★ Field-verified · Dave's ownPublic land · dispersedFree
Orleans County
Drive-up · public land · Orleans County, VT · 44.62169, -72.26411
Dave's been here. A spot from Dave's own travels on public land — free to camp. Conditions still change, so confirm access, stay limits and fire rules before you go.
Primitive clearing at the end of a Class 4 road in northern Vermont, along the shore of an undeveloped lake. Beautiful setting by the water. Great for swimming, kayak, or canoe. Surrounded by woodlands and rolling green mountains. No cell service. Enough space for 1 or 2 vehicles. Rough, overgrown road, requires compact four wheel drive vehicle. Mosquitoes may be an issue. Recommended.
A night on record
Dave slept here on 10 June 2019. No agency publishes a season for this site, so that night is the only season evidence we have — what the site was then, not a forecast for this year.
The site — Orleans County
Access
Drive-up
Land
public land · dispersed
Elevation
1,597 ft
Ground slope
13.8% · noticeable
Nearest rail line
~8.8 mi · main line
Nearest highway
~6.6 mi · Interstate 91
County
Orleans County, VT
Coordinates
44.62169, -72.26411
Cost
Free
Nearby & resupply — around Orleans County · public land · VT (OpenStreetMap)
- Water featureLong Pond · under 0.1 mi · USGS: perennial lake or pond
- Also mapped (OSM)Sawmill Brook (stream) · mapped within 1.6 mi
- Nearest townGebbie Corner · ~1.2 mi
- Nearest rail line~8.8 mi · main line
- Nearest highway~6.6 mi · Interstate 91
- Drinking water~7.0 mi
- Fuel~4.9 mi
- Propane / LPGnone within 31 mi
- Dump station~14.1 mi
- GroceriesCraftsbury General Store · ~5.4 mi
- PharmacyKinney Drugs · ~9.8 mi
- Hospital / clinicMansfield Orthopedics At Copley · ~16.6 mi
- HardwareWilley's True Value Hardware · ~3.5 mi
From the field — what Dave saw, in person
Cell service
No signal
Getting there
High clearance / 4×4
Fire ring
No
Toilet on site
No
Tent friendly
Yes
Verdict
Recommended
USGS topo — contours & terrain
Aerial — USGS / NAIP
Ask an AI about this campsiteOpens Grok already loaded with this site. It reads the same records this page is built from, and links whatever it tells you.
Ask about this camp →Weather outlook — at Orleans County
Loading the latest forecast…
Live NWS area forecast (~2.5 km grid, not elevation-corrected). Camp sits at 1,597 ft.
Fire & smoke — around Orleans CountyNIFC · AirNow
No dated fire rule on record for this camp: ask the office that manages this land.
Checking active fires & air quality…
Active wildfires from NIFC (within ~50 mi); air quality from AirNow. Always confirm current fire restrictions with the managing office before you go.
Everything you need — measured from Orleans County · public land · VT
▲ your camp. Rings are 15, 30 and 60 straight-line miles; bearings are approximate and roads run longer.
Nearest of each
- HHardware4 mi
- FFuel5 mi
- @Mail5 mi
- GGrocery5 mi
- MMechanic5 mi
- WWater7 mi
- EVEV fast charger9 mi
- LLaundry10 mi
- RxPharmacy10 mi
- OOutfitter14 mi
- +Urgent care17 mi
- DDump21 mi
- ShShower24 mi
- AAir-up59 mi
≤30 mi30–4545+water
The read: water's a short hop out, fuel & food sit about 5 mi out.
Not within 60 mi: Propane. Plan those before you head up.
One dot per need — the nearest of each kind, straight-line from camp. Places from OpenStreetMap (© OpenStreetMap contributors); the EV fast charger from the US DOE station locator. Open in Google Maps ↗
EV charging — from Orleans County · public land · VT — nearest public DC fast & Level 2 (US DOE station data)
- Nearest public DC fast charger9.1 mi straight-line SW — LVF HIGH SPEED LVF 1, Hardwick, VT · ChargePoint Network · CHAdeMO, CCS · 1 fast port listed · listed open, last confirmed by AFDC 2026-09-16 · hours: 24 hours daily · directions
- Public DC fast stations within reach15 within 25 mi · 62 within 50 · 145 within 100 · 419 within 150
- Nearest listing NACS (Tesla)16.6 mi — St. Johnsbury, VT - Tesla Supercharger, St Johnsbury
- Nearest public Level 2 (J1772)9.1 mi — Lamoille Valley Ford, Hardwick, VT (at a car dealership) · Non-Networked · J1772 · 1 Level 2 port listed · listed open, last confirmed by AFDC 2025-11-13 · hours: 24 hours daily
- Also listed, not counted aboveLevel 2, restricted access — Craftsbury Outdoor Center, Craftsbury Common, 6.3 mi · J1772 · hours: 24 hours daily; for visitor, member, and staff use only · AFDC lists it “Free; donations encouraged”
- Pricing at the fast chargernot listed
- Power (kW)not listed by AFDC — “DC fast” spans roughly 24 to 350 kW, so ask the network.
- Read this honestlyStraight-line miles, like every distance on this site. Roads run longer than this, and you have to get back. We know where a charger is listed. We don’t know if it works today, how fast it is, or the road miles. Check the network before you commit.
Snapshot 2026-09-16 · AFDC record 223711 · US DOE Alternative Fuels Data Center
Nearby restrooms — around Orleans County · public land · VT — pit toilets, restrooms & rest areas (government data)
- Highway rest areaBarton North Scenic Turnout · ~7.8 mi NE
- Highway rest areaLyndon South Rest Area · ~12.0 mi E
- Highway rest areaCoventry North Parking Area · ~18.1 mi N
- Highway rest areaCoventry South Parking Area · ~18.2 mi N
Coming out here — Orleans County · public land · VT
- Surface water mapped nearby: USGS maps Long Pond as a perennial lake or pond, under 0.1 mi from the pin (National Hydrography Dataset, data refreshed October 2022). Mapped as perennial is not the same as flowing today. Nobody has checked it for you. Filter or boil anything you drink.
- Ground slope around the pin: about 13.8% — noticeable. Measured on USGS's 3DEP elevation model (1 m data here), sampled every 10 meters around the point. That is the hillside, not the ground under your wheels — a graded pullout or a bench a few meters across is too small to show up at that spacing, and nobody has checked this one for you.
- Rail line mapped ~8.8 mi from the pin — the national rail atlas classes it as a main line. That is the FRA/BTS North American Rail Network (data updated Jul 21, 2026), which records that a line is there and what class of track it is. Whether anything runs on it, how often, and at what hour, it does not say, and nobody has checked this one for you.
- Interstate 91 is mapped ~6.6 mi from the pin. Straight-line, from the Census's TIGER/Line primary roads (TIGER/Line 2025, released Oct 2025) — the divided, limited-access highways, which is why a state expressway or a two-lane US route near this camp would not appear here.
- Assume no services at all. Most dispersed camping in a national forest has none: no tap, no power, no dump, often no toilet. Everything you need, you bring.
- Power: Dave carries his own — batteries or solar. A generator will run your rig and it is also the thing everybody camped near you can hear.
- Getting online: Dave recommends Starlink. He has had it since SpaceX introduced it, used it for four years living on the road, and it delivers as promised — several hundred nights out, and he can count on one hand the places he could not connect. The cable on his unit runs 150 feet, which is usually all it takes to find enough sky. Starlink → Referral link — Starlink pays Dave $100 in cash if you sign up through it, and that money funds this site and the next trip. It costs you nothing and does not change the recommendation.
Open Orleans County elsewhere
Other camps near Orleans County
If this one is full, gated or washed out.
- Mt. Mansfield State Forest - French Hill primitive camping area~21.0 mi
- C.C. Putnam State Forest primitive camping area 2~21.0 mi
- C.C. Putnam State Forest primitive camping area 4~22.6 mi
- Mt. Mansfield State Forest - Beaver Meadow primitive camping area~23.0 mi
More free camping near Worcester, VT — about 22 miles from here, in a straight line.
How we know this — Orleans County
Source
Dave's own travels
Confidence
Researched — The record is detailed and internally consistent, and the coordinates land where the managing agency says this site is.
How it was placed
FIELD VERIFIED by Dave Lalande -- he has stood on this site. Coordinates are his own GPX track point, not a geocode. County and state confirmed against the FCC Census Block API (Orleans County, VT). Everything under 'From the field' is a direct observation; nothing here is inferred from a land record.
A night on record
Dave's own GPS diary, 2017–2020: the date of the waypoint he saved here. The timestamp is UTC, so an entry saved in the evening carries the next morning's date. An observation of one night, never a forecast.
EV chargers
US DOE Alternative Fuels Data Center station locator, snapshot 2026-09-16. Straight-line miles to the nearest public, open, unrestricted station; restricted and planned units are shown but never counted.
Field check
Verified on the ground. Dave has stood on this one. He camped here on 10 June 2019. Conditions still change — confirm before you commit. See every camp Dave has stood on.
What we don’t know about Orleans County
A land record can put you within a few meters of a spot. It cannot tell you any of this — so check it yourself, and treat anything below as the open question it is.
- How many rigs actually fit
- Seasonal & winter access
- Current fire restrictions
- Whether any water here is drinkable
- Shade & wind exposure
- Noise and who else shows up
- Whether a listed EV charger works today, or the road miles to it