Also on this trip

Trails Used

Road walk, West Ridge Trail, South Ridge Trail, Skyland Trail, Clark Trail

Trail Conditions

Notes

Awesome hike today-Orange is such an overlooked mountain with Cardigan stealing all the glory. The Skyland trail is a real gem and the summit ledges of Orange have a magnificent view of the entire 18-mile “superloop” hike that is an annual pilgrimage. We encountered minimal snow/ice all day. Didn’t carry traction and wouldn’t have thought to use it if we did. Saw a few early Trout Lily’s getting ready to bloom:) Five minutes up from the summer lot two older gentlemen descending asked if they were almost at the AMC lodge. These two bozos had no packs, no map or map phone app, and had descended the entire mountain the wrong direction. They also ascended the notorious Holt trail with no traction. They reported the entire steep part was covered in ice and they had to bear crawl and bushwhack through the trees to make it up. When I asked the guy if he knew what he was getting into today he replied he has hiked the Holt trail at least ten times?! I went over the map with them in detail and texted them Gaia screenshots and they were still acting clueless. It was a textbook case of being wildly unprepared and making repeated poor decisions. Saw multiple hikers later in sneakers with no packs and bluejeans. I thought the short bus didn’t start dropping people off until summer time but I guess it’s open season on Cardigan!!!

Parking

Gate still closed. Road walk adds .6 miles and 250’ vert.

Wildlife

Nope