You Are Here: Bear Brook State Park

I had plans to hike somewhere different this weekend but Mother Nature had other ideas. It was forecast to rain starting around lunch time, so I decided to stick closer to home where I knew I could get decent mileage in a shorter amount of time. Back to Bear Brook for my 3rd to last planned hike there. I parked back on Podunk Road, on the Candia side and headed back up just like last week. I continued past Broken Boulder where I was last week and reached Hall Mountain Marsh Trail. The sign says Hall Mountain Trail, but the map says Hall Mountain Marsh Trail, so we'll go with the map. I needed to finish the 0.4 miles or so on this trail, having done the rest a few weeks ago when I went over Hall Mountain itself. This was designed primarily as a mountain bike trail I think, so it's flowy and mostly smooth. At the intersection with the spur over to the Bear Hill cabins, I jumped on that and picked up Ferret Trail. This is a big loop and was wet, muddy and mostly forgettable. It's a snowmobile trail and is wide the entire way and easy to follow. As I approached the bottom of the loop I encountered a former logging area with a clear cut view over to Hall Mountain, which was a nice change of scenery. The bottom section was definitely the wettest and muddiest and took some careful skooching in some places to avoid getting wet. It started to sprinkle while I was on this section, I thought the rains might have been arriving early so got my wet weather gear out, alas it was just a tease.. though I kept my gear on just in case. Once at the bottom, I headed back up the other side of the loop where I had been a couple weeks ago. It became more of a pine bed terrain, which I much prefer than rocky gravel and as the trail neared Bear Hill Pond it became much more pleasant. I saw a spur path with an old fallen down sign that said Bear Hill Pond, so I decided to investigate and this was worth the short detour. The trail is only a few hundred yards and leads to a rocky outcrop at the edge of the pond which on a nice day would be a wonderful spot to set up and enjoy a picnic or snack and sit and enjoy the view of the pond. Even though it was overcast and a rather miserable day, I really enjoyed stopping and just zoning out for a bit. I could see the Bear Hill cabins on the far side, I hadn't realized there were cabins you could rent here at all. I continued on and reached the end at Podunk Road. Taking a right here, I followed the road around and into the area where the cabins are before picking up Hall Mountain Marsh Trail again. I was going to follow Podunk Road all the way back to the car but opted to take the trail, since I had enjoyed it so much a few weeks ago. It looked completely different without the snow/ice but was just as lovely. I ended up hiking just over 8.5 miles and didn't see a single soul until the last few hundred yards when I encountered a local resident out walking. Back at the car and the heavens opened opened just a few minutes after I was packed up and safely inside.

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