Jazzbo
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Mt’s Sugarloaf and Spaulding Maine 7/12/09
My preference would have been to try the Crockers and Redington for our 2nd day hike, but Jeff our local guide didn’t seem to think Caribou Valley Road would be such a good idea. Seeing how we had to also fit in 5-hour drive back to MA, we decided to attempt something simpler in scope i.e. Sugarloaf via ski trails with out and back to Spaulding. This is still a challenging objective since it is an 11 mile day with 4300’ elevation gain so we needed to maintain a steady pace especially to allow time for the 5 hour drive home.
Jeff, a ski instructor at Sugarloaf, advised us to take the Tote Road Trail all the way. He provided a ski trail map and directed our attention to point where it dumped out at base lodge and the next day we shoved off at 7:45. The Tote Road Trail follows a southwesterly bearing and hits the northwest summit ridge and then heads towards the summit along ridge line and Timberline Ski Lift. It parallels the “Tote Road” which is good to know in case you get caught in a T-storm as tote road is in the trees and can provide cover in stormy weather.
Tote Road Trail is only a green trail, but lower sections still feel like you’re on a Stairmaster. We managed to summit by 10:00 ….. not bad for 2.5 mile climb and 2700’ elevation gain. It certainly makes it nice when you turn around to catch your breath and can gaze out at full frontal view of the Bigelow Range.
500 feet below the summit my companion came down with Sunday morning summit fever.
The only treatment for this is to keep on going and acheive the summit so I gave her a dope slap to snap her out of it, the disco music stopped, and we got back on the stairmaster.
Sugarloaf lived up to its reputation for outstanding views today. Here is view towards Saddleback and Horn range. Plateau and basin of Caribou Pond is in foreground.
The Crockers with ravines feeding into Caribou Valley:
The mighty Bigelow Range to the north. Boundary Bald Mt way way beyond?
View towards the long ridge of Mt Abraham
We hung around for half hour and got down to business heading 0.6 miles and 700’ down to junction with the AT. The next 2.1 miles over gently rolling ridgeline went quickly and we were at Spaulding by 11:45. I saw my first ruby-crowned kinglet on this section of trail.
Spaulding is wooded with filtered views of surrounding peaks and little peek-a-boo views of Abraham and Sugarloaf. We lingered for a half four to eat some lunch and re-hydrate. We were thankful to be blessed with yet another clear cool sunny weather in July.
We started back at 1:15 and returned to Sugarloaf summit by 2:00. We hadn’t seen anyone for first 8 miles. Then we encountered coming down from the summit a large group of dozen or so remarkably fit-looking college-age women out for 10-day long backpack along the AT. They had French accents so we figured they were from Canada or something. I can assure you they were a heart-warming sight. By that I mean it's heartening our society has progressed to point where this is not unusual sight. Also my ideal of feminine beuty includes certain element of athletism.
Visibility seemed to have improved by this time. Maybe it was the college girls.
We were pretty sure we could see Brothers and Katahdin 100 miles away and Presidential Range 100 miles in the other direction (although greater haze in that direction made this more doubtful).
We descended same way we went up via Tote Road Trail. Anything steeper would have been problematic with loose rock. Descent went very fast on the ski slope and we were back to the car by 3:30. I was very pleased to see the waitress from Japeto's reporting for work. We exchanged greetings and hit the road. I was back in Waltham by 9:00. Thanks to Jeff for being a great host and to M for joining me and making this such an exciting trip! What a great weekend!
Webshots pics are here:
http://outdoors.webshots.com/album/573493383twfPMR
My preference would have been to try the Crockers and Redington for our 2nd day hike, but Jeff our local guide didn’t seem to think Caribou Valley Road would be such a good idea. Seeing how we had to also fit in 5-hour drive back to MA, we decided to attempt something simpler in scope i.e. Sugarloaf via ski trails with out and back to Spaulding. This is still a challenging objective since it is an 11 mile day with 4300’ elevation gain so we needed to maintain a steady pace especially to allow time for the 5 hour drive home.
Jeff, a ski instructor at Sugarloaf, advised us to take the Tote Road Trail all the way. He provided a ski trail map and directed our attention to point where it dumped out at base lodge and the next day we shoved off at 7:45. The Tote Road Trail follows a southwesterly bearing and hits the northwest summit ridge and then heads towards the summit along ridge line and Timberline Ski Lift. It parallels the “Tote Road” which is good to know in case you get caught in a T-storm as tote road is in the trees and can provide cover in stormy weather.
Tote Road Trail is only a green trail, but lower sections still feel like you’re on a Stairmaster. We managed to summit by 10:00 ….. not bad for 2.5 mile climb and 2700’ elevation gain. It certainly makes it nice when you turn around to catch your breath and can gaze out at full frontal view of the Bigelow Range.
500 feet below the summit my companion came down with Sunday morning summit fever.
The only treatment for this is to keep on going and acheive the summit so I gave her a dope slap to snap her out of it, the disco music stopped, and we got back on the stairmaster.
Sugarloaf lived up to its reputation for outstanding views today. Here is view towards Saddleback and Horn range. Plateau and basin of Caribou Pond is in foreground.
The Crockers with ravines feeding into Caribou Valley:
The mighty Bigelow Range to the north. Boundary Bald Mt way way beyond?
View towards the long ridge of Mt Abraham
We hung around for half hour and got down to business heading 0.6 miles and 700’ down to junction with the AT. The next 2.1 miles over gently rolling ridgeline went quickly and we were at Spaulding by 11:45. I saw my first ruby-crowned kinglet on this section of trail.
Spaulding is wooded with filtered views of surrounding peaks and little peek-a-boo views of Abraham and Sugarloaf. We lingered for a half four to eat some lunch and re-hydrate. We were thankful to be blessed with yet another clear cool sunny weather in July.
We started back at 1:15 and returned to Sugarloaf summit by 2:00. We hadn’t seen anyone for first 8 miles. Then we encountered coming down from the summit a large group of dozen or so remarkably fit-looking college-age women out for 10-day long backpack along the AT. They had French accents so we figured they were from Canada or something. I can assure you they were a heart-warming sight. By that I mean it's heartening our society has progressed to point where this is not unusual sight. Also my ideal of feminine beuty includes certain element of athletism.
Visibility seemed to have improved by this time. Maybe it was the college girls.
We were pretty sure we could see Brothers and Katahdin 100 miles away and Presidential Range 100 miles in the other direction (although greater haze in that direction made this more doubtful).
We descended same way we went up via Tote Road Trail. Anything steeper would have been problematic with loose rock. Descent went very fast on the ski slope and we were back to the car by 3:30. I was very pleased to see the waitress from Japeto's reporting for work. We exchanged greetings and hit the road. I was back in Waltham by 9:00. Thanks to Jeff for being a great host and to M for joining me and making this such an exciting trip! What a great weekend!
Webshots pics are here:
http://outdoors.webshots.com/album/573493383twfPMR
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