This MODERATE hike heads up the Drakes Brook valley to the Fletchers Cascade [2600 ft.], a picturesque series of chutes and ledges that begins somewhere on the boggy summit of Flat Mountain.
The trail begins off the Lower Fletchers Cascade X-C Ski Trail, just up the hill from where the Drakes Brook Trail leaves the ski trail and crosses the brook. The Fletchers Cascade Trail angles up along the left-hand side of the brook for a fair distance. It can be wet in several sections, requiring some rock hopping and footwork, but it’s not steep and easy to follow. After a short footbridge, the trail crosses a high-banked brook [difficult in high water] and enters the Sandwich Range Wilderness. Once the towering rock walls are in sight through the trees, the trail becomes quite steep for a short distance, ascending directly beside the brook, with poor footing on slick surfaces. It eventually hooks left below a tall rock face and comes to an end on a little island in the middle of the brook bed.
