Trio Trail + Sugarloaf | 10/24/26
With next to nothing left to trace on the west side of the state, I again found myself in the great north woods post-peak foliage.
As part of our annual trail work weekend, Liz, Joe, and I spent the Saturday before on some of the nicest maintained trails in all of New Hampshire—the Cohos!
We started our day on Trio Trail on Nash Stream Road, just below Pond Brook Falls.
The falls were a quick walk and pleasant surprise, cascading slowly yet voluminously over the rocks. It would’ve been fantastic to lie down on a flat area to let water pass over me in the summer. But on a crisp 26° morning, we certainly didn’t lie down or linger as the air chilled around the water.
Up past the falls, the trail meandered very gently below the long shoulder of the accurately named West Long Peak until we reached the top of Bowman Valley. The woods were fairly open here, revealing not-so-long-ago logging, and great views of North Percy’s bald top.
With no summit requirements on this trek, we stopped for lunch just before the tent sites.
Soon after we arrived at the tent site, we started heading down Percy Loop Trail, and I was in disbelief when we hit the road- it was MUCH faster than the way up! Thankfully, although the trail was steeper going down than up, the leaves were well trodden, and I didn’t slip.
After we got down the Percy’s, Liz generously suggested we hit Sugarloaf so that I could check off another 52WAV. Though she'd done it, and Joe isn’t working on the list (yet…), I didn’t think anyone would want to endure the 1:1000 suffer climb!
As we got started, I soon realized I didn’t want to endure it much either. Right off the road, Sugarloaf gains and gains. Especially with the leaves- it took some real focus.
As we hovered closer to 3000 feet and the trees began to change, I was relieved the path evolved from a fire road to a trail- easing the gain.
Up top, there wasn’t a single red leaf in sight! Even so, the north woods were stunning as ever. Past the Jericho wind turbines, I noted the turbines even further out atop Dixville Peak. Last September, Liz and I got up there via my Tiguan on ATV trails- it was a blast. I always love going down a view-induced memory lane up in the Whites!
On the way down, I had a fun sensory deprivation experience as one of my contacts came out. I would not recommend doing that while working your way down steep leaf gullies!
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