St Johnsbury Conclusion

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Our month long stay at Moose River Campground in St Johnsbury Vermont was quickly coming to an end. We have found so much to see and do in the area making it hard to leave. We try to fit in one more mountain hike. This time to Wright’s Mountain and Devil’s Den Town Forest. Located south of camp near the town of Bradford Vermont. There are a couple of different trailheads into the park but we pick the one on the north side.

Artistic Trailhead Sign

About a quarter mile up the trail is a split. We stick to the right which is called Appreciation Way and should lead us close to one of the geocaches hidden in the park. It is a pretty hike and there is a nice viewpoint along the way.

Up Appreciation Way

Colorful Mushroom

Viewpoint

A little over the three quarter mile mark, we reach the top of Wrightsville Mountain. We suspected the peak would have a decent view, but it also had something completely unexpected - a building. It wasn’t just a small lean-to but an actual building with many windows and a door. It was even sitting on concrete piers hanging off the edge of the mountain.

Very Tall Mushroom

Building at Wrights Mountain

Since it was open, we had to enter and check it out. It wasn’t furnished but did have a few pads on the floor so it looks like people spend the night at times. It isn’t insulated but it does have a metal roof that appears to be sound. We head out and take advantage of the bench at the overlook to have lunch.

Room with a View

Scenic View

From here, we continue south heading down the mountain until it intersects Ernie’s Trail. Our goal now was to make it to a place called the Devil’s Den (keeping up with the Devil theme we seem to have going on 2024) which is a bit farther south.

Trail Through Woods

The trails are in excellent shape and we still haven’t come across any other hikers on the trail so we seem to have the place to ourselves. The trails are well marked so we knew where to turn to look for Devils Den. The trail follows along the side of a rock ledge and we kept our eyes open for any sign of a “den”. We did locate the second geocache in the park along this section of trail and continued on.

Devil's Trail This Way

Chipmunk Pokes His Head Out

Heading to Devil's Den

At one point I noticed an opening between some rocks that was large enough for a human to fit. It was tight and rocky inside but after going twenty feet or so, it opened back up to the outside world. I wasn’t impressed if this was the den we were looking for.

Wrong Cave Opening

Jack Emerges

Since the trail did continue, we followed it to the end. There was another bench with a halfway decent view of the valley below. Chris sat and watched while I tried to find a better “den”. There was a faint sign with an arrow pointing down a rock scramble. I cautiously worked my way around the rocks and actually found the opening to a fairly large cave. The only problem was it has a six foot drop to get into the cave. It looked like I could have safely made my way in, but before trying it, I looked it over to see how I might be able to make it back out. When I realized that once I’m down there, I may not be getting back out, I decided to simply take a picture of what I surmise is the Devil’s Den.

View Near Devil's Den

Looking Down into Devil's Den

We were about 2 miles into the hike, but instead of simply backtracking the trails we came in on, we picked a few different ones to make our way back to the car. The J Arthur’s Trail was marked adequately but doesn’t appear to get much traffic. Fortunately it was only a quarter mile before we made it back onto Ernie’s Trail. This is the main trail thru the park and led us back to the car after a ~5 mile hike with over 900 feet of elevation gain.

Very Cool Mushrooms

After the hike we headed into the town of Bradford. There is a Farm-Way Store with all sorts of outdoor gear. We spent a fair amount of time just wandering around checking it out. Chris wanted to stop at the local grocery store since it was close so while she shopped, I wandered around the northern section of town. There was a gorgeous brick library and the Waits River Dam to check out.

Bradford Library

Waits River Dam

The following day was another nice one from a weather perspective so we head out for yet another bike ride. This time we would head back to the Ammonoosuc River Trail again. We had previously ridden the southern portion of the trail from Woodsville to just beyond the town of Bath. For this ride we would tackle the northern section by starting in Lisbon NH and heading north into Littleton.

Former Lisbon Train Station

It was pleasant ride but there seemed to be more ATVers out today than the last time. For the most part they were polite. We would see them coming, get to the side of the trail, let them pass and wait for the dust to settle before continuing on.

Along the Ammonoosuc River

Old Barn

There was definitely more activity on the trail as we got closer to Littleton. It was a very nice day so I suppose it made sense that more people would be enjoying the trail near a populated area.

River View

Rail Bridge

Mural Along Trail in Littleton

We reached the end of the trail at just over 11 miles. We still have the ride back to Lisbon but it will be generally downhill by planning the trip as we did. We stopped at an ice cream stand in Lisbon to have another maple creamie. While sitting there, a couple on a tandem stopped and we got to talking to them about tandems. We explained we had ridden across the USA on a tandem thirty some years ago. It turned out they are locals and had just ridden into town for a treat from their nearby home. We had a really nice day on the trail

Last River View

We were now hitting Labor Day weekend and our campground had some activities planned. The pig roast was Saturday which was a rather rainy day. The owners provided the meat and campers brought the sides and deserts. Fortunately they have a rather large covered pavilion with lots of picnic tables, so all of us we able to still sit around, eat and socialize.

The weather cleared up for our last day at camp. We weren’t looking for anything too strenuous so we headed into downtown St Johnsbury to just walk some of the Lamoille Valley Rail Trail we haven’t done yet. Just beyond the parking lot for the trail was a huge tunnel under one of the major roads in town. It was long enough that the town has even installed motion activated lights for users.

Trail Tunnel

Light at End of Tunnel

We had hopes to make it a couple of miles on the trail but at 2/3 mile we hit one of the closed sections of the trail. We had checked the trail web site beforehand to know that some of the trail was closed because of the recent flooding, but the section we were on wasn’t listed as being closed. We debated about going around a closure to find a geocache that was just a few hundred feet beyond the barrier. It was the Sunday of a holiday weekend so we knew it was likely not being actively worked on, but we behaved and headed to a different spot for a bit of a walk.

End of Trail

For plan B we went to the St Johnsbury Town Forest. There are a couple miles of trails here and a few geocaches as well. As we headed up one of the trails, we saw that this area had not been spared from flood damage. With care, we were able to safely get past the washed out section and get a bit of a walk in.

Trail Washout at Town Forest

For our last night, the campground had a two person band come in. Okay maybe the band wasn’t here for just us but it was nice to sit around and listen to lots of songs we recognized.

Two Man Band

Our Rig in the Background

They played into the night and we had a huge fire going. There is definitely a lot of camaraderie between the seasonal campers and I can see why they enjoy coming back to this place year after year. We will need to consider it if we make it back to the area. But tomorrow we head east to Maine.

Roaring Campfire