Tucked 0.3 mile down the Barton Trail from the Monroe Skyline section of the Long Trail, Glen Ellen Lodge has sheltered hikers since 1933 — one of the first products of the newly organized Long Trail Patrol and a structure whose distinctive architecture, born of necessity, became a template for subsequent shelter construction on the trail. Its log walls rise vertically rather than horizontally, a departure from convention that the lumbered-over slope forced on its builders and that the builders’ skill transformed into something admired enough to repeat. Now in its tenth decade of continuous service, Glen Ellen Lodge remains an active shelter within the GMC’s Monroe Skyline caretaker zone.
The Long Trail Patrol and the 1930s Shelter Campaign
The Long Trail had been completed end-to-end in 1930, when Roy O. Buchanan and companions finished the last ten miles from Jay Peak to the Quebec border. Buchanan, dissatisfied with the state of the trail and impatient with the pace of volunteer-only maintenance, persuaded the Green Mountain Club’s board of trustees to authorize a salaried trail crew. The Long Trail Patrol was established in 1931, the first paid trail crew on any long-distance footpath in the country. Under Buchanan’s leadership — which would last 36 years — the patrol tackled the heaviest construction and rebuilding work each summer, typically working with teams of students. Over the course of Buchanan’s tenure the patrol would construct 37 trail shelters along the Long Trail system.
Glen Ellen Lodge was among the earliest of those, built in 1933 for the New York Section of the Green Mountain Club. The New York Section had long maintained a connection to this part of the Monroe Skyline: Will Monroe himself, the professor of botany who directed the construction of this section of the Long Trail through the 1910s and whose name was given to the skyline traverse from Appalachian Gap to Lincoln Gap, had served as president of the New York Section. The 1933 lodge was built on the same Barton Trail spur he had used to reach the earlier 1919 shelter he built — positioned 0.3 mile down the east slope from the Long Trail junction, somewhat lower than the older structure.
Construction and the Vertical Log Solution
By 1933 the slopes of what is now known as Mount Ellen had been heavily lumbered. When the Long Trail Patrol crew arrived to build the new lodge, they found that the available timber on site was insufficient to frame the walls in the conventional fashion — horizontal log courses stacked from the ground up — without running short of material. Their solution was pragmatic: they built the lower portion of the walls by conventional means, then, beginning at window level, set the remaining logs vertically rather than horizontally to complete the upper walls.
The result was something the crew had not anticipated. The vertical log upper walls gave the lodge a visual texture and a warmth that distinguished it from the more utilitarian lean-tos and log shelters elsewhere on the trail. The design proved so aesthetically pleasing that the Long Trail Patrol adopted it for subsequent shelter construction, replicating the hybrid approach — traditional lower courses, vertical upper logs — at other lodges built by the same crew. What began as a practical response to a timber shortage became a signature of the Patrol’s building style in this era.
The Setting: Views and Water
Glen Ellen Lodge occupies a site on the eastern slope below the Monroe Skyline ridgeline, in the Mad River Valley watershed in the Warren and Fayston area of Washington County. From the lodge, hikers look east across a sweeping panorama: the Mad River valley below, the Northfield Mountains and the Granite Mountains in the middle distance, and on clear days the several ranges of the White Mountains of New Hampshire on the horizon. The guide books across multiple editions consistently note the exceptional quality of these eastern views as among the lodge’s chief attractions.
The water situation at Glen Ellen has always required some attention. The spring associated with the lodge — located to the west of the Long Trail near the junction before the descent of the Barton Trail — has historically been unreliable. An intermittent brook accessible by following the contour beyond the outhouse provides a second source, but in very dry weather hikers may need to search for pools above or below the lodge to find water. This limitation has been consistently documented in successive editions of the Long Trail Guide Book and remains a planning consideration for visitors today.
Maintenance and Continued Use
The lodge’s durability across nine decades reflects both the quality of its original construction and the sustained attention of the Long Trail Patrol and GMC volunteers. The November 1965 issue of the Long Trail News recorded a maintenance visit that year during which rotten logs were replaced and a new floor was installed — a significant undertaking given the logistics of the site. The lumber required for the repairs was backpacked up the Barton Trail because the ski area lift on the mountain was not running at the time; Glen Ellen ski area had opened just two years earlier, in December 1963, and workers at the lodge could not take advantage of the machinery that would later make the mountain so well-known. The 1965 report noted that despite the years of use, the camp was in good condition and estimated it would serve hikers well for at least another 32 years — a projection that proved conservative by several decades.
The 24th edition of the Long Trail Guide Book (1996) confirmed the lodge still in active use. Contemporary GMC records show it as one of five shelters within the Monroe Skyline caretaker zone, alongside Battell Shelter, Theron Dean Shelter, Birch Glen Shelter, and Cowles Cove Shelter. The lodge is now equipped with a composter in keeping with GMC’s backcountry sanitation standards, and wood fires are prohibited at the site.
Sources
Green Mountain Club. Long Trail Guide Book. 10th ed. Green Mountain Club, 1935. P. 38.
Green Mountain Club. Long Trail Guide Book. 11th ed. Green Mountain Club, 1937. P. 42.
Green Mountain Club. Long Trail Guide Book. 12th ed. Green Mountain Club, 1940. P. 45.
Green Mountain Club. Guide Book of the Long Trail. 16th ed. Green Mountain Club, 1960. P. 45.
Green Mountain Club. Long Trail Guide Book. 23rd ed. Green Mountain Club, 1985. P. 60.
Green Mountain Club. Long Trail Guide Book. 24th ed. Green Mountain Club, 1996.
Long Trail News. November 1965. [Maintenance report: rotten logs replaced, new floor installed, lumber backpacked via Barton Trail.]
Ridgelines (Burlington Section, Green Mountain Club). 1977. Vol. 1.
GMC Burlington Section. "Glen Ellen Lodge." Long Trail System Shelter History. gmcburlington.org. Accessed July 2026.
Green Mountain Club. "Monroe Skyline Shift Report." greenmountainclub.org. Accessed July 2026. [Confirms current caretaker zone encompassing Glen Ellen Lodge.]
Long Trail: Volunteers Keep GMC Alive. VPR Archive. archive.vpr.org. [Background on the Long Trail Patrol, founded 1931 by Roy O. Buchanan.]
Sources
- “Long Trail: Volunteers Keep GMC Alive..” archive.vpr.org..
- Ridgelines (Burlington) 1977 (1977). Burlington Section, Green Mountain Club. 1.
- Green Mountain Club. Long Trail Guide Book. 10 ed. Green Mountain Club, 1935. Pp. 38.
- Green Mountain Club. Long Trail Guide Book. 11 ed. Green Mountain Club, 1937. Pp. 42.
- Green Mountain Club. Long Trail Guide Book. 12 ed. Green Mountain Club, 1940. Pp. 45.
- Green Mountain Club. Guide Book of the Long Trail. 16 ed. Green Mountain Club, 1960. Pp. 45.
- Green Mountain Club. Long Trail Guide Book. 23 ed. Green Mountain Club, 1985. Pp. 60.
