Taking its name from the Northeast Kingdom of Vermont, the Kingdom Trail Association has been providing mountain bikers with the opportunity to explore some of the country’s most beautiful and iconic landscapes for over 25 years. Founded in 1994, the KTA was built to help manage relationships among the private landowners that make up the overwhelming majority of land the trail network has been built upon, and provide cyclists from around the world with a world-class experience in the Northeastern United States while showcasing the area’s natural beauty and stimulating the local economy. Decades later, it’s clear that those original visionaries were on to something.
Numerous studies have been conducted over the years that indeed show the profound economic impact these trails have had on the town of East Burke, VT in the heart of the Kingdom Trails. In 2016, a statewide study conducted by Camoin Associates, an agency specializing economic and fiscal impact analyses, was paid for by the Vermont Trails and Greenways Council. The Kingdom Trail Association was one of four trail networks to participate in the study, and among the results it was determined that the Kingdom Trails hosted approximately 94,000 trail user in 2015, primarily from Spring through Autumn, and peaking during the summer months.
As recently as 2019, the Kingdom Trail Association published a community report, highlighting their 25 years of existence, and showing just how powerful an economic asset the trails have proven to be in that time, with estimated impact upwards of $10 million in 2018 alone. The region played host to nearly 140,000 visits that year, with 84% coming from out of state. The ever increasing surge in popularity of the trails was profound and categorically unmitigated.
On November 21st of 2019, three landowners informed the Kingdom Trail Association that they would no longer allow for cyclists to access the trails located within their respective property boundary lines. A 4th landowner, whose property ran adjacent to the aforementioned collective, joined their ranks a few weeks later on December 16th. The letters did not include any specific reasons for the restricted access. On January 17th it was announced that the enormously popular NEMBA Fest, an annual celebration and fundraiser for both the Kingdom Trail Association and New England Mountain Bike Association with upwards of 4,000 participants based out of Darling Hill, would be cancelled for 2020. On January 23rd, the KTA finally issued an open letter to the community taking complete responsibility for having “been slow to respond to issues and concerns and we acknowledge our lack of voice and leadership”, and promising “to be more responsive and transparent as we roll out plans and address challenges.”
Speculation has run rampant in the time since this information became public knowledge, and while the Kingdom Trail Association has yet to update their trail map, it is clear that mountains bikers have indeed lost access to several classic trails and routes on Darling Hill, including the Troll Stroll, Tody’s Tour, and Tap n Die, with the connectivity between the Darling Hill ridge line and the town itself now severed. In total, approximately 13 miles of trail have been lost to mountain bikes.
Abigail Long came on board as executive director for the Kingdom Trail Association in February of 2018, having previously held the same title at the Leadville Trail 100 Legacy Foundation, the nonprofit arm of the Leadville Race series. She and her husband came to East Burke from Colorado, where she has acclimated to life in the Northeast Kingdom rather quickly. In September of 2019, the Burke Area Chamber of Commerce presented Abby with the “Citizen of the Year” award during the Fall Festival, recognizing her as an “exuberant and thoughtful advocate for the community.” Abby and the rest of the Kingdom Trail Association now face what is regarded by many as perhaps the most pressing crisis in all 26 years of the KTA’s existence, and have been hard at work developing a plan moving forward for both the Kingdom Trails as well as the community, making a concerted effort to emphasize their dedication to the landowners who make the enormously popular network of trails possible in the first place. Abby was gracious enough to take some time to address many of the concerns that have been expressed by cyclists around the world, and offer as much clarification on the matter as she could.
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