Sugarloaf (3500 Club Peak of the Month)

The view from Platte Clove Road

Fourteen years ago I fell in love with hiking.  The Catskill 3500 Club peaks introduced me to the joys of nature.  In the past ten years I haven't spent much time hiking in those mountains.  In fact a handful of peaks like Rocky, Lone, Eagle and Balsam I have not visited since.  I hope in the following year to revisit all of them.  A couple years ago this was a goal that fell apart after a few.  I hope to at least do one per month, along side one Hudson River Bridge per month.

The Hudson Valley received a lot of rain this past week.  Friday called for clear skies.  One of the great perks about going to work at 4:30pm is that there is a lot of the day to be enjoyed prior to work.  So why not bang out a nice 6-7 mile hike before work?

Unfortunately the clear blue skies never came about.  But the weather didn't suck either.  As usual, I did not come fully prepared since I only had my basic running/ work shoes.  They would suffice on this day, since winter has not arrived yet.  Not even at elevation.

Before hitting the trail head, I hit up one of my favorite spots, Twin Peaks in Tannersville.  They have great coffee, but best of all they have fresh donuts!  Excellent food to load up on before hitting the trails.  I had pancakes along with some maple frosted, freshly made donuts.

I reached the trail head off of Dale Rd around 10:30.  I would have liked an earlier start, but still had plenty of time.  After a 1/4 mile, there are two trails.  One leads to Pecoy notch which is the col for Sugarloaf and Twin.  The other leads to Mink Hollow which is the col for Sugarloaf and Plateau.  One can do a nice loop up and over Sugarloaf and return to the same parking area.  I did this once before.  Today I would do it in reverse, going up to Pecoy Notch first.

For me, Sugarloaf is the least appreciated of the Devils Path peaks.  All the others have excellent views.  Some of the best views in the Catskills are found from Westkill, Plateau, Twin and Indianhead.  Sugarloaf barely has any.

From a distance, Sugarloaf is quite interesting.  It drops a thousand feet on both sides.  Its quite strikingly round summit is unlike the mostly flat summits of the other Devils Path peaks.  When hiking to Sugarloaf via Pecoy Notch, one passes one of the most interesting spots in the Catskills, Dibbles Quarry.  This makes a great destination for those not interested in ascending 2,000 feet over rugged terrain.  It's an abandoned 19th century slate quarry that features a bunch of thrones.  One can be a king or queen and take in the awesome views of Kaaterskill High Peak and Platte Clove.

From there, the trails rises gently to a small pond.  I mentioned previously, winter had not arrived, even in the mountains.  It sort of hasn't.  There isn't much snow, but this pond was partially frozen.  So winter is creeping in.

From the pond the trail steepens to Pecoy Notch.  Once there I noticed a no camping sign that has been clearly ignored.  From Pecoy Notch, Sugarloaf starts to flex its nuts.  It's not called the Devils Path for nothing.  Many steep sections require the use of hands.  It occurred to me more than once that I may be doing a trail run through these parts in July.

On the way to the summit, I had to negotiate some icy sections.  So far it was not difficult.  It may be in a few weeks.  There were some nice views toward Twin.  The cliffs the trail goes up are quite obvious.  The Devils Path section up Twin might be my favorite in the Catskills.

North and South Twin

The summit of Sugarloaf offers a view, but ever so slight.  I imagine in the summer it's even less so.  Cooper Lake and parts of the Ashokan can be seen to the south.  Many of the Central Catskills are visible, like Wittenburgh.  Visibility was not very good.

The walk down posed some problems.  There was quite a bit of ice and a nice dusting on the summit.  It was quite pretty.  Despite my cold feet and cold hands, I longed for some snow.  I hope to get out quite a bit with the snowshoes and microspikes.