Sometimes it seems like ski areas want to pretend autumn doesn’t exist. With the long, hot days of summer barely passed, ski areas are already promoting the impending season. Last week I received an email with the subject line “Snowmaking Countdown” from Sunday River, and Sugarloaf’s social media “Blue Room” is starting to buzz with excitement for skiing. A number of New England resorts even posted about the possibility of the fall’s first snow arriving any day now.

Not that I’m complaining, mind you.

With summer truly winding down and opening day approaching fast (last year, Sunday River opened on Oct. 26), I’m reminded that hiking is a wonderful way to prepare your body for skiing and snowboarding. A few short hikes in the fall won’t make up for a more comprehensive fitness regimen, but hikes – particularly steep ones – work the muscles in your legs and core that are crucial for ski season. Plus, if you’re anything like me, alpine hiking is a solid way to justify a season spent using chairlifts.

Plan on a hike every weekend or two this fall and mix in some upper body and weight training, and you’ll be ready to ski without quitting halfway through opening day or spending the following day with aching muscles.

In the past, I’ve recommended hiking the trails at ski resorts to get excited for the season. But it’s harder to recommend this time of year, when base areas and trails are buzzing with people preparing for the upcoming season. After all, the last thing you want to do is get in the way of a truck hauling a detached chair or end up on the wrong side of a snowgun. Instead, I’d like to recommend two hikes that give you spectacular views of the slopes.

The Bigelow Range, near Stratton, looks across Route 27 at Sugarloaf’s slopes. The Appalachian Trail, which cuts across the top of Saddleback Mountain, offers the unique opportunity to look down at a resort’s trails.

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Long considered one of the great hikes in Maine, the Bigelow Range runs across 12 miles over six of Maine’s highest peaks (including two over 4,000 feet). If you’ve ever skied Sugarloaf and looked across the valley, you’ll recognize the Bigelow Range as the imposing mountain ridge opposite the slopes. It seems particularly appropriate for this column, as it was very nearly turned into a ski area in the 1970s. A statewide referendum in 1976 put the kibosh on that plan, prompting the state to buy the land and create a wilderness preserve. My father, who was then involved in the campaign to build the resort but now hikes Bigelow, points to that decision as a blessing.

The trailhead for the Fire Warden’s Trail up Bigelow is about two miles up Stratton Brook Pond Road, which leaves Route 27 in Stratton. The first few miles of the clearly marked trail are deceptively easy, climbing moderately through a pleasant hardwood forest. At the 3-mile mark (just beyond a tent site, for those looking for a multi-day journey), the tough part of the hike begins. Considered one of the toughest “miles” in Maine, the Fire Warden’s Trail climbs a leg-burning 1,700 feet in just 1.5 miles. The steep ascent terminates at Bigelow Col (the ridge between peaks), where the trail joins the AT and there’s another tent site. Going half a mile east or west puts hikers on Avery and West Peaks, with spectacular views of Maine’s western mountains and Sugarloaf. This perspective offers the rare trick of actually making Sugarloaf look small in comparison.

Crossing Route 4 north of Farmington but south of Saddleback, the AT provides a challenging ascent of Saddleback. Saddleback shares with Bigelow a history of conflict between preservationists and developers. In the late 1980s, Saddleback’s then-owner, Donald Breen, planned to add lifts, towers and condos, as well as developing “The Bowl” on the northeast side of Saddleback Horn into an expert skiers’ paradise. This came into conflict with the National Park Service, the Sierra Club and the Wilderness Society, which sought to preserve the AT corridor. The dispute was finally settled in 2000 in what could be considered a win for the National Park Service, protecting 90 percent of the “viewshed” around the peak and ending any possibility of ski trails crossing the AT. Like Bigelow, once you’ve hiked the peak it’s easy to come down on the side of conservationists.

Also like Bigelow, the trail up Saddleback starts out deceptively easy. The first two miles are shared with the trail to Piazza Rock, a flat overhanging boulder with trees sprouting from its top. The trail gradually gets steeper as it ascends another two miles to Eddy Pond, a perfect resting spot before the brutal climb to break treeline near Saddleback’s peak. After climbing about 1,000 vertical feet in the space of a mile, hikers reach the real treat of this hike – a gentle above-treeline ridge that runs about a mile to the peak of Saddleback, and a mile beyond that to the slightly lower peak of Saddleback Horn.

If you’re used to hiking closed in by trees on Maine’s trails, the hike feels very unlike the rest of our state; more White Mountains than western Mountains. To the left, hikers can see the slopes of Saddleback and the ski area’s lodge, and are likely to meet folks who joined the trail by hiking up the resort side.

Both hikes meet the aforementioned requirement of steep, strenuous routes to get your legs geared up for skiing. If you tackle both before the lifts start to turn, you’ll be in good shape to hit the slopes and perhaps have a greater appreciation of the trails, having seen them from a new perspective.

Josh Christie is a freelance writer and lifetime outdoors enthusiast. He shares column space in Outdoors with his father, John. Josh can be contacted at:

joshua.j.christie@gmail.com


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