For nearly five decades, a compact log shelter at the southwest corner of Bourn Pond served as one of the quieter stopping points on the Long Trail’s Division III corridor between the Stratton Pond area and Mad Tom Notch. Built in 1957 by the Putney Summer Work Camp out of the salvaged remains of two earlier fishing camps, the shelter stood at 2,540 feet in what would later become the heart of the Lye Brook Wilderness, offering eight bunks and a reliable spring on a plateau that generations of hikers knew for its brook trout, its remoteness, and its peaceful lake views. By the early 2000s, however, the character of the place had changed: Bourn Pond had been discovered, use was heavy, and ecological pressure on the site was mounting. In 2005 the U.S. Forest Service intentionally burned the shelter, ending its service and returning the clearing to a primitive tenting area.
Bourn Pond and Its Camps
Bourn Pond sits on a forested plateau at roughly 2,550 feet in the southern Green Mountains, part of the Lye Brook watershed that drains southward toward the Batten Kill. A shallow, 56-acre body of water surrounded by spruce, fir, and northern hardwood, the pond has been stocked with brook trout by Vermont Fish and Wildlife for generations, making it a destination for anglers willing to make the long approach on foot. Before the Long Trail era, the pond’s shore attracted fishing camps — small, rustic structures that provided shelter for sportsmen who hiked or rode in to work the waters. By the mid-twentieth century, at least two such camps stood at or near the south end of the pond, their original users and construction dates unrecorded.
The Long Trail in this stretch — running southward through Division III — passes within reach of Bourn Pond via the Stratton Pond Trail corridor, a route that at various points was also part of the Appalachian Trail. The pond and its surroundings represented the kind of remote, lake-adjacent location the GMC had long favored for shelter sites: accessible enough for a planned overnight, far enough from roads to feel genuinely wild.
Construction: 1957
In 1957, the Putney Summer Work Camp undertook the reconstruction of two old fishing camps on a new site at the south end of Bourn Pond, combining and reworking their salvaged materials into a single log shelter. The February 1969 issue of the Long Trail News recorded both the builder and the method: it was a reconstruction of the existing camps, not a build from scratch, which meant the shelter’s logs carried the character of structures that had been on the landscape for years before the GMC’s involvement. By adapting rather than clearing and starting fresh, the work camp gave the new shelter a material connection to the pond’s history as a fishing destination.
The completed shelter was of log construction with an open doorway and provided bunks for eight hikers. Water was available at a spring 250 feet east of the shelter — reliable for a high-elevation source, though as with any backcountry spring, dependent on precipitation patterns. The early guide book editions listed it simply as Bourn Pond Shelter.
Trail Context and Wilderness Designation
The shelter sat at mile 36.8 of the Long Trail in Division III, at an elevation of 2,540 feet, overlooking the south shore of Bourn Pond. It occupied a position in the corridor connecting the heavily visited Stratton Pond area to the south with Mad Tom Notch to the north — a stretch where the Long Trail and Appalachian Trail shared tread for much of the twentieth century. In 1975, the Eastern Wilderness Areas Act established the Lye Brook Wilderness, which encompassed the Bourn Pond area within a protected zone of 14,300 acres in the Green Mountain National Forest. The Vermont Wilderness Act of 1984 expanded the designation to approximately 16,000 acres.
Wilderness designation created a legal tension with permanent structures. Under federal wilderness law, the installation or maintenance of permanent shelters in designated wilderness areas is generally prohibited. The North Bourn Pond Shelter, which had stood on the pond’s north shore, was dismantled in 1983 — two years before the 1984 expansion but shortly after the area’s initial designation. The South Bourn Pond Shelter, despite its location within wilderness boundaries, continued to stand and serve hikers for another two decades, apparently under a grandfathered or tolerated status while the Forest Service and GMC worked through their management framework for the area.
Decades of Use
Paul Woodward, who co-authored the Long Trail System Shelter History (Green Mountain Club, 1999), documented his own experience of the site across more than three decades: "This location is very nice. We have camped at this site since we started backpacking in 1963. As recently as 1995, this area had only minimal campers; however, people have found Bourn Pond and the shelter and sites along the Pond get heavy use now."
Woodward’s observation captures the trajectory of many remote backcountry ponds in the northeastern United States in the 1990s and 2000s. What had been a quiet destination known primarily to Long Trail regulars and local anglers gradually became part of the broader outdoor recreation landscape, accessible through guidebooks, mapping software, and trail apps. The 23-mile Bourn Pond–Stratton Pond loop became a popular weekend backpacking circuit. By the early 2000s the Long Trail News and the Connecticut Section’s Trail Talk were documenting the pond’s increasing visitation, and Leave No Trace organizations would eventually identify Bourn Pond as one of the region’s high-impact hotspots, noting "damaged vegetation, water resource impacts, litter, campfire impacts and campsite impacts" as the most pressing concerns.
The shelter’s presence at the south end of the pond — the most accessible and scenic campsite area — concentrated use at precisely the point where the landscape was most vulnerable. A fixed shelter with a reliable spring and bunks for eight acts as a magnet: hikers plan around it, parties converge on it, and the clearing around it loses its vegetation under repeated foot traffic.
The 2005 Burn
The Long Trail News (Spring 2005) reported that the South Bourn Pond Shelter had been intentionally burned by the U.S. Forest Service. The specific reasoning articulated by the agency is not documented in available sources, but the context is clear: the shelter stood inside a federally designated wilderness area where permanent structures are legally problematic; the site was experiencing the ecological impacts of concentrated and growing visitation; and the Forest Service’s pattern at Bourn Pond — demonstrated by the 1983 dismantling of the North Bourn Pond Shelter — favored removing fixed infrastructure and transitioning to dispersed primitive tenting. Burning was the most complete removal method available in a roadless wilderness setting where demolition debris cannot easily be extracted.
The deliberate burn ended 48 years of shelter service at the south end of Bourn Pond. In place of the shelter, the area is managed today as a primitive tenting site — one of three designated camping areas around the pond (north, south, and west), each with a compost privy but without enclosed structures. Wood fires were subsequently prohibited at the pond’s camping areas.
Sources
Long Trail News, February 1969. Green Mountain Club. [Two entries: "in 1957 the remains of old hunting camps were reconstituted into Bourn Pond Shelter" and "Putney Summer Work Camp, reconstruction of two old fishing camps, new site."]
Long Trail News, Spring 2005. Green Mountain Club. [Shelter intentionally burned by USFS.]
Long Trail News, 2001. Green Mountain Club. P. 14.
Trail Talk (Connecticut Section, Green Mountain Club), 2003. P. 9.
Green Mountain Club. Long Trail Guide Book. 17th ed. Green Mountain Club, 1963. [Named "Bourn Pond Shelter."]
Green Mountain Club. Long Trail Guide Book. 18th ed. Green Mountain Club, 1966. P. 25. [Physical description: log construction, open doorway, bunks for 8, spring 250 ft east.]
Green Mountain Club. Long Trail Guide Book. 19th ed. Green Mountain Club, 1968. P. 25.
Green Mountain Club. Long Trail Guide Book. 23rd ed. Green Mountain Club, 1985. Pp. 34–35.
Woodward, Paul and Joanne. Long Trail System Shelter History. 2nd ed. Green Mountain Club, 1999. P. 92. [Woodward’s account of use from 1963 to present; note on increasing use by late 1990s.]
GMC Burlington Section. "South Bourn Pond Shelter." Long Trail System Shelter History. gmcburlington.org. Accessed July 2026.
Appalachian Trail Histories. "Bourn Pond Shelter (1959)." appalachiantrailhistory.org. Accessed July 2026. [Photograph of the shelter, December 5, 1959, by L.C. Everett.]
Leave No Trace. "Bourn Pond Hot Spot." lnt.org. [Documents overuse impacts at Bourn Pond including damaged vegetation, water resource impacts, and campsite damage.]
Sources
- Appalachian Trail Histories – Vermont Shelters. Accessed July 19, 2026. https://appalachiantrailhistory.org/items/browse?tags=Vermont.
- “Leave No Trace. "Bourn Pond Hot Spot." .” lnt.org.
- Long Trail Guide Book. 17th Edition ed. Green Mountain Club, 1963.
- Long Trail Guide Book. 18th Edition ed. Green Mountain Club, 1966.
- Long Trail Guide Book. 18th Edition ed. Green Mountain Club, 1966.
- "Long Trail News." , no. February (1969).
- Long Trail News 2001 (2001). Green Mountain Club. 14.
- The Trail Talk (Connecticut) 2003 (2003). Connecticut Section, Green Mountain Club. 9.
- "Long Trail News." , no. Spring (2005).
- Green Mountain Club. Long Trail Guide Book. 18 ed. Green Mountain Club, 1966. Pp. 25.
- Green Mountain Club. Long Trail Guide Book. 19 ed. Green Mountain Club, 1968. Pp. 25.
- Green Mountain Club. Long Trail Guide Book. 23 ed. Green Mountain Club, 1985. Pp. 34.
- Green Mountain Club. Long Trail Guide Book. 23 ed. Green Mountain Club, 1985. Pp. 35.
- Woodward, Paul & Joanne. Long Trail System Shelter History. 2nd ed. Green Mountain Club, 1999. Pp. 92.
