Well, the snow and ice gods seem to have forgotten that we are past the Ides of March. Friday brought a few inches of rain followed by some sleet and then a few inches of snow. Given the previous experience with ice hiking, we tried to pick an area to hike that might have gotten some snow but not too much ice. The Appalachian Trail was out - the snow/ice line of the storm hit the higher elevations much harder. Valley trails were out - two inches of rain meant mud city. So, Sugarloaf Mountain in Dickerson, MD seemed to be a good choice.
Driving to the mountain, there were a number areas where snow had blown from fields and covered the roads for short pieces - the winds were kicking up to about 20 mph and it was still pretty cold. My daughter had taken the digital camera with her on her spring break trip, so no photos - but it was very scenic to see snow covered fields in the bright sunshine of mid-March. The Sugarloaf Mountain Vineyard looks like it is ready to open for the year, though I guess it will still take a few more years before they are making wine out of their own grapes. When we got to the base of the mountain, the access road to the top was closed - what to do, what to do?
Usually we do the Blue "Three Peaks" Trail loop, about 5 miles with lots of up and down and views from the peaks. The White and Yellow trails more circle the perimeter of the mountain vs. traverse the peaks - starting from outside the entrance those are the first trails you hit so that is where we started. Being the savvy, experienced hikers we are, within the first 100 feet we lost the Yellow trail and ended up wandering in circles in a field until Carl cleverly backtracked and found the yellow blazes. This trail is relatively level, generally going uphill but not much slope. After the first few miles, it takes you through a lot of forestry harvesting demonstration areas - not particularly scenic.
After crossing and recrossing Mt. Ephraim Road, the Yellow trail heads up a valley and has some nice views up to the peaks. Rather than continuing the Yellow trail, we turned east on the Blue trail and hiked up to the top of the mountain. Once we reach the top, we realized why the access road was closed - it was pretty much a solid sheet up ice up there. We took the White trail down from the top, passing the stone remains of some out-buildings not far from the Strong Mansion. Looks like the totals came in at 7 miles with about 1,500 feet of elevation gain.
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