woodland wanderings: Sugarloaf Mountain, Nash Stream Forest

After an early morning sunrise on Mount Magalloway, running on no sleep and no coffee, I set out to meet the infamous Mike Cherim and Bill Robichaud to help them out with a car spot. We were going in the same direction but to different peaks. I was hiking Sugarloaf and they were committed to a long day of redlining starting with Percy loop. The ERD jumped right into Mike’s lap and made himself comfortable. The ERD likes hikers.

Mike & the ERD

Bill in the back

The Sugarloaf trail shouldn’t have been hard to find, but it was. I kept driving on Nash Stream Road thinking I had gone too far and would backtrack looking for the trailhead. I finally realized my mistake. To find the trailhead, drive past the Percy Peaks and Percy Loop trails and keep going, and going, and going until you drive over a small bridge. On the left you will see a CT Cohos Trail blaze, a 2-car parking area that looks like private property, and a house set back on what looks like a private driveway. This is the trailhead. If there is no room in the parking area, just park along the road.

This was a surprisingly easy hike. Before I hike, I make a mental note of how long it should take me to reach a summit. Generally I plan on an hour per 1000 feet of elevation, and then pad it. So, with an elevation gain of 2700 feet, I figured it would take me around 3 hours to get to the summit. I reached the summit in 1 hour and 40 minutes.

The trail is wet and muddy near the beginning and continues to be wet until you reach approximately 2200 feet. Even with the mud, the trail has easy footing. From here the trail is dry and continues to ascend gradually with little bursts of steeper sections. At 3,200 hundred feet there are a couple of brooks for dogs, but no water at the summit.

I was surprised by the summit. It was beautiful! Keep going past the benchmark to reach jaw-dropping mountain views.

There was another hiker at the top; the ERD found him first. He must have smelled food in his pack. We chatted for a while, then I wandered off to take photos, and sat enjoying the views before heading back down. The footing was good going down as well, it only took an hour to get back to the car…which was covered in butterflies!