You Are Here: Sugarloaf Ridge and Goose Pond

We have received a little Winter weather over the past week, so I wasn't prepared to venture onto anything too big, as I'm not quite mentally ready to deal with all that Winter hiking entails. Laura and I decided to explore the Sugarloaf Ridge and Goose Pond area at Wellington State Park in the Alexandria/Bristol area. Parking is in a lot with a sign for Elwell Trail parking just past the Wellington State Park entrance. There is plenty of parking here as well as a kiosk with map. We started in spikes, but only wore them for just under a mile. While there was a thin layer of snow on the ground for the majority of our hike, it didn't warrant any traction and we were able to skirt any ice safely enough. We started on the Elwell Trail, almost immediately taking the right fork to the Orange Trail which is a snowmobile trail. We met back up with the Elwell Trail and followed that over Little and Big Sugarloaf. It is a decent climb up to Little Sugarloaf with restricted views over Newfound Lake. There are also snowshoe alternates for Winter with marked signage leading away from rockier slab on the main route. We stuck to the main route for the most part. A moderate descent down to the col between Little and Big is through pretty woods. I had read it was slippery/leafy in Fall and I could see that being the case as there were still lots of leaves on the ground, however we lucked out with the thin layer of snow almost acting like glue keeping it from being treacherous. The climb up Big Sugarloaf is short but steep in some sections. We were loosely following AllTrails and Gaia which showed the Blue trail intersecting Elwell Trail just below the summit, which we were going to descend, however once we were there, there was no sign of it. I had noticed on the official map, that the Blue Trail actually intersected on the other side of Big Sugarloaf and once I was home and read the description in the AMC South Trail Guide, it seems there was an old trail that has since been closed due to erosion, which must be what is showing up on AllTrails and Gaia, so be careful if using those as your sole navigation source. The summit has pretty views over Newfound Lake. We descended to the Blue Trail which was steep, but so pretty with the lightly snow covered trees. The Blue Trail starts right at the bottom of the steep section and heads left following an old road, which was very messy/wet and I imagine muddy if not for the light snow covering we had. We found it well marked, but often in the opposite direction, so we found ourselves looking behind us often to make sure we were still on trail. We complained about the trail at first, but then found it really quite pretty and definitely remote feeling. There is a rerouted section around a flooded area, so watch for the blue diamonds rather than painted blazes and follow those. We passed the end of the White/Brook Trail and continued to the end at Hebron Road, where we found another kiosk and map. We picked up Green/Goose Pond Trail and followed that to what we thought was the other end of White/Brook Trail. Turns out we were actually on an old section at first, the trail has been rerouted and actually begins further down Goose Pond Trail marked with white diamonds. We did an out and back on White (I'll have to go back and grab the rerouted section) before hitting another kiosk. Here we took the Pink Trail down to Goose Pond and then picked up the top section of Red/Around the Pond Trail. The entire area is well marked and very pretty! From Red we jumped back on Goose Pond Trail which was now orange, back to Elwell Trail and the car.

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