Explorer's Guide 50 Hikes North of the White Mountains by Kim Nilsen

Author:Kim Nilsen
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Countryman Press
Published: 2012-01-15T00:00:00+00:00

THE COMMANDER OF THE GREAT NORTH WOODS

The first thing I’ll do if I win a $200 million lottery (fat chance) is restore to the summit of Sugarloaf Mountain in the 36,601-acre Nash Stream Forest, the watchman’s observation cab on the exposed naked summit ledges, right on the very spot where the structure once stood. I still miss the little building, even though it has been gone for a generation. But the view from the summit of Sugarloaf is as marvelous as ever, a showstopper, for trampers who don’t mind the rather dull and laborious slog up and down the mountain’s moderately but continuously steep eastern flank.

For those who like their views panoramic and their peaks pointed, like Goose Eye, The Horn, or Chocorua, Sugarloaf should fill the bill. To reach the trailhead, simply motor nearly 9 miles north on Nash Stream Road to the point where the lane crosses the only large bridge over Nash Stream. Just 50 feet ahead on the left is a little pullout adjacent to an untraveled lane to and beyond a camp, a route that was once the jeep service road that accessed the fire tower watchman’s living quarters and summit observation cab. Park, but don’t block the drive. Follow the yellow blazes west, pass a little private camp on the right, cross a rivulet, round a gate, and walk through a small field. Reach the woods line and immediately the trail splits. To the left cuts the Sugarloaf Arm Trail, a snowmobile trail and through-route of the Cohos Trail. The Sugarloaf Mountain Trail stretches straight ahead and begins to pitch uphill right away at a moderately steep angle.

There are few features along the 1.5-mile-long once-service road, other than the trail was recently refurbished with a multitude of water bars and water division channels, and the growth impinging on the trail clipped back. Ascend at a maddeningly constant angle that never relents until the forest brightens at a small clearing where, a generation ago, the fire watchman’s quarters stood to the right side of the trail. All that is left now is the rotting flooring of two small buildings that once stood here. Thirty feet to the left is a good spring where you may obtain water in any season, even in dry summers.

Once beyond the remains of the little buildings, things get more interesting. The trail pitches uphill once again in spruce and fir and approaches a ½-mile-long ridge that links Sugarloaf to an indistinct summit called Castle. Upon reaching the ridgeline, the trail turns to the left and now rises very gradually in pleasant boreal terrain to flat slabs of rock. As the slabs broaden out, the forest is pushed aside and grand visas open.

Stride out to the highest point among the narrow band of slabs to the very spot where the former fire tower cab was once anchored. Steel pins still reveal the anchor points. Unlike virtually all other fire towers in the East, Sugarloaf tower wasn’t a tower at all. The

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.