Write-up: Dave Rockwood

Leader: Dave Rockwood

Co-Leader: Carolyn Eastwood

We had a group of five on this hike billed as 9 miles.  Paul, the original hike leader could not make it for medical reasons, so we picked up the torch and did the hike for him.  The trailhead toward Pine Mountain (Castle Rock/Upper Sargent Pond) is on the north shore of Blue Mountain Lake (near Minnowbrook Conference Center).  There is no trail up Pine Mountain.

We had a cool, clear day, it was spectacular!  We passed the trails to Castle Rock and we told ourselves that we could get it on the way back.  We left the trailhead at 9:00, followed the trail for 2-3 miles and then headed up Pine Mountain.  We reached the main summit by 11:00, and then hit the second summit and then headed down to Pine Pond which is south of the summit – and further from the trail we came in on.  We got to the pond by 12:30 and had lunch, it was beautiful there.

The sky was very blue and the pond was fairly calm.  We ate our lunch and then headed back to find the trail for Upper Sargent Pond to kick out on.  Due to the terrain we ended up close to Upper Sargent Pond, so we had about 4 miles to hike out after several miles of bushwhacking.

We found the trail and headed out, we came to the first trail to Castle Rock, it was ~2:45 – with 2 miles to go, or so.  We discussed, none of us really wanted another climb up at that point, so we headed back on the more level trail out.  Paul would be disappointed in us, lol.  We were out by 3:45 PM, with an 11.5 mile hiking distance.

Some highlights of the hike, summit boulders, large rocks that looked like they were split by fallen trees, Pine Lake was beautiful, and we saw a large salamander in the clear water.  We found some deep mossy areas near the top of the mountain that were around 8” deep in moss.