Leader: Dave Rockwood
Co-Leader: Paul Sirtoli

A small group of us went on a bushwhacking adventure with Paul Sirtoli. We started by going up part of the trail to Sand Lake, then we headed toward Sugarloaf Mountain, following Paul and his map and compass. Paul showed us how to orient the (topographical) map and determine how to set heading so we could use the compass to guide our direction.  Paul also used topographical features to help determine where we were on the map. We also had All Trails app loaded and that also helped us determine where we were.

There were not a lot of landmarks, so the app was helpful on this trip.  There was also low brush  and saplings, covered in snow, which made it difficult to set a long heading with the compass.  We also got into some dense sapling growth (see pictures), which made it more of an adventure – really bushwhacking!

We made it to the summit, which in this case is not very well defined, and no view of the lake or surrounding mountains.  We stopped there for lunch and a picture and developed a plan for the rest of our hike.  We bushwhacked down the back side and looped northeast back to the road along the lake and then we just followed the road back to our cars.  We covered about 6.5 miles, 1850 feet in elevation.  The lessons with the map and compass, and working in the terrain we were in gave us a better appreciation of the skill needed to be proficient with these tools.