The Kingdom Heritage Trail

The Kingdom Heritage Trail was first conceived in 1998. The plan envisioned a backcountry path that traversed the remote and rugged working forestlands of northern Essex County, connecting the existing footpaths on Bluff Mountain in Island Pond, Gore Mountain in Avery’s Gore, and the Silvio O. Conte National Fish & Wildlife Refuge in Brunswick.

In 2001, the Green Mountain Club became the corridor manager for hiking trails on the former , and in 2010 NorthWoods Conservation Corps youth crews began construction of the first sections of trail  on Middle Mountain that would connect the Bluff Mountain Trail to the Gore Mountain Trail, both historical trails that had been re-established by NorthWoods crews in the preceding decade.

Over twenty summer field seasons, nearly 120 local teenagers and young adults from Island Pond and surrounding towns in the Northeast Kingdom worked for a cumulative 38 weeks developing the Kingdom Heritage Trail System under the guidance of Luke O’Brien, the NorthWoods Trails Director, now with VT Department of Forests, Parks and Recreation, and NorthWoods Conservation Corps leadership Ross Stevens, Dusty May, and Jon Cox.

The project represents an exhaustive partnership effort, led by the Green Mountain Club, the NorthWoods Stewardship Center, and the Vermont Department of Forest, Parks and Recreation, in collaboration with Weyerhaeuser Timber, Sweet Tree LLC, the US Fish and Wildlife Service, the Town of Brighton, Vermont Land Trust, LandVest, and many others. 

The completed Kingdom Heritage Trail system (which includes the Bluff Mountain Community Trail, Bluff Ridge Trail, Unknown Pond Trail, Middle Mountain Trail, Gore Mountain Trail, and Gore Mountain East Trail) highlights the unique natural features of the Northern Forest landscape, promotes quiet recreation and backcountry travel, honors the forest economy and logging culture of the region, and supports local economic development in communities such as Island Pond.

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Thank you to all the youth crew members, leaders, and volunteers who helped make this project a success! If you’d like to support the continuing work of our NorthWoods Conservation Corps, which employs local youth to complete projects like this, while growing skills, confidence and connection with the land, please consider making a donation to our programs. Thanks!