hike up the Long Trail to Mount Mansfield and I think that’s OK,” DeBonis said.
“It provides an amazing view of the Notch, but also will create some new opportunities for folks to get out there and experience that area. There’s not a lot of level hiking area in the Notch,” DeBonis said.
The boardwalk will be free and accessible year-round, but won’t be groomed in the winter, so it will be handicapped-accessible only three seasons out of four.
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