"I can still see the chairlifts and people yelling off the lifts when you hit your jumps!" Chad Jordan said that standing on the slope where he built Sugar Loaf's first snowboard park. Today he is the Leelanau Conservancy's infrastructure manager, and for most of this year he has been reshaping the same hill for its public return.
The return starts Friday, October 9, from 5 p.m. until dusk, at 4500 S Sugar Loaf Mountain Rd. What opens that evening is a summit, a trail to reach it, and parking. The pavilion, the picnic area and the mountain bike network all come later. That order is deliberate, and it shapes the next few seasons for anyone living a short drive from Cedar. The first full season on the reopened mountain will be winter, and it will look a lot like the hill people remember. The finished nature park comes years after that.
Why the Conservancy Opened Before It Finished
The Leelanau Conservancy took ownership in March from the Edmund F. and Virginia B. Ball Foundation. The transfer followed the Conservancy's $8 million campaign for the 285-acre property, which drew more than 1,000 donors. Work on the ground started in June. Executive Director Tom Nelson told The Ticker the Conservancy has "an ambitious five-year plan to create all the amenities – trails, the picnic pavilions and viewing spots, demonstration garden, child's play area." He also said, "we didn't want to wait five years to let people experience Sugar Loaf."
So the first build was what Nelson called the thing "people wanted most": a way to reach the top for the views, plus "a nice, safe parking area." Those plans stayed quiet for years. For nearly three years, the staff and board members who knew about the acquisition couldn't discuss it in public, and their internal code word was "French toast."
There's a lot of pent-up interest. Natural areas director Becky Hill said RSVPs for the opening were "around 600" a week before the event, and she asked people to carpool. The Ticker reported that it may be the best-attended event in the Conservancy's 38-year history. The ski area ran from 1947 until 2000 and was the county's largest employer for much of that time. That explains why so many people care about one hill.
What You Can Do on October 9 and After
The opening is an open house with no schedule. "We're not going to hold people up and do a lot of speeches," Nelson said. The Conservancy asks people to RSVP on its event page. The property stays open to the public after Friday.
Here is what's on the ground now:
- Main lot: about 90 spaces on Sugar Loaf Mountain Road, where the lodge used to stand. The Summit Trail starts here.
- South lot: a smaller lot along East Mountain Road. The Glen Arbor Sun reported that the two trailheads together hold more than 120 cars.
- Summit Trail: about half a mile, following the old Snowcat route from the parking lot to the top.
- The climb: 449 vertical feet from the lot to a summit at 1,059 feet, one of the highest points in Leelanau County.
From the top, the Sun's editor counted Little Traverse Lake, Good Harbor Bay, Pyramid Point, the Manitou Islands and the Crib lighthouse. Looking back toward the parking lot, stewardship project manager Caleb Garone pointed out an old barn, cherry and apple orchards, wine grape trellises and open hay fields. In his words, "you get the soul of what Leelanau County is."
On the way up, you cross the old lodge, pool and tennis court site. Above it are the steep run once called "Awful Awful" and its twin, "The Wall," which still carries a scar from years of skiers. Garone says a red-tailed hawk often shows up near the bottom of Awful Awful. Jordan has watched raptors kettling over the peak, and in one 15-minute stretch he saw an Oriole, an Indigo Bunting and a Scarlet Tanager.
The Rules That Apply Right Now
The Conservancy hasn't posted daily hours or a dog policy just for Sugar Loaf, so its general preserve rules are the guide. Its Know Before You Go page lists "Unleashed pets" as prohibited and asks that dogs stay "on a leash and in control," with waste picked up. The same page asks visitors to "Stay on the marked trail" and "Respect neighboring private property and posted boundaries." The airstrip and golf course are separate properties and aren't part of the project.
Bikes are a common question. The Conservancy's general rules prohibit "Bicycle use (except at Palmer Woods)," and the Sugar Loaf bike trails haven't opened yet. For now, leave the bike at home. As for restrooms, when Nelson outlined the plan in November 2025, he put restrooms with the pavilion and bike trails as items that would take years.
Winter Is When the Old Mountain Comes Back
This is where the build order pays off for people who live nearby. The pavilion needs to be designed and built, and the bike trails need to be cut. The ski runs were already there. "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," Jordan told the Sun. "This winter these will all be available and open to folks to ski."
There are no chairlifts or rope tows. All skiing is human-powered, and the Conservancy hopes to groom parallel-track trails for cross-country skiing. Staff have worked with the Michigan Backcountry Alliance on options that could include splitboarding, alpine touring, telemark and glade skiing. Jordan compares it to an alpine resort: "You can poke around and see what looks fun that day." He has also said where he'll be on the first snow day, which is on The Wall.
"It's possible to have high-quality recreation, but we need strong ecological communities and to be good stewards of the land." Caleb Garone, Leelanau Conservancy
What Arrives Later, in Order
The rest of the plan arrives in phases. Here is the sequence as reported this fall:
- Late this autumn: crews plant 138 native trees and shrubs as a buffer between the parking area and the Sugar Loaf townhouses. The lots will later be seeded with native wildflowers for pollinators.
- This winter: human-powered skiing on the legacy runs.
- Spring 2027, by Jordan's estimate: 9.5 miles of switchback mountain bike trail. Average grades run 7 to 10 percent, which Garone calls beginner level.
- Over about five years: a covered pavilion and gathering space at the summit, plus a picnic area and kids' play area at the parking lot. The Conservancy's longer-term list also includes a sledding hill, a nature play area, universal access features, and restoration work in the Good Harbor Bay Watershed.
The bike trails continue the hill's history too. In the late 1980s, Sugar Loaf hosted the National Off Road Bicycle Association's national championships. Jordan says it was the first place he ever rode a mountain bike. Pieces of the ski area are coming back as well. The Conservancy salvaged about 20 of the red lift chairs. Once they're powder coated, some will sit at open viewpoints and others in quieter spots. A few will be left off the map on purpose. "If you find it, you find it," Jordan said.
Pairing a Summit Walk With the Rest of Cedar
A Sunday morning climb finishes in time for breakfast in the village. Cedar Tavern on S Kasson St. runs a Sunday breakfast buffet from 9 a.m. to noon and is closed Mondays. French Valley Vineyards has released Sugar Loaf Red and Sugar Loaf White, and a portion of each bottle sold goes to the Conservancy's Sugar Loaf fund for trail maintenance, habitat restoration and long-term stewardship. If you'd like to help with the work, the Conservancy's Sugar Loaf page has a sign-up for volunteer days, which cover jobs like invasive species removal and trail maintenance.
Our team at Blue Lakes Real Estate Group is following the Sugar Loaf work closely, from the tree buffer going in this fall to the bike trails due in spring 2027. If you live near Cedar and want to know how the mountain's next phases could affect your corner of the county, let's work together.
