WeRmudfun
New member
This was the most unique hike we have been on to date and we did it on Halloween to boot! Not much of a hike either just a 2 mile walk up a paved road, that is in incredible condition for being over 50 years old, located in the Northeast Kingdom. We love finding old buildings and artifacts, this place is a super overloaded on both. 
Located on Radar Road, we approached through Victory, VT. We were able to drive all the way up to the Cantonment Area and park there. As soon as we got out of the car and saw everything that was left, we knew it was going to be a great day.
The base first opened in 1956 as North Concord Air Force Station, then 6 years later on the same day, March 1st, the name was changed to Lyndonville Air Force Station. East Mountain was chosen by the Air Force for the radar base during the Cold War era to cover the gap in the St. Lawrence River Valley. It was consider to be the last line of defense in an attack on New York City or Washington DC.
The Cantonment Area was a small scale base with such amenities as a Mess Hall, Motor Pool, Barracks, Rec Hall, Bowling Alley, etc. A lot of the buildings are still standing, others only have the cement slab as a sign of where they once stood. There is stuff everywhere along with graffiti spray painted on everything. That is a shame, but the history is still there. The base closed in 1963, so it was interesting to walk around the old base and see Mother Nature slowly taking back what was once hers.
When the Air Force left, they allegedly dumped gases and oil on the ground causing the base to be put on list of contaminated places in Vermont. There is also a lot of scrap metal dumped in the surrounding woods near the swamp. We found an old Dodge car out there too.
After looking at everything in the Cantonment Area, we headed up the 2 mile road to the summit. Up until last year it was possible to drive to the summit, though the road is basically one lane wide in spots. There is now a large round tank blocking the road, so walking is the only way up. The ATVers have already made their way around it though.
The summit contains 5 radar towers, radar operation buildings and more graffiti. People seem to like to shoot up there too as there are a lot of bullet holes. A group called the ‘Lyndonville AFS Preservation Group’ that is trying to clean up the area and cover the graffiti. Being careful it is possible to see some really nice views of the Northeast Kingdom from the top of two of the towers.
East Mountain is on New England 50 Finest hiking list, we not doing that, but after seeing it was on a list we were curious, we have 20 of them done. It is a long drive to get there, but for us, it was soooo worth it. There was talk about a wind farm going up on the mountain, but it hit a lot of roadblocks, so it is on hold indefinitely. We decided to move this place up on our to-do list before access is restricted, plus it would stink to drive 3 hours only to see a No Trespassing sign!
We picked up 3 Geocaches while we were there. There were a few more, but by the end of our exploring we were a little tired and said, next time. There was so much to see here, that we ended up with tons of video. It was difficult to keep it to a reasonable length, originally it came out to over 23 minutes. We kept cutting clips out and got it down to a little over 15 minutes.
The Video: (Best viewed at 1080p60):
Located on Radar Road, we approached through Victory, VT. We were able to drive all the way up to the Cantonment Area and park there. As soon as we got out of the car and saw everything that was left, we knew it was going to be a great day.The base first opened in 1956 as North Concord Air Force Station, then 6 years later on the same day, March 1st, the name was changed to Lyndonville Air Force Station. East Mountain was chosen by the Air Force for the radar base during the Cold War era to cover the gap in the St. Lawrence River Valley. It was consider to be the last line of defense in an attack on New York City or Washington DC.
The Cantonment Area was a small scale base with such amenities as a Mess Hall, Motor Pool, Barracks, Rec Hall, Bowling Alley, etc. A lot of the buildings are still standing, others only have the cement slab as a sign of where they once stood. There is stuff everywhere along with graffiti spray painted on everything. That is a shame, but the history is still there. The base closed in 1963, so it was interesting to walk around the old base and see Mother Nature slowly taking back what was once hers.
When the Air Force left, they allegedly dumped gases and oil on the ground causing the base to be put on list of contaminated places in Vermont. There is also a lot of scrap metal dumped in the surrounding woods near the swamp. We found an old Dodge car out there too.
After looking at everything in the Cantonment Area, we headed up the 2 mile road to the summit. Up until last year it was possible to drive to the summit, though the road is basically one lane wide in spots. There is now a large round tank blocking the road, so walking is the only way up. The ATVers have already made their way around it though.
The summit contains 5 radar towers, radar operation buildings and more graffiti. People seem to like to shoot up there too as there are a lot of bullet holes. A group called the ‘Lyndonville AFS Preservation Group’ that is trying to clean up the area and cover the graffiti.
Being careful it is possible to see some really nice views of the Northeast Kingdom from the top of two of the towers. East Mountain is on New England 50 Finest hiking list, we not doing that, but after seeing it was on a list we were curious, we have 20 of them done.
It is a long drive to get there, but for us, it was soooo worth it. There was talk about a wind farm going up on the mountain, but it hit a lot of roadblocks, so it is on hold indefinitely. We decided to move this place up on our to-do list before access is restricted, plus it would stink to drive 3 hours only to see a No Trespassing sign! We picked up 3 Geocaches while we were there. There were a few more, but by the end of our exploring we were a little tired and said, next time. There was so much to see here, that we ended up with tons of video. It was difficult to keep it to a reasonable length, originally it came out to over 23 minutes. We kept cutting clips out and got it down to a little over 15 minutes.
The Video: (Best viewed at 1080p60):
