In the past six years, I’ve tried my best to tackle all 40 miles in trails at Bear Brook State Park, for the lack of time between jobs and interruptions kept me at a couple hours of hiking every two weeks it seemed. This past week though, I succeeded! My last trek was to Hall Mountain with my good friend Emily. Starting at the Campground after my shift, we took Beaver Pond Trail to Lynx Trail. Beaver Pond Trail is currently under construction, so after a…..muddy incident, we were on our way.
Lynx is a nice incline of a trail, and at the top, you are rewarded with forest enclosed around you on all sides. After crossing onto Hall Mountain Trail, we started to see these homemade sign posts (in the picture below). Other Park Employees have said that some hikers take home the State Park trail signs as souvenirs, which is unfortunate, but someone put these up to replace, which was handy.
Hall Mountain was the same difficulty as Catamount Trail in the Day-Use Area, except it peaks a couple feet higher than Catamount at 921 ft. I plan to go back to this trail once the New Hampshire foliage really kicks in, because there is a little vista at the top of the trail that oversees a couple towns.
Emily and I intended to just hike back to the Campground after Hall Mountain Marsh, but took Ferret Trail instead after seeing how beautiful the marsh was.
From Ferret Trail we made it to Podunk Road next to the entrance to Bear Hill, and took Spruce Pond trail back to the Campground. I don’t know if it was the mix of fall weather, lack of mosquitoes, premature foliage, or the fact this was the only trail I had not done yet, but this was the best hike I’ve done at Bear Brook yet. I would recommend it to all!
Planning my first attempt Sunday, 6/28/15 to Hall Mt. So this was a nice read, looking forward to the view….if the rain doesn’t dampen it to much.