Crews Complete Lost Pond Shelter

MOUNT TABOR, VT (Sept. 3, 2009)--  Trail crews recently re-built Lost Pond Shelter in the Big Branch Wilderness after it was destroyed by arsonists. The Shelter has been burned down twice in the last ten years.  The primitive lean-to, the third trail shelter on that site, is located in the Town of Mt. Tabor on the Appalachian Trail and Long Trail.

Approximately fifty volunteers, some recruited from the Appalachian Trail Festival in Castleton, with the leadership of the Forest Service and the Green Mountain Club, took part in the construction of the shelter.   The shelter was built with only hand tools and designed similar to historic Civilian Conservation Corps trail shelters.  The logs for the rustic timber frame structure were cut nearby and special care was used in choosing local materials for construction. 

“This shelter may last 2 years or it may last 50 years, but the choice people have in the present is whether they want to help build or they want to tear down what others have built up,” said Doug Reeves, Wilderness Program Coordinator for the Green Mountain National Forest.

The decision was made to rebuild the shelter after a careful analysis of the impacts to the wilderness and the desire to maintain a viable system of shelters on AT/LT in the Green Mountain National Forest.   

“We had a lot of fun building this shelter. Cost was minimal thanks to donated materials, local timber, and volunteer labor. Using hand tools and native materials in a wilderness area on the AT/LT made the project that much more rewarding. Lost Pond is in a location where it serves weary hikers well,” said Dave Hardy, with the Green Mountain Club.

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