CVR 4Ks in Winter: Sugarloaf, Spaulding, Abraham, Crockers, Redington 1/2-3/15

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bikehikeskifish

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Over the New Year's extended weekend, a group of 6 of us gathered in Eustis, ME in a rented house to bag some of the western ME NE67. Myself, Chris, Whitney, Mike, Pam, and Matt arrived in three vehicles in the late afternoon on New Year's Day. Matt & I carpooled and on the way did some advanced scouting. We learned that the West Kingfield road to Rapid Stream was plowed to the former bridge location thanks to active logging. We met some loggers who assured us that the rivers were frozen enough to cross. Using the Firewarden's Trail to or from (as it turns out, both) Abraham would be a possibility.

Continuing on to Sugarloaf, we scouted the location of the golf course, and the eleventh hole tee and the bridge to it from the pump house. Follow the main road into Sugarloaf and turn right on West Mountain Road following the signs for the golf club. Immediately after crossing under the West Ridge chairlift, turn right down the hill to the golf course parking lot. Just before the lot, on the left, is a maintenance road that descends rather steeply to the pump house and bridge. Although slightly icy, my Forester (twice) and Chris' Jeep made it up and down without any problems. On the way out, we attempted to find out about purchasing the uphill access ticket, but nobody was around (it was just after 4). We did find out that the hotel at the base lodge sells all tickets, and was open from 8am to midnight. Armed with this information, we went to find Mike and Pam at the house. Matt and I made dinner the first night, and after dinner, we made a plan. Conditions were reported to be hard packed and fast - doing the Crockers and Redington in a day, and also Abraham, Spaulding and Sugarloaf in a day seemed very likely. Friday was forecast to be the warmer but much windier day, and so we opted for Crockers + Redington.

Crockers and Redington

Friday morning we awoke at 5:30, made breakfast, and took the Suby and Jeep to the pump house and parked. From here, we crossed the bridge and ascended the golf cart path to the 11th tee. Behind the tee, the woods are pretty open, and a short way in, there are the regrowing remains of a clear cut. Basically, we crossed a frozen minor stream and ascended between that stream and another slightly to the north, following roughly 245°M, which comes out around mile marker 3 on the CVR. The CVR was packed out by snowmobiles.

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Golf Course routes to CVR (left) and Sugarloaf (right); 11th tee to CVR route showing contours and streams

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Open woods whack to the CVR; CVR "the steel bridge"

We followed the CVR across the steel bridge and to the AT crossing. The parking lot was obvious and the trail was flagged so it should be hard to miss. We continued on the AT wearing light traction until the Crocker Camp Site. Here we took a break and put on snowshoes, mainly to take advantage of the televators. At the cirque, the trail gets really steep and like many of the open sections we encountered this weekend, there was some powder to climb through. At the higher open section, the trail was harder to follow - bear to the right across the open slope and then angle left into the woods to regain the trail. At the higher elevation, the spruce blowdowns and bendovers became more prevalent, and remained that way until back to the CVR. There is obviously far less traffic on these peaks and with it far less ad hoc trail maintenance.

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South Crocker; North Crocker

Just below the summit of South Crocker, the AT turns right to (North) Crocker. We took a minute to head up to the viewpoint on South, before shuffling gear around, having snacks, and heading off to Crocker. Although there were obstacles, the trail corridor is well-defined and easily followed. Unlike the Whites, Maine didn't get the warmer temps and rain and so the snow pack was 3-4' deep. Just below North Crocker, there was a stretch of moose post holes. Due to the snow pack, the viewpoint down from North Crocker offered better views than in the summer of 2010 when I was last there. Although it was cold and breezy, there was enough shelter and sunlight to enjoy a short break here.

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View to Sugarloaf from the Cirque; Viewpoint below North Crocker

Upon returning to South Crocker, we encountered our only other hiker of the trip - a runner on racing snowshoes, and he tagged South Crocker and took off down the AT for North Crocker. The route to Redington is flagged, and there were traces of days-old snowshoe tracks, so there was little navigational challenge. Just like last time, we ended up in the AT boundary, but turned right and the found the "herd path" (as much as one can find it under the snow) on the left - again it was flagged. The woods are pretty open and we made good time to the clear cut. Sheltered and sunny, it made for another good stopping point. The logging road was packed firm by snowmobiles and we followed it to the height of land before taking the flagged route towards the summit. This stretch was a bit gnarly - lots of mangled up spruce and some brute-forcing our way through it. Eventually it merged up with the ATV road and from there the summit was easily obtained. The canister was not frozen shut, and the single log book goes back only to June, 2014. So much for finding my entry from July 2010.

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Redington view to North and South Crocker; Redington

We followed the ATV road, complete with an abundance of blowdowns and bendovers, back to the logging road/snowmobile path, and continued down to the CVR. From here back to the 11th hole was the usual slog, and was mostly easy going with only a few narrow sections as the snowmobilers kept the path clear. We finished up the day with the sun setting over the Bigelows from the 11th tee after about 9 hours / 16 miles of hiking.

(continued...)
 
Sugarloaf, Spaulding and Abraham

Chris and I returned to Sugarloaf after dinner the second night to pick up 4 uphill access tickets from the hotel. Mike and Pam were set on tackling Abraham from the FWT/Rapid Stream/West Kingston Road side. This allowed Whitney, Chris, Matt and myself to traverse, leaving a car at the golf course and starting up the West Mountain chair lift. The plan was that Mike and Pam would verify the rivers were crossable and if so, leave us a car. They texted to say that everything was according to plan. The backup was to bushwhack down to Caribou Pond and out the CVR. Checking out access to the Rapid Stream trailhead on Thursday afternoon paid off.

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Saturday AM sunrise from the deck of the house; AM "Golden Hour" view of the Bigelows from the slopes

As forecast, Saturday morning was cold. The outdoor thermometer at the cabin said -2. Armed with uphill access passes, we ascended the West Moutain double chairlift to the "summit" of West Mountain. From here, we ascended the access road (aka Binder), which was not open to skiing, but was used by the groomers and snowmaking. A short conversation with a ski patroller confirmed this plan was OK (he did not ask to see our uphill tickets either.) This route offers pretty nice views of the Bigelows across the valley below, and higher up, to the other surrounding mountains.

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Redington and Crockers from Sugarloaf; The "Six Pack" peaks are out that way

Nearing the summit, we put on additional layers as the breeze was present, but below the forecasted 35 MPH (probably not over 10-15 MPH). Once on the summit, we briefly enjoyed the 360 views, including Mount Washington some 75 miles away. Next up was Spaulding, so we descended the summit spur to pick up the AT to the southwest. Much like the previous day, the trail was hardpacked and we continued in snowshoes, stepping over, crawling under, or detouring around many blowdowns. The corridor is less well-defined but conveniently the white blazes were not (yet) buried. Somewhere along this stretch the text message arrived saying the streams were safely crossed.

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Sugarloaf; Heading down to pick up the AT

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Sugarloaf from Spaulding; Spaulding

The quick ascent to Spaulding was in good shape, as was the view spur to the north. With 3' of snow to stand on, the views were actually pretty decent. Continuing south on the AT, the trail loses a lot of elevation before reaching the col with Abraham. This section is pretty badly mangled, and we had to look for blazes and/or old snowshoe tracks to stay on the trail. The blowdown mess continued all the way to the Mount Abraham spur trail. The spur trail itself was in better shape than the AT, although it had extended sections of moose post holes. Breaking out above treeline, we encountered ice mixed with very crusty snow, which required careful placement of one's snowshoes.

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Spaulding and Sugarloaf from Abraham; Abraham

We made it to the summit of Abraham without incident and found the tower lying on its side, with the footings bent and broken. With no sign of Mike or Pam, I checked my phone, and learned that Pam had turned around because it was too steep and icy. We followed the wrong set of cairns towards Middle Abraham, and upon realizing our mistake, turned back to intersect the FWT. On the way, we crossed paths with Mike, who had crampons, was was able to summit from the FWT side. On his recommendation, we avoided the exposed icy section of the FWT by bushwhacking down to the trail where it left the trees (and where he'd left his snowshoes.) From here, it was a straight forward walk out - the steep and spruce sections continued to offer numerous blowdowns to navigate, but once in the hardwoods, the going got much easier (although there were sections of bare, wet, and icy ground.) Lesson learned here - we should have brought crampons since we did not know for sure that they weren't needed for the FWT. We knew they weren't needed for the backup plan (turning around and descending to Caribou Pond.)

Sugarloaf Uphill Policy

Tim
 
Nice trip report with great information about your routes. Good pictures too. While hiking there this summer I spent some time wondering how hard the peaks would be in winter.

I can confirm the tower was standing on Aug 9, 2014
 
Nice trip report with great information about your routes. Good pictures too. While hiking there this summer I spent some time wondering how hard the peaks would be in winter.

I can't imagine them being any easier than they were - except maybe no blowdowns. There was ~8" of powder on Sunday AM when we dug the cars out and left town. I can imagine them being vastly more difficult.

Tim
 
I note that the rules say, "You may not leave Sugarloaf property to access the backcountry." Shame on you! :D

You did better than we did a few years ago. It took us 4 trips to get those 6. 2 days on each side. We never considered SSA, due to the snow depth, but if we knew about the golf course, (I could see the resort not too far away from CPR at times), we might have made all 3 of the right side.

Well done! Did you by chance run into AJTIV (Al?)
 
I told the ski patrol exactly what the plan was. He said "Enjoy your walk [sic]". We did not run into anybody other than that snowshoe runner on South Crocker.

Tim
 
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