Trails Used

Washburn Road, Knowles Hill Road, Church Hill Road, Skyland Trail

Trail Conditions

Notes

Today's Plan A was a loop over Orange Mtn. from the AMC Cardigan Lodge. However, when I arrived shortly before 8 am, the parking was already full and made worse by People Parking Poorly. So, Plan B was to drive around to Alexandria Four Corners and approach Orange from the south via Skyland Trail. This was fine as it was a chance to revisit a favorite trail, and compared to the crowds that must have been on Cardigan, I saw zero people on this route. Always a joy to hike this quiet and remote trail, which becomes more and more ledgy as you get further in, especially once you reach Crane. Super views from all the open ledges today. I only went as far as Orange but could hear people over on Cardigan. Based on the busy parking lot at the lodge, I wasn't surprised. Another beautiful day in the Cardigan backcountry!

Parking

Parking is always tricky for Skyland Trail. I used a small pull off near the top of Washburn Rd., 0.15 mi. from Four Corners and did the half mile road walk to the trailhead.

Wildlife

Hardly any. Have we turned a corner? Also no ticks found yet.

Also on this trip

Trails Used

Orange Road, Knowles Hill Road, Church Hill Road, Skyland Trail, West Ridge Trail

Trail Conditions

Notes

I wanted to check out the longer, more difficult approach to Cardigan and Skyland definitely fit the bill. After the short road walk up Knowles Hill Road, turn onto Church Hill. There is a gate with a "Private Turnaround" sign on it, but hikers are ok. After a steep little climb past the camps along Church Hill Road, you will see a sign on a tree for Skyland Trail, which leaves the road going left. Even being pretty remote and lightly used, the trail is very well blazed with white paint and cairns on the open ridges. There is very little undergrowth and for the most part you are moving through fairly open woods. There is plenty of moose droppings along the trail and I woke up a cow on the backside of Grafton Knob on my way in. The area was clearly farmed and you cross stone walls and cellar holes - including on that still has it's front steps. The views across the open summits of Crane and Orange get progressively more beautiful. There are some slabby sections along the way covered in pine needles, which are a little slippery. Take care especially on the back side of Orange, where the trail is right along a 20'+ cliff. I did not see anyone until Cardigan Rimrock and then more people once I hit the West Ridge trail. Views from the summit were excellent, being able to see all the way to Washington. After that I followed Skyland back to my car, for a 10 mile round trip.

Parking

Parking is probably the trickiest part of the hike. Per the AMC guide, I parked in Alexandria Four Corners. There is just enough room on the side of Orange Road, before the first driveway on the right, to get 2 maybe 3 cars. These are the coordinates of where I parked: 43.60827753976946, -71.87922105774295. You have to pull pretty far into the ditch to be off the road. The edge is fairly flat though, so you should not get stuck, but might be harder with a low-clearance vehicle. There is a big turn around further up Knowles Hill Road (43.61195066312928, -71.87768818298541) which also looked possible, but there were "No Trespassing" signs across the street, so didn't want to risk it.

Water Crossings

Only one is the tiny footbridge on the West Ridge Trail

Wildlife

ALL of them were out, but was moving fast enough to avoid most of them.

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