Bear Brook Ride

Location: Bear Brook Park, Allentown, NH
Date: 8/11/07
Distance: 15 miles
Time: 2:30 moving, ~4h total
Trails like: The bastard child of The Fells and Kingdom Trails

I felt the need to get in some MTB action this weekend, so, with all of my MTB friends out of town, I decided to trek up to SoHamp and hit up Bear Brook State Park. I've been wanting to go there for a while since it offers 20+ miles of trails. Not riding the same loop over and over = less loss of will to live. I searched the web for what trails were good to ride, and from Northeast Cylcing I obtained the following map.

I arrived at Bear Brook around 11:30, the trip from Boston taking about 90 min. It cost $3 to get into the park, and with permit obtained, I drove over to the Podunk road parking lot. I got my bike set up, and started looking for the trails. This project took a while as the trail marking system was...sporatic. Give me three weekends, a troop of boy scouts, and a couple of GPS units and I could make a map and trail markings to be proud of.

I finally found the Pitch Pine trail, and road it for maybe half a mile. Not bad...narrow, rolling, a little rocky and generally fun. Unfortunately, the trail entered the archery practice area, and so I bailed to the road, lest I be mistaken for a deer or, even worst, a masshole. I quickly got on the broken boulder trail, which turned out to be pretty flat, wide singletrack. I road the trail into the woods and eventually crossed a stone road which turned out to be Podunk road. I then go onto a sweeeet no name trail that had smooth twisty singletrack. I relished this for a while, and then got dropped back on on Podunk near the 4H camp. My location acertained, I ate some lunch, drank some dew, and got ready for more.

My next excursion put me on the hedgehog ledge trail...fun for a while, and with a beautiful little pond. The trail then became a series of unrideable stone staircases and so I got in some requisit hike-a-bike. I ended up in Hayes field and went back in for the Carr ridge trail. Again, fantastic single track at the beginning, nasty descents at the end.

The Carr Ridge trail ended in the Cascade trail, easily the most memorable of the day. On one side, steep uphill slope. One the other, a precipitous drop into a stream. In the middle, a 1.5 foot wide trail that liked to twist and climb, and try to throw unwarry bikers into the water: an oreo cookie of doom. It did not succeed in throwing me, but came damn close. I rode it to the end with several falls and a few scrapes and bruises. I definitely want a rematch.

At the end of the cascade trail I was bonking, so I sat down, drank half a dew, and had a handful of starburst jelly beans. I decided to take a short cut down to the lane trail, as the next section was supposed to have many unrideable sections. The lane trail turned out to be a dirt road, but with no small amount of climbing. Also, at the bottom of a little downhill, a stone arrow directed me into the woods. Intrigued, I bypassed the arrow and found myself at the edge of a four foot deep ravine that dropped into a stream. The road had been washed away, probably in last years floods. With enough speed one could probably jump it, but, with 2 inches of suspension, my bike almost certainly would have buckled.

The lane trail eventually dropped me off back at Hayes field for my final two laps. Both involved riding uphill on Podunk road for a while, and then downhill on singletrack. What a fantastic idea!! The Chipmunk/Bobcat/Salt lick trail was fun, but not very technical but, oh man, the Little Bear Trail rocked. Twisty, smooth downhill with a few jumps. It made for a great end to the day. To be sure, it wasn't sidewinder, but it was way more fun than anything in the Fells. Little Bear dropped me off in the parking lot, and so I racked my bike and drove back to Boston.

All in all, I really liked Bear Brook Park. There were more trails that I didn't ride that warrant exploration, so a second trip is probably in order. It might also be a fun place to take new mountain bikers as the technical sections are short and not sustained. Either way, its just another reason why Boston is a great city for outdoor enthusiasts.