Tucker-Johnson Shelter stands on a wooded eastern slope just north of Maine Junction, in the Green Mountain National Forest near Sherburne Pass, where the Long Trail splits from the Appalachian Trail. For hikers heading north from Route 4, it is the first overnight shelter on the Long Trail after the junction — a critical waypoint in a stretch of high-traffic trail with limited camping options. The current shelter is the third structure to stand near this site, built in 2018 by a volunteer crew led by Jonathan Bigelow of the Manchester Section. The story of how it came to be rebuilt begins eighty years earlier and runs through a fire, an extraordinary volunteer, and a community’s decision to honor one of its own.
Seven Years Without a Shelter
In 2011, after standing for forty-two years the previous Tucker-Johnson shelter was lost to fire, This left a significant gap in the Long Trail shelter chain near heavily hiked Sherburne Pass. The site lies just north of Maine Junction — where through-hikers on the Appalachian Trail split from Long Trailers heading for Canada — and the surrounding area receives substantial foot traffic from thru-hikers, section hikers, and day visitors using the Deer Leap Trail and other approaches from Route 4.
For seven years, planning and permitting proceeded slowly. The GMC worked with the Green Mountain National Forest to select a new site 100 feet south of the original shelter location, creating a larger buffer between the new structure and Eagle Square Brook. The design would replicate the original Tucker-Johnson Shelter: Adirondack-style, wood-framed, double-deck bunks, table in the middle, generous roof overhang — based on drawings originally developed by George Pearlstein, GMC President in the 1970s, who had designed the 1969 structure. The new shelter would also meet modern ADA accessibility standards.
By spring 2018, GMC announced the project publicly. A generous donor had made the rebuild financially possible. The Long Trail News Spring 2018 summarized the plan: "A new shelter and moldering privy in this area of high hiker traffic will reestablish overnight lodging and waste management, relieving pressure on other sites near Sherburne Pass and the Appalachian Trail."
Construction, 2018
The GMC’s construction crew began site work in the summer of 2018. The project’s first notable complication arrived uninvited: a bear, attracted to the activity, damaged concrete footings the crew had just poured. The bear returned a second time, lured by a food bag hanging from a tree branch above the work site. Once the bear cleared out, the crew completed the footings and turned to the privy — the first structure finished on site. The new ADA-compliant moldering privy, equipped with a 25-foot-long wheelchair approach ramp, was complete by August, when Killington Section hikers passing through during Long Trail Day noted the rows of Sonotubes waiting for floor joists and the finished privy standing nearby.
Students from Burr and Burton Academy’s Mountain Campus hauled pressure-treated lumber to the site over the summer months. GMC Construction Crew Leader Kurt Melin and volunteer John Ogden framed and decked the shelter’s floor.
The shelter itself went up in a single October weekend.
Jonathan Bigelow and the Volunteer Build
Jonathan Bigelow is an educator at Burr and Burton Academy in Manchester, Vermont. An avid outdoorsman and longtime member of the Manchester Section of the GMC, he regularly leads hiking trips for students and young people. When he learned the Tucker-Johnson rebuild was coming together, he approached GMC Executive Director Mike DeBonis with an idea: build the shelter in honor of Marge Fish.
Marge Fish had served as Manchester Section President and as GMC President — one of the few women to hold the club’s top office — and was, by Bigelow’s description, someone who seemed to be "everywhere" in the Manchester-area outdoor community: organizing trail work, leading CPR classes, fighting fires alongside the volunteer fire department, serving on the rescue squad. "When I spoke to Marge’s husband Bob," Bigelow wrote, "(equally central to our area), he warned me: ‘She’s not going to like you making a fuss over her, but she will like the project.’"
DeBonis embraced the idea. The rebuild would honor Marge Fish and demonstrate what a mobilized community of Long Trail volunteers could accomplish.
Bigelow threw himself into the logistics. He worked with GMC staff to finalize the shelter design based on Pearlstein’s plans. He sourced the lumber and materials — Joe Miles, proprietor of r.k. Miles, a local lumber and building materials company, made a significant financial contribution — and pre-cut most of the lumber at his house before the build weekend, so that construction on the wooded hillside could move as efficiently as possible.
The October weekend brought out a couple of dozen volunteers from the Manchester Section, the Killington Section, and the surrounding community. Former GMC President Rich Windish organized the volunteers and served as safety officer. Millie Mugica — a ten-time Long Trail end-to-ender — and her nine-year-old daughter Maxine, herself an end-to-ender, were among the builders. The Long Trail News profiled them afterward, with Millie describing the scene: "I love that GMC brings this spirit of workmanship into being. We are really all just folks who love the Long Trail and enjoy doing what is needed to sustain it."
One group ferried materials up from the trailhead in multiple laps while another group assembled the structure. Experienced carpenters worked alongside people who had never swung a hammer at a shelter build. Bigelow, reflecting on the weekend in the Long Trail News:
"It was great to see the variety of GMC volunteers. Even better for this newbie was the way everyone checked their egos at the trailhead. People asked how they could help, and dug in."
The shelter was framed, sided, roofed with green metal, and ready for hikers by the end of the weekend. The GMC announced its completion on November 21, 2018.
Writing about the project afterward, Bigelow described what the weekend meant:
"Finally, after seven years, there stood a new Adirondack style shelter, upgraded to meet ADA standards. It was a joy to see the result of an energetic group of volunteers coming together to honor a friend and help the Green Mountain Club."
For his leadership of the project — designing the build, securing materials, pre-cutting the lumber, organizing the volunteer crew, and bringing the shelter to completion in a single weekend — Jonathan Bigelow was named the Green Mountain Club’s 2019 Volunteer of the Year, recognized at the club’s Annual Volunteer Picnic.
The Shelter Today
The current Tucker-Johnson Shelter is a wood-framed Adirondack-style lean-to with double-deck bunks on each side, a table in the middle, and a wide roof overhang. It accommodates 6–8 overnight hikers. The associated ADA-compliant moldering privy, with its 25-foot wheelchair approach ramp, stands nearby. Water is available from Eagle Square Brook.
The shelter is maintained by the Killington Section of the Green Mountain Club and is located in the Green Mountain National Forest. It sits 1.8 miles north of Route 4 at Sherburne Pass and approximately 0.4 miles north of Maine Junction, where Long Trailers and AT hikers formally part ways. The Inn at Long Trail, which has provided rooms, meals, and hiker resupply at Sherburne Pass since its days as the original Long Trail Lodge, is adjacent to the Long Trail at the trailhead.
The GMC website article announcing the completion (November 21, 2018) includes photographs from the build weekend. The Long Trail News Spring 2019 issue (pp. 22–23), with photographs by Rich Windish, includes photos from the volunteer weekend that appear to show Jonathan Bigelow; the Long Trail News Winter 2019 (p. 29) runs a profile of Bigelow as 2019 Volunteer of the Year, with his photograph. No standalone public portrait of Jonathan Bigelow has been identified in web searches.
Sources
GMC Shelter Database, Shelter ID 000268. "Tucker-Johnson Shelter 2nd." Green Mountain Club.
"Tucker Johnson Shelter Replacement." Long Trail News, Spring 2018, p. 15. Green Mountain Club.
"Tucker Johnson Shelter Open." Long Trail News, Spring 2019, pp. 22–23. Green Mountain Club.
"Jonathan Bigelow." Long Trail News, Winter 2019, p. 29. Green Mountain Club.
GMC Annual Report 2019, p. 5. Green Mountain Club.
GMC Annual Report 2020, p. 16. Green Mountain Club.
"The Elbow, Long Trail Day Hike." Smoke and Blazes (Killington), vol. 71 (2018), p. 7. Killington Section, Green Mountain Club.
"Outings Calendar." Footnotes (Upper Valley Ottauquechee), December 2022, p. 3. Upper Valley/Ottauquechee Section, Green Mountain Club.
"New Tucker-Johnson Shelter Dedication." Long Trail News, November 1969, p. 8. Green Mountain Club.
Long Trail Guide Book, 20th ed. Green Mountain Club, 1971. P. 40.
Long Trail Guide Book, 22nd ed. Green Mountain Club, 1983. P. 44.
Long Trail Guide Book, 23rd ed. Green Mountain Club, 1985. P. 46.
DeBonis, Mike. "Tucker Johnson Shelter is Back!" Green Mountain Club, November 21, 2018. https://www.greenmountainclub.org/tucker-johnson-shelter-is-back/
