You Are Here: Bear Brook

We had some snow this week, so I wanted to go somewhere that I knew had a good chance of being broken out. Bear Brook is not only popular with hikers, fat bikers (in Winter) but there are several groomed snowmobile trails as well. I took a chance on the opposite side of the park than I had been visiting so far. I drove to Podunk Road on the Candia side and found a plowed out parking area just before the gate. Hoping this was for hikers, I parked (there is a house right across the street and the owner returned with her dog and didn't say anything, so I felt fairly confident it was OK). Room for 3 cars at the moment if parking carefully. I geared up with just spikes for the time being, but attached my snowshoes just in case. This turned out to be beneficial. Immediately beyond the gate you join the snowmobile network, so this was groomed. I was looking for Lynx Trail and headed off before quickly realizing (upon looking at my digital downloaded tracks) that I had passed it. I turned around and saw where the trail was. It is marked with a snowmobile marker, but no indication of a hiking trail. It was unbroken, and unmarked, but was easy to follow. A couple tenths in, I switched to snowshoes. This was my first time in my new snowshoes I got for Christmas. This was a good trail to test them out as there were no big climbs and nothing crazy to get stuck on. I descended a decent little steep and could see on my map that an access trail to Currier Road was ahead. To my surprise, when I came to this junction, the trail went from being unbroken to quite well traveled. I was so happy to see this, as well as an old fallen down sign saying Lynx Trail.. so at least I knew I had been on the right trail. The trail was wide and had been used by hikers and XC skiers. I met up with the Beaver Pond Loop Trail and was surprised again to see this well broken out with fat bike tracks. The trail narrowed here, so I decided to switch back to spikes. The trail looped around one side of Beaver Pond and I ended up passing 5 fat bikers (thankfully coming at me, so I was able to see them in advance and get out of the way easily enough). It was a pretty day and there was no wind, so I wasn't even all that cold. I actually layered down at the time I switched my shoes as I was getting a bit too warm. As the trail neared the campground, I could see 2 ATVs just sitting looking out over the pond. They turned out to be Fish & Game patrolling for illegal use of snowmobiles/ATVs in this section of the park. They asked if I had seen any, to which I hadn't and I continued on my way following Campground Road through the campground. Soon enough, both a snowmobile and ATV passed by me, quickly followed by the Fish & Game Officers. That was my excitement for the day. I followed the road to Spruce Pond Trail, which was a groomed snowmobile trail and followed that back to the campground to complete the Beaver Pond Loop Trail. I had seen some reports on TrailForks that there was a boardwalk over a marsh on this side of the trail and that as of last August, it was damaged. I wondered if it would be frozen enough to pass. Turns out, it had been repaired and I had no issues passing through. I passed 1 more rider, luckily not while on the boardwalk and met back up with Lynx Trail. I decided I was not feeling going back up the unbroken section, so opted for the access trail to Currier Road and followed the road back to the Podunk Rd and my car. 3 more trails checked off my redlining spreadsheet.

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