You Are Here: Bear Brook - Squirrel, Moose, Bear Hill

I thought I was going to be done with Bear Brook State Park after this hike.. turns out there are 3 small trails right on the edge of the park that I missed, so I'm > < close to being done. I was on a time crunch again today and weather was forecast to be sweaty again.. so back to Bear Brook. Theme of the Winter/Spring! I still can't get over how different it all looks from season to season! Definitely makes it a little less monotonous for sure. I parked in the Hiker/Biker lot on Podunk Road. Today I started on Squirrel Trail which begins right at the gate. Built for the bikes, it twists and turns and is super smooth for most of the way. I actually like trails like that from time to time, it gives you the chance to look up and around a little more without being as worried about tripping on rocks and roots. By looking up, I saw a most unusual artifact off trail. I'm still not even sure what it was, best I can describe is a rocket ship. I'll have to see if I can find any information about it at some point. Once I met up with Salt Lick Trail, I took another built for bikes trail called Moose Trail, which also twisted and turned and made its way down to Bobcat Trail. From here I picked up Podunk Road and walked around to Bear Hill Trail. It started to get buggy from here. The park is open now as well, so road walking takes a little extra care. Bear Hill Trail was relocated last year due to the fragile ecologic environment on the summit (I think they're referring to the super large ant hills!) so now the trail follows the side of the hill and weaves its way down to Ferret Trail. You can see Podunk Road off and on and there is a cutoff down to the road at one point near the relocated section. Bear Hill Trail was damp and buggy today. At the Ferret Trail intersection, take a left onto Ferret and just a few yards down, Bear Hill Trail continues off to the right through an open field and back into the woods continuing down to the road leading to Bear Hill cabins. Turning left on this road and continuing a few hundred feet, the trail again continues a short distance to Hall Mountain Marsh Trail. Both of these are unmarked, but clearly visible. I followed Hall Mountain Marsh Trail back out to Podunk Road and walked Podunk back to Ferret Trail. Retracing my steps (but in reverse) I took Ferret, made a quick stop at the Bear Hill Pond spur to check out the pond again, and continued back to Hedgehog Ledge Trail where I had been a few weeks ago. Again, with the change in season, it looked totally different as all the green had filled in and the boulder section wasn't quite as impressive. Beyond the boulders it got quite wet and muddy, but you could skooch around the sides without getting too mucky. This time when I reached the Hedgehog Trail connector, I stayed on the Ledge trail, which climbed up and back up to Bear Hill Trail. Near the start of Bear Hill Trail there was some pink flagging which marked the connector over to Hedgehog Trail. Crossing Hedgehog Trail, the trail weaves around and back for a short while meeting back up with Podunk Road. Most of the trails I was on today were designed for mountain bikes, so pretty easy going and cruisy. I took Podunk Road all the way back to my car.

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