Five Maine 4Ks – A “rocky” start with a spectacular finish

Congrats!!!!! Sounds like you had a great time in spite of the issues at Sugarloaf.

What a great report Seema. So many of us would have gotten caught up in the negativity of it all and had the trip spoiled! Didn't know you were so close to finishing! Nice job!

timing is everything...

Great finish to your weekend. you didn't let the bitterness rob you of enthusiasm and you persevered.
Just wanted to add my thoughts to this thread as we were the party that seemingly defied the odds and made it to the top of the lifts and beyond to Spaulding.
We arrived about 2 hours or so after you started your trip. Place was just opening up and we started over under the West Moountain Chair. That run was closed to everyone but the West Mt folks so perhaps this bought us some time? as we saw no one until a ski patrol guy who was very sympathetic but just following the 'emerging' protocol of the day, ducked under the ropes and approached us. He actually called his boss and I talked with this guy and what he stated was slightly different than what you all heard from 'da man'. This man stated we could not leave the property once we were on it, we took this to mean we could not access the spur trail from 'Loaf property. We decided we would therefore stay 'on property' and hike to the summit of sugarloaf. That's what we told him and then ski patrol guy basically said 'I never saw you' smiled and off he went to talk to another group of three hiking behind us. We continued up to bullwinkles then to the Timberline run and up to the top of the lifts near the summit.
In the fog and mist, just about 100 yards below the lift house, we managed to 'whack a little ways into the scrub and found the spur trail and made our way to Spaulding (no one 'needed' sugarloaf) feeling a little bit like outlaws, joking about helicopters and special ops forces from the loaf coming after us... and though we enjoyed ourselves immensely, we felt a little guilty. Very little guilty. no one is gonna rain on my parade, dammit!
The point I guess is this seems to be an emerging policy that is arbitrary and inconsistent. The litigation angle, the liability argument is a whole bunch of crap and I am glad that we did not meet Helga the Ski Patrol Nazi though it would have perhaps educated us on how the policy was being applied by the different ski patrol folks.
Maybe because your itinerary was all about leaving the property and ours was modified on the fly to satisfy the emerging need (read as we lied through our teeth!) made the difference.
It basically sucks that we lied, I think that tainted our day somewhat but I didn't lose any sleep over it and when we descended the 'loaf around 5:30, 6 o'clock we met one other ski patrol guy and he only stopped by to make sure we weren't camping out, not concerned at all that we were on the mountain. so if this 'hiker ban' was being enforced universally that conversation could have been a whole lot different.
anywho, glad we were able to afford you a decent path to Sugarloaf.

-mike

I just sent an email to the big wigs at sugarloaf urging them (nicely) to reconsider their policy on hikers.

Will they read it? Not sure. But they should since this is bad press for them in my opinion.

Well, Mike . . . first, let me thank you for the broken path from Spaulding to Sugarloaf, as it allowed us to hike a bit faster since we didn't have to spend as much time trail finding.

We hike up the maintenance "trail" thinking it would help us not be noticed as much, we were wrong. I do think our overnight packs combined with the fact that when asked I told her our plans probably bit us in the butt. However, even when I asked if we could just hike to the top of the mountain so we could atleast get Sugarloaf or asking if there was a closed trail we could take got us no cooperation. She did say we couldn't hike out of bounds from their property just like you heard also. She gave us a lot of rules, all of which we were apparently breaking.

What actually really shocked me and what I think was the most concerning about the entire encounter was when she tried to "be helpful". I was begging her to understand that we had just driven through the night for 9 hours and to PLEASE let us hike on the side up any trail of her choice, she made a few suggestions, all of which bordered on ridiculous and even dangerous if someone who wasn't as well acquainted with the area took her advice.

First she suggested that we hike up Burnt Mountain which would allow us to access the AT, um NO . . . I have hiked the AT and that is not true. I said, please show me on my map where this Burnt Mountain - AT intersection happens, she didn't want to show me. Then she proceeded to suggest that we access the AT from Route 27 and climb Sugarloaf from Route 27 . . . I must have looked as shocked as I felt . . . I said to her that going up and over the Crockers, crossing a huge raging river and climbing up Sugarloaf up that scary steep section from the North was not my idea of a doable trip in Winter for my level of comfort.

I know she was just trying to "help" but it is a good thing we knew the area and didn't blindly follow her advice. A novice or someone who just blindly followed her suggestions could have easily gotten themselves in trouble. It would probably not be an acceptable liability risk if someone got themselves hurt based on her advice.

But, for what it is worth, I think we enjoyed our route from Caribou Pond MUCH MUCH more than the ski trails anyway, so maybe we have Sugarloaf to Thank for our wonderful bushwhacking adventure . . .

Thanks again for the broken trail.

sli74

roadtripper said:

I just sent an email to the big wigs at sugarloaf urging them (nicely) to reconsider their policy on hikers.

Will they read it? Not sure. But they should since this is bad press for them in my opinion.

Click to expand...

I was thinking about writing them an email as well but I am not sure it would do any good. Back a few years ago when I used to plan my HUGE group trips to Sugarloaf for Ski Weekend, I had a number of contacts in their Group Reservations Office, maybe I could write to one of them? maybe i will try to do that, can't hurt. Let us know if you hear back.

Here are the emails of the top dogs at Sugarloaf if anyone wants to send them a FRIENDLY message stating that they should allow hikers to hike Mt. Sugarloaf. In my opinion these are the people you have to contact since they are the decision makers. The people in customer relations can't make these high-level decisions at most businesses.

Be sure to mention that many hikers are also skiers and that all hikers are fabulous people

John Diller, General Manager
[email protected]

Rich Wilkinson, Director of Mountain Operations
[email protected]

Darcy Liberty, Director of Communications
[email protected]

Brad Larsen, Director of Sales and Marketing
[email protected]