Sugarloaf Mountain (9952')

[KathyW]

I decided that I wanted to do a hike I hadn't done before and get out in the snow. I had a nice view of Sugarloaf Mountain on my hike to Dry Lake on Monday and I hadn't done the hike up to Sugarloaf before. I heard that heading up the north side from near Big Bear would be a nice snow hike and I would be able to do it without starting too early in the morning and still come out before dark.

I didn't think about the gate on the road to the trailhead being closed at Hwy 38 for the winter, so when I got there I realized my hike was going to be 3.5 miles longer than I originally anticipated. The hike was pretty easy until about 1.75 miles from the top of Sugarloaf because the trail had been packed down, so no post-holing until that last section along the ridge. For the last section I kept losing and finding the trail - some areas had just a little bit of snow and other areas had 18 inches of fluffy snow that I sank down in. I was tired when I finally got to to the top of Sugarloaf Mountain. There aren't great views from the top of Sugarloaf but there are some really nice views along the way. My hike turned out to be about 12 miles round-trip with 3200 feet elevation gain. Temperatures: It was in the 20's when I started hiking at 8:40 am and it was in the 30's
when I came back out at 4:30 pm.

A map of my route and some pics I took:

http://kathywing.smugmug.com/gallery/4000972

We might get some more snow this week.