St. Albans, Vermont
1/2 mile
Hard’Ack Grace Trail®
Strength in every season.
Hard’Ack Grace Trail®
A pioneering 1-mile roundtrip journey through the heart of the Hard’Ack Recreation Area, where the resilience of the Vermont spirit meets a first-of-its-kind path designed for mental, spiritual, and community healing.
About This Trail
Every Grace Trail shares the same five questions, yet no two are exactly alike. Discover the landscape, stories, and community that shape this one.
At the foot of Aldis Hill, the Hard’ack Grace Trail® winds for approximately one mile through the wooded landscape of one of St. Albans’ most loved recreation areas.
Rather than creating a destination apart from everyday life, the Trail brings the Five Questions into a place people already come to walk, play, explore, and spend time outdoors. Locally crafted benches offer places to pause along the way, while the surrounding forest changes dramatically with Vermont’s seasons.
Here, Grace Trail feels less like an addition to the landscape and more like something discovered within it.
Trail Features
Every community is different. Grace Trail is designed to adapt to the people, places, and purpose of each one.
Accessibility
• Well-graded, unpaved paths
• Multi-season access
• Lower-elevation loop
• Dog-friendly
• Suitable for all ages
Landscape
• City-managed forest
• Deep woodland setting
• Lighted Nordic loops
• Aldis Hill setting
• Nearby recreation areas
Amenities
• Locally crafted benches
• Nearby playground
• Interactive QR codes
Experience
• Sunlight through the canopy
• Changing Vermont foliage
• Sunrise + sunset vistas
• Local wildlife
• Four-season surroundings
Powered By Community
Every Grace Trail is rooted in its community. From the people who champion it to the stories it reflects, each trail becomes a one-of-a-kind expression of place.
The Hard’ack Grace Trail® began with a shared belief that this beloved public landscape could offer the community something more.
A grassroots effort raised $10,000, with support from local organizations, businesses, volunteers, and community members who contributed funding, resources, time, and care. Together, that support helped transform an idea into a permanent part of Hard’ack Recreation Area.
What makes the story especially meaningful is how many people chose to have a hand in it. The Trail belongs not only to the people who first imagined it, but to the community that helped make it possible.
Built Into What Was Already Here
Hard’ack shows that creating a Grace Trail doesn’t always mean creating a new place.
By thoughtfully incorporating the Five Questions into an existing city recreation area, St. Albans added another layer of possibility to a landscape its community already knew and used. Walking trails, woods, recreation, and gathering spaces remained what they had always been—now with an invitation to pause along the way.
It’s a simple idea with lasting potential: begin with a place people already value, and give them another way to experience it.
Life Along The Trail
Along the way, simple moments begin to stand out— what you notice, what you feel, and what stays with you.
Community Champions
Hard’ack has people behind it who continue to believe in what the Trail offers their community. Co-founder Trudy Cioffi, now Mayor of St. Albans, remains one of its champions.
That continued care matters. The Trail isn’t simply something the community built—it’s a resource people keep showing up for, sharing, and making their own.
The Woods Keep Changing
A walk here never looks quite the same. Sunlight through summer leaves gives way to Vermont color, bare branches, snow, and the first signs of spring.
The Five Questions stay in place while everything around them changes, giving people something familiar to return to throughout the year.
Already Out Here
Hard’ack is already a place people come to move—walking the woods, bringing the dog, visiting the playground, or heading out for recreation.
The Grace Trail meets them there. A familiar outing can hold a few unexpected minutes to notice what’s on your mind before continuing with the day.
Tales From The Trail
A Breath of Fresh Air
At Hard’ack, the same path can hold very different kinds of days.
A recovery group might walk the Release station together. A parent may take a few quiet minutes with the questions while children play nearby. Someone else may simply arrive needing space after a difficult week.
That range is part of what makes the Trail feel at home here. It doesn’t require people to arrive feeling a certain way or looking for a particular outcome.
As Trudy Cioffi describes it, Hard’ack offers a “positive breath of fresh air” in a world where there is often a lot going on.
The way this community stepped up to support this project—to bring it to life and invest in the mental health of our neighbors—was truly amazing.
Trudy Cioff
Mayor of St. Albans & Hard'Ack Grace Trail Co-Founder
This is a place where people can come to think, reflect, and be in nature—which is healing in itself. The Grace Trail invites people to slow down and engage with the questions as they walk.
Tracy Lavallee
Hard'Ack Grace Trail Co-Founder
Some days I come for the walk. Other days I come for the questions. Either way, I always leave feeling a little lighter and a little more hopeful than when I arrived.
Danielle S
St. Albans Resident
Made Possible Together
Alpine Shores was brought to life with the support of local organizations, businesses, donors, and community members who believed in what this space could become.
With Special Thanks
To Tracy Lavallee and Trudy Cioffi—thank you for the vision and leadership that have meant so much to the Hard’ack Grace Trail, and to Bridget and Valdemar Gariby and Terri T. Neilson, MD, for the support and care you’ve given along the way.
Our gratitude extends to everyone who has helped care for this Trail and continues to walk it, share it, and make it part of the St. Albans community.
Shared Beyond the Trail
As Vermont’s first Grace Trail®, Hard’ack drew local news attention to a new kind of community resource—sharing the voices behind the Trail and opening the door for other Vermont towns to imagine what Grace could look like in their own community.