Bear Mt. quest for the B-Line

[Lovetohike]

Well, thanks to some good directions from Stormin Norman, I finally found the B-line trail this past Sunday (5/7), and at the same time certainly got the most out of this basically pretty moderate mountain. It was definitely a perfect, cool, dry unusually clear day for this time of year in the Taconics. I started out scooting up the Undermountain Trail to the AT and Bear Mt. summit and this time made no attempt to find the B-line from the summit, just headed right down the north side along the AT and made the left turn over towards the AMC cabin. Once almost at the cabin, I crossed a log bridge over a small stream and made an immediate left up the hill. I did spot a very faint blue blaze on a tree or two along the way, but no discernable trail. After going a couple hundred yards I did intersect with a faint track the led to the right to near the outhouse for the cabin, and to the left straight towards Bear, which was pretty visible through the unleafed out trees. There were a couple yellow blazes in this area. After another couple hundred yards the trail entered pretty thick laurel shrubs and was very obvious.

It wasn't quite a B-line as it zigged and zagged a bit over some steep ledges and finally ended up at the summit! Near the summit there were some very faint reddish blazes on some of the rocks. I was so happy to find the trail that I then decided to go back down, being very careful to note it's path through the many herd paths around the summit. Going down this trail was the highlight of my day. The views to the west of Frissell, Round, Brace and Alander were spectacular, and there was very little visible civilization. Mt. Washington Road is not really evident nor are there many houses at least in the valley unfolding in front of you. Once down, I scouted around a bit to make sure I could repeat this, then headed back along the unmarked trail over to the AT, took a right and headed up the steep north side of Bear for one last touch of the summit for the day.

At this point the crowds were building, so I didn't linger on the summit but dropped south along the AT for 1/4 mile to a favorite quiet spot on some slabs where I could pause and had a still very nice view to the west.

So, this was Bear Mountain x3 for me that day, with the added treat of finding a trail I'd been looking for off and on for several years. Of course now what was obscure seems pretty obvious. But it is a bit tricky from the summit if you don't know what you're looking for.

Trees aren't really leafed out much at all at the higher elevations, so the visibility is excellent--it's amazing how much more of the land you can see in this area when the leaves aren't out, pretty much everywhere except a few open summits, ledges and the ridge on Race.

If anyone is interested in even more specific directions about how to find the B-line trail, you can PM me and I'll give you them while it's still fresh in my mind.

Another great day in the CT mountains.

 

[percious]

I'm interested, having tried to find this elusive trail on a couple of occations. I think it would be great if you posted up about it, as it would make for good general knowledge.

Thanks!
-percious

 

[Jay H]

I think Fred and I saw a couple of blazes when we bushwacked from the summit of Bear to the AMC cabin and the outhouse. At least Fred kind of pointed out that he saw a blaze and we were following a slight trail for a short bit...

Chip mentioned the B-line though when we were at the summit but it was fast enough for fred and I to simply follow our noses so we made no attempt at following any path...

Why was this trail "abandonded" in the first place?

Jay

 

[Lovetohike]

O.K. Here goes my attempt at detailed directions.
#1 Don't try to find this from the top of Bear, there are too many paths that go nowhere and the actual right one is not the most obvious at first.

So, first find it from the AMC Northwest Cabin vicinity, then you will know how to get to it from the top.

Two options:

1. From the Cabin itself. Head up toward the outhouse. Once you get there about 20 feet to your right you will see a faint path heading way from the outhouse towards Bear. You may notice a couple yellow blazes on some trees, but the path itself is pretty obvious. Pretty soon you will notice a major blowdown over the trail, with some recently cut off branches. Go under this and keep heading straight towards the mountain. There are a few more yellow blazes here. After a very short while as the laurel and other underbrush gets thick there is a very obvious path through this, heading up the mountain.

2. Coming down the north side of Bear on the AT, from the unmarked trail that heads left off the AT a little ways before Paradise lane comes in on the right. This is the trail to the AMC cabin. From this approach, don't actually go all the way to the cabin. A short way before you reach the cabin you will cross a stream/drainage on three big half logs. As soon as you cross take a left up the slope, with the drainage on your left. If you look carefully you will see a faint blue blaze on a tree in front of you. Don't try too hard to find blazes, just keep heading up with the drainage close to your left. After about 150 yards, the drainage will flatten out. Now look carefully to your left and you will see a large blowdown with some freshly cut branches. You may notice a faint track here. You have to go left on this, go under the blowdown, cross what's left of the drainage (just a few rocks, unlikely to be much or any water in this) and head straight towards the mountain. (if you were to go right on this faint track, you'd quickly see the outhouse for the AMC cabin). There are definitely a few yellow blazes on some of the trees around this area marking the trail. Follow the track into the thicker brush and the path becomes very obvious as in #1 above.

Now, as you go up the mountain, you will climb several steep ledges and the trail zig zags a bit. But in between the rocky portions the track is always very obvious through the brush. You never have to do any significant bushwacking, the trail is pretty clear, at least at this early point in the season. Once you get near the summit, there are some very faint red blazes on some of the rocks. But you just head basically straight towards the top at this point, and the path is still pretty obvious. Once you get in sight of the summit rockpile, you will see it gets slightly obscure again, but coming in this direction you just head to the top. This is where you have to note exactly how you are coming so you can find this coming from the top. I actually went back and forth a few times from the top to get this down.

That's it!! Love to hear if this helps others find this trail!

I don't know why it was abandonned. It's a beautiful trail, particularly heading down from the top on a pretty open slope with great views of the western Taconics. And, it's certainly a more direct way to access Round, Frissell, Brace, etc. from Bear.

 

[percious]

Excellent description. Perhaps someone would make some cairns to mark the bee line trail? Last time I did bear I just whacked it on over to Frissel.

-percious

 

[Mark Schaefer]

Thanks for the directions. I will need try this out on my next hike up Bear.

Why was this trail "abandonded" in the first place?

On the 2002 South Taconic Range map (published by the Berkshire Natural Resources Council, the trail is shown, but on private land. Does anybody know if there are private land issue with this trail?

The same map also shows the Bear Mountain Road trail on private land. By all accounts that is still open to hiking, so perhaps the old Bee Line route has no issues.

There are several other former trails in the area that are on properties owned by the Mt. Riga Corp. As I recall the trails to Bald Peak on their property are now clearly marked "No trespassing". From this report and several others in the archives it doesn't sound like there are any such signs on the Bee Line route.