(Note: all current and new posts from uptorun.blogspot.com can now be seen at runbuffet.com)
For a while, my family and I have been waiting for the weather to get nicer so that we can go out and do some more fun outdoor excursions. One of the things on our to-do list was to go hiking, and some hiking that we all enjoyed in the past was on Sugarloaf Mountain. Since it was very close to the Frederick / Montgomery County borderline, it was a relatively close and accessible mountain.
We got there around 12:00 PM on one of the parking lots higher up on the mountain - not at the base. This was because we didn't have a lot of time, and although we had a late breakfast, we wanted to be done early enough so that we still could have lunch.
We decided to up the 1/4 mile green trail. It was the one closest to where we were parked. We started walking up the stone-slate-laden path until the slates disappeared into some dirt, some roots, and some rocks. My little brother was eager to scramble up to the summit, and, according to him "Wow Sugarloaf Mountain is really fun!"
There were people on the trail, but it wasn't ever congested or ever really empty. We went up and up and up until we reached a series of stone stairs. At this point, he started breathing harder and saying something about his knees. I advised him to take it slower, but stairs were stairs, and four-year-olds were four-year-olds. Finally, we reached an area of level ground and decided to proceed to the summit. After walking through some rocks, we were there!
Going up took less than 12 minutes - quite a while for a quarter mile, but we had fun. The views were nice, overlooking lots of farms and trees and what I believe was the Potomac River. We hung around for a little while and relaxed for a little bit before heading back down.
The stairs were steady as we headed down, but just in case, I told my little brother to stay behind me. If he fell on me, I could brace myself, but if I fell on him, we'd both get a face-full of stone. We went down and down the steps, down and down the dirt, and down and over the large rocks. We climbed over a few small boulders and jumped down steps made by the roots.
As we neared the end, we saw again the stone-slate path and walked back to the parking lot. Overall, the mini-adventure took about an hour, including time spent enjoying the top of the mountain and time spent pondering whether we should go down yet or not. It was pretty nice now to go out and take advantage of the summer-like days after what felt like a really long winter. :)
