Local Dirt: Craftsbury Academy Woodlot

Trails at the Craftsbury Academy Woodlot. Click on this to download a geo-referenced map, suitable for offline navigation via Avenza (as described here).

From Communications Director Sheldon Miller

We’re super fortunate to enjoy an ample trail system, summer or winter at the Outdoor Center. But sometimes it’s nice to mix things up - and thanks to the Craftsbury Academy and Town of Craftsbury you can.

The Craftsbury Academy Woodlot trails are a mix of single and doubletrack, around 5k total and they take one thru a variety of woodland habitats, as well as past beavers and their constant re-engineering of the landscape.

Back 40 Trail

The Back 40 Trail also crosses a canal that was dug in the early 19th century by Samuel Crafts to divert water from the outlet of Heart Pond to Little Hosmer Pond, to increase flow to the mill in Mill Village. This canal can still be located today, following the contour of the hillside, with some areas having impressive stone retaining walls built on the downslope side. One can read all about this history (natural and anthropological) and much more in the forestry management plan.

Easy to follow

Trails are well signed and flagged (to say nothing of the possibility of offline navigation with the geo-referenced PDF you can click on above).

I ran this as part of a longer run (see Strava route for a short sampler to add on to a Craftsbury road loop). If one leaves from the Center budget another 7 miles of road to whatever you run at the woodlot. Or start and finish your run at the Little Hosmer boat launch for an additional 4ish miles of dirt roads in conjunction with your trail time.