You Are Here: Plymouth Mountain via Plymouth Mountain Trail

My scheduled surgery was bumped a week, so I wanted to take advantage of the bonus day and get out and knock off some redlining. I chose Plymouth Mountain as I had previously been there over Winter and had wanted to come back when all the snow would be gone. You can access Plymouth Mountain from each side, the Fauver Link and Sutherland Trails that I did in December and Plymouth Mountain Trail, which I did today. I had read that the Plymouth Mountain Trail was a little rustic as it had previously been abandoned but some trail work had begun over the past 12 months. My biggest concern had been in finding the trail at all as it is not marked at the beginning. I was able to download a .gpx file from a fellow hiker, and I'm super glad I did. I'm assuming I would have figured it out eventually, but I was grateful for the tracks to be sure. The trail begins at the end of the public portion of Pike Hill Rd in Hebron off Route 3A. Google Maps makes it appear this is a through road, but I encountered a Private sign just after the trailhead. There is no official parking, but there were 2 areas (one on each side) that could cater a couple of cars. I parked in the spot on the left, alongside a brook. To find the actual trailhead, look for the hairpin turn to the left, and the private sign just after. The trail goes off to the right at the bend. Due to the all the rain we've had recently, the start was rather wet and muddy. It begins in conjunction with a snowmobile corridor but at a point where the snowmobile trail veers left (there was an arrow sign on a tree), look right and there is an obvious trail heading off into the long grass (at least in August it was long grass). The trail descends slightly, crosses a brook and it wasn't until after that I finally saw an old Camp Mowgli sign pinned on a tree letting me know I was on the correct trail. It wasn't overly difficult to follow, but there were a couple of places where old roads or even the brook itself seemed like the trail and without the tracks I was following online, I would have found it a bit trickier to navigate. Once past the first Camp Mowgli sign, it was marked almost the rest of the way to the summit, sometimes you just had to look around a bit to see the next one. The lower portion of this trail as it followed the brook was wet and muddy and quite buggy, which wasn't super pleasant. The climb was mostly gradual and once above the brook, became drier, though leafier. Finally near the top the trail turned to pine forest and was my favorite. I didn't see a single soul the whole day and despite it being really humid, it was so peaceful and quiet, even the bugs didn't bother me a whole lot. There were a couple of rock scrambly type sections near the summit. These were short and nothing treacherous. I reached the wooded summit and continued over and down on the Sutherland Trail where I had been in the Winter. This section had more short rock scrambles, and about 0.3 miles later an unofficial (though mentioned in the AMC Guide Book) path heads to the right and the East Cliffs overlook. This is not marked, and I probably wouldn't seen it to know it existed had it not been for the guide book, plus a general idea of where it was having seen the path broken out over the Winter, and most importantly the online tracks I was following. There are a few cairns just as the trail starts if you're looking and then the path becomes obvious and easy to follow all the way to the view spot. Unfortunately today it was very hazy, so not a tremendous view, but it would be well worth the extra if you were up there on a clear day. I backtracked the way I came up and was back to the car in decent time. This completed the Plymouth Mountain trails for redlining the AMC South Guide Book for me.

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