Vermont Housing Conservation Board 2005 - Vermont Housing and ...

CROSS VERMONT TRAIL
A Trail to Connect Communities
T
he long-term vision of the Cross Vermont Trail Association is to create a
multi-use recreation trail running east-west across the state. In the Central
Vermont area, the goal is to conserve an off-road trail all the way from East
Montpelier to Groton State Forest, along the 37-mile former track bed of the
Montpelier-Wells River Railroad. But unlike nearly all other former railroad
beds eyed as recreation trails around the nation, this one presents a unique challenge:
the track bed’s final owner, the state of Vermont, conveyed it in parcels to
all the abutting landowners, several decades ago.
The complexity created by so many owners is one that Eric Scharnberg,
executive director of the Trail Association, knows only too well. From East
Montpelier to Plainfield, he says, “We’re working on a landowner-to-landowner
basis, to try to get easements” that will secure public access to the trail.
That cause got a boost this year when VHCB funding enabled the Association
to acquire a small but key property in Plainfield, between Country Club
and Recreation Field roads. “It’s a keystone piece in connectivity between the
village of Plainfield and, ultimately, over toward Montpelier,” Scharnberg says of
the six-acre property.
The Cross-Vermont Trail will ultimately link to the Montpelier Recreation
Path, connecting into the capital. To the west, most of the trackbed between the
Marshfield edge of Groton State Forest, all the way to Wells River, has already
been secured.
In the now-targeted stretch between East Montpelier and Plainfield, says
Scharnberg, “our goal is to target areas where the stretch between roads isn’t too
far apart — and where we can see that within two or three years, we may be able
to establish those stretches as trails.
Many landowners have been supportive, and have offered to donate easements.
Others prefer to subdivide and sell parcels. Bit by bit, the project is moving
forward. “This is very much a grassroots trail,” Scharnberg says. “It’s part of a
statewide effort to connect villages and communities.”
The Cross Vermont Trail is a planned
83-mile multi-use recreation trail
and alternative transportation route
stretching from Vermont’s western
border on Lake Champlain to its
eastern border in the Village of Wells
River. As currently mapped, the trail
alignment contains both on and offroad
sections and connects 17 towns,
10 village centers, 10 state parks and
recreation areas and 10 schools. The
trail also links two nationally known
trails, the 300-mile Catamount Trail
and the 270-mile Long Trail. Currently,
45 miles of trail are secured either
as public right-of-ways or due to their
location within designated state and
town-owned public parcels.
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