Green Mountain National Forest

Green Mountain National Forest is a national forest located in Vermont, a forest area typical of the New England/Acadian forests ecoregion. The forest supports a variety of wildlife, including beaver, moose, coyote, black bear, and white tailed deer. It also supports an abundant variety of bird species, such as wild turkey and ruffed grouse. The forest, being situated in Vermont’s Green Mountains, has been referred to as the ‘granite backbone’ of the state.

The forest was established in 1932, as a result of uncontrolled overlogging, fire and flooding.[3] It consists of 399,151 acres (1,615.31 km2); and is the biggest contiguous land mass in the state. If Finger Lakes National Forest, which is managed as a unit of the Green Mountain National Forest, is included within it, GMNF is one of only two national forest northeast of the Pennsylvania-New Jersey barrier; the other being the White Mountain National Forest. Split into the southwest and central areas, GMNF has a total of eight wilderness areas. These were designated by Congress beginning with the Wilderness Act of 1964 to be areas off limits to mechanized gear down to and including bicycles.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Green_Mountain_National_Forest
http://www.fs.usda.gov/greenmountain

Memorial Day Weekend Hike to Bourne and Stratton Ponds.

Last year during Memorial Day Weekend, I hiked back to Bourne Pond and Stratton Pond via the Bourne – Stratton Pond Trail and Branch Pond Road.

 Entering The Lye Brook Wilderness

The trail between those two ponds is somewhat lightly traveled, a bit overgrown and in one spot challenging to follow, but has some beautiful views.

 Pond Along The Windhall River

One of the challenges is crossing the Windhall River, but up a ways from the main trail, rocks have been placed to ease with crossing.

 Windhall River Crossing

Lots of deer and moose poop could be seen along the way.

 Shit Ton Of Moose Shit On Lye Brook Trail

Being spring time, there was Columbine to be seen along the trail.

 Columbine

As you reach Stratton Pond, you follow the Stratton Pond outflow, a pretty but buggy little stream.

 Stratton Pond Outflow

Stratton Pond is quite a nice little pond.

 Stratton Pond

While Bourne Pond isn’t quite as nice, it is very popular with campers during the holiday weekend.

Bourne Pond sure is scenic

After my hike, I was happy to get back to camp.

 Weekend Started Out Quite Nice

Stratton Pond

This time I decided to hike the full Stratton Mountain - Stratton Pond loop on Sunday. While hardly a beautiful day, it was interesting to see the other side of Stratton Pond from the one I visited last Memorial Day.

Taken on Sunday May 26, 2019 at Stratton Mountain.

Campfire

Dusk camping along Branch Pond Road at the Green Mountain National Forest during Memorial Day Weekend 2019.

Taken on Sunday May 26, 2019 at Branch Pond.