Town
Ryegate, Vermont
Elevation
804 ft / 245 m
Conditions
VTNordicskating email group
Symes Pond (or Lower Symes Pond, depending on where you look), is a beautiful spot. It feels far more remote than its distance from the interstate would make you think. The road, in however, can be challenging, and your GPS doesn’t know how to get there.
The pond is largely undeveloped, with a handful of camps on the southeastern shore. The shoreline is varied and interesting, with sections of marsh, small islands, and pockets of dri-ki.
Launch + Parking
Getting to Symes Pond can be challenging. The road in to the Vermont Fish + Wildlife fishing access area is not on any mapping service (not Google Maps, Apple Maps, or any of the Open Street Map derivatives, such as Gaia, OnX, Organic, etc.). And once you get there, parking is minimal.
According to
Vermont Fish and Wildlife access area regulations, ice skating is not a permitted activity and thus parking at fishing access areas is not
allowed. That said, this is usually only a concern if the parking fills up and ice fisherman
cannot park (since they have priority).
