You Are Here: Bear Brook State Park

Snow was in the forecast today, so the goal was to get out and back before it started. First flakes started falling as I pulled back into my driveway. I headed for Bear Brook State Park to start the adventures of redlining. This is a really big park and I have been over there a few times, but nothing formal in the way of redlining. A recent logging operation in the Podunk Road area had been completed 2 days earlier which reopened all trails that were temporarily closed. I parked in the Hiker/Biker lot on Podunk Rd and headed out on the Bear Brook Trail. As usual, I had a digital map download, as well as a screenshot of the park's official map. I actually found the park's map to be somewhat confusing at the intersections and my digital map was much easier to follow. Bear Brook is very popular with mountain bikers so much like some of the other mountain bike/hiking trail networks there were several unmarked trails leading off the marked trails that bikers have created. Some of them looked well maintained, so I was grateful for the digital map to confirm I was on the path that I had intended to be on! The first section of Bear Brook Trail follows the brook and was super pretty. The trails are very smooth and flowy for the most part with the heavily traveled bike use. I passed a few riders and was able to easily move out of their way. There was a spot at a bend in the book that was cleared and flat and I could just picture it being a perfect place for a Summer picnic! Bear Brook Trail joined with One Mile Trail, which is a gravel road/snowmobile trail for a little ways before branching off (at an unmarked fork) onto what the park map called Lower Bear Brook Trail. This meandered through the woods some more before rejoining One Mile Trail, which I followed out to the Deerfield Road entrance. Backtracking, this time I stayed on One Mile Trail for its entire length. Where One Mile Trail and Bear Brook Trail met (for me the first time), Lane Trail takes over the road portion. I followed this to Hayes Farm Trail, another road/snowmobile trail and took that out to Podunk Road. A quick backtrack of a few hundred yards, and I picked up a connector trail to Little Bear Trail. Another unmarked trail entrance, I was verifying my locations on the digital map, where I could track where I actually was. I took Little Bear for a short distance before jumping onto Big Bear Trail, which took me back to the parking lot. This whole section followed the recent logging operation, which did not affect any of the trails, but was visible the entire way. The first of many adventures at Bear Brook!

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