Twin Brooks Tenting Area occupies a small clearing on the western slope of Mount Mansfield at 2,300 feet elevation, just off the Long Trail between Taylor Lodge to the south and Butler Lodge to the north. It was built in 1976 specifically to draw overnight hikers away from those two heavily used lodges, and it has served that purpose ever since — absorbing pressure, providing a quieter alternative, and gathering, in the three decades since 1997, a reputation as the premier tenting opportunity on Mansfield. Since 1996 it has carried a second meaning as well: a memorial to Roland Boucher, the Burlington Section volunteer who spent the last years of his life tending the trail that passes its door.
Between Taylor and Butler: The Long Trail’s Busiest Corridor
To understand why Twin Brooks exists, it helps to understand its neighborhood. The Long Trail on Mount Mansfield runs through some of the most heavily visited terrain in Vermont. Taylor Lodge, at the east end of Nebraska Notch, and Butler Lodge, a quarter mile off the Long Trail to the west of the Forehead, were both built in the 1930s — Taylor in 1978 (rebuilt after the 1977 fire that destroyed the original), and Butler by the Long Trail Patrol in 1933. Together they bracket a roughly 3.5-mile section of the Long Trail along the mountain’s west slope, below the summit ridge. By the 1970s, both were under significant pressure from day hikers and overnight visitors attracted to Mansfield’s network of approach trails from Underhill.
The section between them is quiet by comparison: wooded, well below treeline, threading across the slopes of Dewey Mountain with views south to Lake Mansfield and the Worcester Range. Two brooks cross the Long Trail here, and the terrain provides a sheltered spot away from the exposed ridge — a place that could absorb tents without concentrated use damage if it were properly developed.
Construction and Early Years, 1976–1992
Twin Brooks Tenting Area was built in 1976 with the explicit purpose of reducing overuse of the adjacent Taylor and Butler lodges. The 21st edition of the Long Trail Guide Book, published in 1977, was the first to list it — recording the site at mile 9.6 on the Long Trail (measuring southward from the Chin), elevation 2,300 feet, reached by a 100-foot spur from the trail. The Guide noted: "Tent platforms and toilet facilities are provided, and fires are permitted at the existing fireplace. The water supply is a brook 0.1 m. south via the Long Trail."
The site remained in this basic form — platforms, an outhouse, a fireplace, a short spur — through the early 1990s. It was maintained by the Burlington Section of the GMC, which assigned shelter adopters to make periodic visits and report on conditions. Allan and Bradley Wagner held the Twin Brooks adoption through at least 1993, making the long carry from the Stevensville Road parking lot necessary for any significant repair work.
How much Twin Brooks was actually used during these years is less clear. A 1994 Burlington Section initiative reveals that the site had no sign-in box — no systematic way of knowing how many hikers stopped there — and that the access path from the road to the site was rough enough to require marking and clearing before visitors could easily find it.
A Site in Need of Attention, 1993–1995
By the early 1990s, Twin Brooks was showing its age. On June 13, 1993, a crew of six Burlington Section volunteers — the Wagners, Butler Lodge caretaker Kristian Omland, Section shelter coordinators Dana Baron and Herman Hoffman, and a new member named Perry Acworth — made the carry from the Stevensville Road parking lot with four large boards, a new outhouse door and toilet seat, and assorted tools. They dug a new outhouse pit, replaced rotted boards on the tent platforms, assembled the outhouse door, moved the outhouse to a new location, and built a new fire pit. As the crew noted afterward, the hardest work came first — hauling the materials up a muddy, marshy ski trail — while the hike out, unburdened, felt dramatically easier.
A follow-up work hike was scheduled for August 1993. In the fall of 1993, the Long Trail News reported that the work had been completed and that further outings were planned for summer, "mostly hikes and some canoeing," with the Burlington Section’s trails corridor from Jonesville to Smugglers Notch ready for hikers.
In 1994 the Burlington Section turned its attention to making the site more findable. With the assistance of Gary Sawyer of the Vermont Department of Forests and Parks, who loaned a key to the Stevensville Road gate and provided a sign-in box and bulletin board, Section volunteers drove part of the way up the logging road, marked a rough trail connecting to the Underhill cross-country ski trail, and installed the first registration infrastructure at Twin Brooks. Allan and Brad Wagner, the shelter adopters, had originally marked the connection trail. The bulletin board was attached to a maple tree about thirty feet from the junction with the Long Trail; the sign-in box was mounted below it. With this equipment in place, the Section could finally begin tracking the site’s use and making the case for further investment.
Roland Boucher, 1913–1995
Roland Boucher was born in 1913 and, after a career that included work as a meteorologist, retired to Underhill, Vermont — the small town at the foot of Mount Mansfield’s western slope — in 1986. He was already a mountaineer and a passionate photographer of rare flowers. His retirement brought him to the mountain he would spend the rest of his life looking after.
He became involved in maintaining the Long Trail almost immediately after arriving in Underhill. By 1988 he had taken on a role within the Burlington Section that freed other volunteers to concentrate on physical trail work: he tended to all of the Section’s blazing needs, systematically painting the white blazes that mark the Long Trail and the blue blazes that mark side trails throughout the Burlington Section’s territory. This was unglamorous, repetitive work — walking every blaze line, painting over faded marks, carrying paint through brush and over rock — but it was also essential, and Boucher did it reliably for seven years. He also carried clippers on his frequent trips to Mansfield, brushing out the trail as he walked.
He continued this work until his death in March 1995. His last peak, the nearby Dewey Mountain — whose slopes the Long Trail traverses just south of Twin Brooks — he climbed one month before he died.
After his death, Section member Louann Nielsen raised the idea of naming Twin Brooks in his memory. The Burlington Section Executive Committee approved the proposal, and the GMC’s Trails and Shelters Committee endorsed it. A dedication ceremony was planned.
The Dedication, August 25, 1996
The ceremony took place on August 25, 1996, on a summer Sunday, with Burlington Section members, other GMC’ers, and friends gathering at the tenting area. Roland Boucher’s son, Roland Boucher Jr., and his wife Dolores made the hike up for the occasion.
The dedication was led by Clem Holden. It included the installation of a wooden plaque, recollections of hiking experiences with Roland shared by his friends, and a benediction given by Sister Jane of St. Thomas Church in Underhill — one of Roland’s hiking companions. A calligraphic inscription of the plaque’s text, mounted in a frame, was presented to the Boucher family.
The Long Trail News, Winter 1996, carried a brief account: "A member of the Burlington Section, Boucher became involved in maintaining the Long Trail upon his retirement to Underhill, Vermont in 1986. From 1988 until his death in 1995, Boucher tended to all of the Burlington Section’s Long Trail blazing needs so that work parties could concentrate on trail maintenance projects. Still, Roland carried his clippers to brush out the trail on his frequent trips up Mount Mansfield. Roland was also a noted photographer of rare flowers. Roland climbed his last peak, Dewey Mountain, one month before his death."
Later that same day, after the ceremony, a Section work crew continued north from the dedication site, clipping and brushing the Long Trail between the Nebraska Notch trail junction and Butler Lodge — keeping the trail in the condition that Boucher himself had maintained.
Rebuilding Twin Brooks, 1997
The dedication prompted a more thorough reckoning with the state of the site. By early 1997 the Burlington Section and the Vermont Department of Forest, Parks, and Recreation had agreed on a comprehensive redesign and reconstruction of Twin Brooks Tenting Area.
Work began in May 1997. The project, coordinated by Leo Leach, called for a new design: a proper spur trail connecting to the Long Trail, new tent platforms sized to accommodate larger groups, a new outhouse, and hazard tree removal. The scope made it one of the more ambitious volunteer shelter projects the Burlington Section had undertaken.
Material transport was a persistent challenge. The tenting area is about two miles from the Stevensville Road trailhead, accessible only on foot after the road ends. In August, a "Mule" — a flatbed all-terrain vehicle — was used to haul building materials, tools, and a gas-powered generator up a mile-long temporary access road to within 200 yards of the tent site. Volunteers then carried everything by hand the rest of the way. A pre-drilling crew used the gas generator at a base clearing before transport, screwing down decking planks in advance to reduce labor at the site.
By September 6, approximately 700 volunteer hours had gone into the project. The tent platforms were completed on September 21. The bulletin board and Roland Boucher dedication sign were relocated to the new spur entrance from the Long Trail, where arriving hikers would see them. A new Twin Brooks Tenting Area sign was erected.
On October 18, 1997, the Burlington Section held a celebratory campout at the restored site. The invitation read: "Celebrate the restoration of Twin Brooks Tent Site. Meet at 9:30 AM at UVM parking lot, or at 10:15 at Stevensville parking lot. Dedication at 11:30. Bring lunch, water, raingear. Refreshments provided. Camping overnight for those who wish to stay."
The Long Trail News, Fall 1997, summarized the result: "It now is the premier tenting opportunity on Mt. Mansfield."
Sources
- Long Trail Guide Book. 24th Edition ed. Green Mountain Club, 1996.
- "Long Trail News." , no. Winter (1996).
- Ridgelines (Burlington) 1997 (1997). Burlington Section, Green Mountain Club. 3.
- Ridgelines (Burlington) 1997 (1997). Burlington Section, Green Mountain Club. 4.
- "Long Trail News." , no. Fall (1997).
- Ridgelines (Burlington) 2016 (2016). Burlington Section, Green Mountain Club. 3.
- Green Mountain Club. Long Trail Guide Book. 21 ed. Green Mountain Club, 1977. Pp. 89.
- Green Mountain Club. Long Trail Guide Book. 21 ed. Green Mountain Club, 1977. Pp. 66.
- Green Mountain Club. Long Trail Guide Book. 22 ed. Green Mountain Club, 1983. Pp. 89.
- Green Mountain Club. Long Trail Guide Book. 22 ed. Green Mountain Club, 1983. Pp. 89.
- Green Mountain Club. Long Trail Guide Book. 22 ed. Green Mountain Club, 1983. Pp. 68.
- Green Mountain Club. Long Trail Guide Book. 23 ed. Green Mountain Club, 1985. Pp. 71.
- Woodward, Paul & Joanne. Long Trail System Shelter History. 2nd ed. Green Mountain Club, 1999. Pp. 161.
