I was on a time constraint today, it was raining and I'm not available tomorrow. Bear Mountain Trail seemed to fit the bill. Even if it did take almost as long to get there as I was out on the trail. I wasn't sure what to expect, there's not a lot out there on this trail besides the description on the Newfound Audobon website. I knew it was about a mile long and had some elevation gain to it. I had expected it to be somewhat rustic, perhaps a bit hard to follow. It was the exact opposite. Really well maintained and blazed and overall quite pleasant. Parking is about 3 tenths from the trailhead, around the corner on Cross Road. There is a sign for Hebron Marsh and Bear Mountain Trail parking. I pulled in, it's basically a field, and someone was out with a metal detector! It had rained the entire drive up but magically stopped as I started out. The trailhead is right on West Shore Road, marked with a sign and blaze and immediately heads uphill. The trail meanders up and around through Newfound Audobon property, crossing a brook that leads to Newfound Lake, 3 times. I had thought it might be a tough crossing with all the recent rain, but it was actually very small, with the third crossing barely having a trickle. There was a lot of small debris from the most recent storms, and I spent a lot of time on my ascent moving as much off trail as I could. A few large blowdowns crossed the path as well, with a couple being stepovers and 2 being skooch arounds, but nothing impossible or even difficult. A few short, steep pitches kept the heart rate up, but there is nothing technical about this trail. At about 1 mile from the road, a lollipop intersection is marked with a yellow blaze on a tree and 2 yellow blazes on each side. I opted to go left as the trail description on the website described, which was a short steep climb up to the height of land. The map references a lookout and I saw an area that probably was said lookout over Newfound Lake, however the trees have grown up pretty much obstructing that view. I had a peekaboo view today with the leaves still being down. The loop follows the property boundary line. I heard voices and thought someone was coming up the other direction, but no one did, and then I saw a neighboring road through the trees, so I must have heard someone on the road. Completing the loop back to the intersection was muddy and messy. A completely different experience from the rest of the trail. This section was only about 0.3 miles. Back at the intersection and I retraced my steps back to the car. The minute I got back in the car, it started raining again!
Strava Activity
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| parking on Cross Road |
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| trail head on West Shore Road |
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| zoomed out to see from street view |
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| intersection for the lollipop |
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| peekaboo view from the "lookout" |
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