Sugar Loaf's First Winter Back Will Be Skied on Foot

Eric Raymond of Glen Arbor says he was the first person to reach the top of Sugar Loaf on opening day. At the summit he kept running into people he knew. He told MLive the talk up top was "about what it was like to ski here when we were kids 60 years ago."

Talk about skiing makes sense. Snow is the next season this hill will see as a public place, and that hasn't happened since the resort closed in 2000. The Leelanau Conservancy says it will welcome cross-country skiers this winter. The hill still has its 449 vertical feet between the parking lot and the summit. What's gone is everything a ski area once used to move people up it. This winter, skiers climb under their own power, on runs volunteers are clearing by hand before the snow arrives.

The crowd showed up before the plan was finished

The Conservancy's own numbers show how far interest ran ahead of expectations. A few days before the October 9 opening, The Ticker reported about 600 RSVPs. By the eve of the event, WCMU put registrations above 1,000. On the night itself, as many as 2,000 people walked the Summit Trail, and MLive reported that hundreds have kept coming every day since.

Every one of those visitors has used a single route. As of MLive's October 22 visit, the main Summit Trail was the only trail open. It's a gravel path with a few benches that follows the old Snowcat route for about half a mile from the parking lot to the top. The summit sits 1,059 feet above sea level. From the top you can see Little Traverse Lake, Good Harbor Bay, Pyramid Point, the Manitou Islands and the Crib lighthouse.

That's the hill as it stands going into November: one finished trail, a lot of people, and a winter promise that is still taking shape.

A ski hill with its vertical and none of its machinery

Sugar Loaf first opened in 1947. Through the 1970s and '80s it was Leelanau County's largest employer, according to MLive. The lodge came down about five years ago. The Edmund F. and Virginia B. Ball Foundation bought the property in 2020, paid for the demolition and cleanup, and transferred the roughly 285 acres to the Conservancy this past March. Funding for the purchase came from an $8 million campaign with more than 1,000 donors.

The old runs are still there. Standing where the lodge used to be, you can look north past the steep pitch once called "Awful Awful" and its twin, "The Wall." Crews keep finding pieces of the resort, including snowmaking pipe and the concrete bases of lift towers. The Conservancy saved about 20 of the red lift chairs. They'll be powder coated and placed around the property as rest spots, and a few will be tucked off the map for visitors to find on their own.

Those chairs are the only lift equipment coming back. The Glen Arbor Sun reported that chairlifts and rope tows "will be confined to memory." Skiing here has to be human-powered, meaning Nordic or backcountry.

What's settled for this winter, and what isn't

The Conservancy has been careful about what it commits to. Here's where things stand as the season approaches:

The backcountry plan is the one that makes this hill unlike anything else in the county. The Conservancy and the Michigan Backcountry Alliance have discussed splitboarding, alpine touring, telemarking and glade skiing. Chad Jordan, the Conservancy's infrastructure manager, built Sugar Loaf's first snowboard park back in its resort days. He described the plan to the Glen Arbor Sun this way:

"A lot of the legacy ski runs are pretty open still, so there's not a lot of work that we need to get those in shape. This winter these will all be available and open to folks to ski. It's similar to what you would find at an alpine resort. You can poke around and see what looks fun that day."

The two messages fit together. The old runs are meant to be skiable this winter, and the Conservancy's Sugar Loaf page still asks people to stay on designated trails while restoration continues. Check that page before your first ski day, because it's where updated rules will show up.

The runs are being cleared by hand, and November 8 is the next shift

"Not a lot of work" isn't the same as no work. The Conservancy has been running ski-run workbees. Volunteers clear deadfall and debris, haul brush, thin vegetation and limb branches on the old glades and runs to turn them into backcountry terrain. Sessions ran on September 17 and September 27. The last one on the calendar is Sunday, November 8, from 1 to 5 p.m. The Michigan Backcountry Alliance lists the same afternoon as its "Sugar loaf ski clearing day," starting at 1 p.m.

That's likely the last organized chance to work on the runs before snow. It's also how the hill first got its trails. In the late 1980s, Sugar Loaf hosted the National Off Road Bicycle Association's national championships, and Jordan told the Glen Arbor Sun it was the first place he ever rode a mountain bike. Locals built the hill's first life, and locals are clearing it again now. Sign up through the Conservancy's workbee listing, or use the volunteer form on its Sugar Loaf page to hear about future dates.

Practical details before the first snow

A few things about the site will matter more once it's cold and dark by late afternoon.

• Getting there. MLive places the preserve on South Sugar Loaf Mountain Road in Cedar, near the old resort's golf course on South Townline Road. The airstrip and golf course aren't part of the preserve.
• Parking. The Ticker described a main lot of about 90 spaces on Sugar Loaf Mountain Road, where the Summit Trail starts, plus a smaller lot to the south on East Mountain Road. With hundreds of visitors a day this fall, plan on the main lot filling up on a good snow weekend.
• Facilities. The lot has portable toilets and no trash cans. The Conservancy doesn't put trash cans at its natural areas so it can spend that money on stewardship. Conservancy officials have received reports of diapers and dog waste bags left in the lot, so pack out everything you bring in.
• Restoration zones. Restoration areas are roped off. The work includes removing invasive species, protecting native plants and controlling erosion. Those ropes will be harder to see under snow, so it's worth learning where they are on a fall hike.

What gets built after this winter

This season is a starting point. The Conservancy plans to open 9.5 miles of switchback mountain bike trails, which Jordan expects in spring 2027. Their average grades of 7 to 10 percent are beginner-level, and they climb all the way to the summit. The first five-year plan adds a covered pavilion and gathering space at the summit, plus a picnic area and children's play area near the parking lot. The longer-term vision on the Conservancy's site adds snowshoe routes, universal access features and a sledding hill.

The Conservancy also planned to plant 138 native trees and shrubs late this fall as a buffer between the parking area and the Sugar Loaf townhouses. So the property will look a little different every season for years.

Not every visitor is coming for the descent. Martha Ramsdell of Suttons Bay, who is 89, told MLive she's hanging up her backcountry boots and plans to hike Sugar Loaf regularly. "It's just a wonderful asset. This has been sitting here for so many years," she said. The Summit Trail she'll be walking is the same half mile skiers will climb this winter, starting at the same lot, with the same view of Good Harbor Bay from the top.

If you live on this side of the peninsula, Sugar Loaf is about to become a fixture of your winters. Whether you're thinking about a place close enough to skin up after work or just want to talk through what's changing around Cedar and Glen Arbor, Molly Buttleman knows these roads in every season. Inquire Now.