Bacher Trail – The Nature Conservancy, West Haven, Vermont This preserve features two main trails: the Susan Bacher Memorial Trail (2.5 miles) and Tim’s Trail (2.8 miles), connected by a one-mile connector trail, offering moderate hiking across diverse terrain. Trail walkers move quickly from lake and river shoreline through gently rolling hay meadows, cross stony talus slopes, and ascend cliffs topped by oak-hickory-hophornbeam forest, with sweeping vistas of the southern Lake Champlain, the Poultney River, and wetlands from the cliffs. This nearly 4,000-acre preserve is The Nature Conservancy’s largest and most ecologically diverse preserve in Vermont, with visitors able to hike on 5 miles of trails and potentially glimpse peregrine falcons or five-lined skinks—Vermont’s only lizard. The area is home to 65 rare or uncommon plant and animal species and 20 distinct natural communities, including peregrine falcons nesting on Bald Mountain’s cliffs, floodplain and upland forests, marsh habitat, three miles of undeveloped Lake Champlain shoreline, and wetlands along the Poultney River. Hikers should wear boots and long pants and watch out for snakes.
Bacher Trail – The Nature Conservancy
