Hiking the Vermont Long Trail, a “footpath through the Green Mountains”, is a trek of the life time. Rick and Tim, innkeepers of the Swanson Inn, walked the Long Trail end-to-end in the fall of 2016 (trail names: Solar Array and Half-Way-There). The journey was in honor of Tim’s 50th birthday gift while friends and family donated over $11,000 to establish the Trailblazer Fund, a scholarship program encouraging graduates of Laraway Youth and Family Services to further their education in technical trades after high school.
The hike changed their lives. Once they stepped off the trail at the northern terminus of Journey’s End on October 14, they started dreaming about their future – including the possibility of owning an Inn near one of the Long Trail trailheads. The dream became a reality two years later when the Swanson Inn opened on November 1, 2018, just 5 miles for the App Gap trailhead, both located on Vermont Route 17. The Swanson Inn is a corporate sponsor of the Green Mountain Club, whose mission it to support, maintain, and encourage individuals to experience Vermont through our beautiful Green Mountains and the footpath linking peak to peak.
