A relaxing hike in Chittenden Saturday afternoon took a crazy turn, but thanks to more than three dozen people who stepped up, a potential wildfire was averted.
Here’s how it started:
My husband Seth and I were slowly making our way up to North Pond with our dog Gusto, savoring Saturday's warm weather and the autumn scenery. We live in Chittenden and have hiked this particular trail many times before. My husband even camped at North Pond with our daughters when they were little.
The trek to the water follows a steep snowmobile trail that cuts through the Green Mountain National Forest between Chittenden and Pittsfield. It’s part of the Telephone Gap area and not far from the Chittenden Reservoir.
As we climbed up to the rustic, high-elevation pond, the dry conditions were evident in the brown foliage and slippery dirt trail underfoot.
We ran into four other hikers as the path leveled out. They’d just come from the pond and said they’d found a smoldering campfire that had been left unattended. They tried to put the fire out, they told us, but couldn’t and called 911 worried it might spread due to the dry conditions.
Because of the severity of the region-wide drought, the Green Mountain National Forest has prohibited building any fires outside of a Forest Service-provided metal fire pit, metal fire ring or pole-mounted grill at a developed campground. So hearing someone had built a fire up at this remote spot was shocking. The fact that they were not careful putting it out was beyond belief.
Seth and I hurried to the pond and found the remains of the fire, still smoldering with stones too hot to touch. I found an empty dog poop bag in my pocket and Seth emptied a large Ziploc bag he used to hold first-aid supplies. We spent 20 minutes carrying muddy water from the pond to the fire pit. Despite our best efforts, embers still glowed deep underneath several large roots, and we were worried the fire was spreading underground. I was glad the previous hikers had called it in, because we didn't have shovels.
Other than the fire itself, the campers had also left scrunched up balls of tin foil from whatever meal they cooked. Even more frustrating, they’d broken off all sorts of young pine branches to cover the dirt. The small trees circling the site looked like they’d been brutalized.
We soon heard voices, and four members of the Chittenden Fire Department made their way toward the pond on a six wheeler they’d driven up from town (no small task). They weaved through the trees with backpack water carriers, a mini pump and trenching tools.
Relieved, we got out of their way and headed home. As we made our way back down the trail, we passed multiple teams of what I was told later were wildland firefighting crews; they're members of an elite branch of firefighters within the U.S. Forest Service.
More than 30 local and federal fire fighters showed up on Saturday, despite a government shutdown, to make sure the forest and nearby communities were protected.
"It's rugged country and it's labor intensive, dirty work to get a fire out when it's this dry. It just gets deep into the roots, and it's really hard to get it out.”Conrad Zeller, assistant fire chief, Chittenden Fire Department
Conrad Zeller, assistant fire chief of the Chittenden Fire Department, was just heading up the trail as we got to our car. At that point, the parking area was full of fire trucks and other Forest Service vehicles.
“The call came in just after 2:30 p.m.,” Zeller told us, “and by 4:30 p.m., I heard from our guys that the fire was contained and the situation was under control."
When I explained how the previous hikers and my husband and I all tried to douse the fire with water, but couldn't, he nodded. "It's rugged country and it's labor intensive, dirty work to get a fire out when it's this dry. It just gets deep into the roots, and it's really hard to get it out.”
Because it's a national forest, Zeller said the U.S. Forest Service has jurisdiction. But he wanted to head up to the site anyway, just to make sure things were going OK. It's always better to have too many people respond to a fire that's put out quickly, he told me, than having one or two face a situation that gets out of hand.
I felt grateful for every single one of them.
Zeller added this before heading up the trail: "We want people to be out there recreating and enjoying, you know, the beautiful woods Vermont has to offer, especially, on beautiful days in October. But we just need people to make sure they're being cautious and being careful if they're using fires. You have to smother them properly. If you can put your hand in there and you feel any warmth, it's not out."
