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Ski
Hiking Trail Conditions Report
Peaks
Peaks Bear Mountain, NH
Trails
Trails: Bear Mountain Trail, Elwell Trail, road walk
Date of Hike
Date of Hike: Sunday, July 12, 2015
Parking/Access Road Notes
Parking/Access Road Notes: Room for a couple of cars at small pull-out area on the old Hebron-Alexandria Turnpike (Class VI extension of Bear Mountain Road), 30 feet south of Bear Mountain Trail trailhead and one mile after turning on to Bear Mountain Road off of West Shore Road. Note that while logging appears to have wrapped up near the trailhead, it is active about 0.5 miles north of it, and may cause some issues with driving on the road on weekdays. In that case, there is parking 0.7 miles north of the trailhead, in a small clear area on Bear Mountain Road right where Panorama Lane turns off of it. (Just do not block the gate to the tennis courts.) 
Surface Conditions
Surface Conditions: Dry Trail 
Recommended Equipment
Recommended Equipment:  
Water Crossing Notes
Water Crossing Notes: Not an issue. 
Trail Maintenance Notes
Trail Maintenance Notes: Bear Mountain Trail is in good shape. Elwell Trail past Bear Mountain view ledges (northwest of intersection with Bear Mountain Trail) and prior to summit could use a bit of brushing. Elwell Trail southeast of Bear Mountain Trail has a couple of small, handsaw-able duck-under blowdowns. 
Dog-Related Notes
Dog-Related Notes:  
Bugs
Bugs: A couple of deer flies and some occasional nuisance eye-flies. 
Lost and Found
Lost and Found:  
 
Comments
Comments: A couple of winters ago, logging began on the western side of the old Hebron-Alexandria Turnpike (extension of Bear Mountain Road, in Hebron), near where the Elwell Trail crosses that road. Since that time, it's moved northward on the road, subsuming a bit of the Elwell Trail and also the Bear Mountain Trail within about 0.1 miles of the old turnpike, resulting in temporary closure of the latter until recently.

A local trail maintainer has done a fine job in the past several months of re-opening the affected sections, in some cases relocating them a bit to take them out of perennially wet/boggy areas. The clean-up of the slash/timber once blocking the trail is impressive. New blazing helps, as well.

In some areas, the logging has been pretty extensive, but has not affected the two trails too terribly much -- most of their respective original corridors are intact. After a short distance from the road, the trails are not impacted at all as they enter steep, wooded sections.

The irony is that the logging operation has improved access to the Bear Mountain Trail trailhead -- the turnpike, up until a year or so ago, was deeply rutted, with a number of fair-sized boulders cropping up, such that only high-clearance driving (or very careful passenger car driving) could get one to the trailhead. The road now above/south of the current active logging area has been regraded and is much improved. North, closer to Bear Mountain Road/West Shore Road, it's still a bit rutted, but overall the trailhead is more easily reached with a regular vehicle than before.

We parked a car near the trailhead, climbed up the Bear Mountain Trail, and tagged the summit, about 0.4 miles past the first view ledges on the Elwell Trail. After that, we went down the Elwell Trail to the old turnpike, and did a short road walk back to the car.

The only issues with these trails is that their limited use results in quite a few slippery dry leaves on some of the steep/scrambly sections, so some care is needed here.

It's nice to see the Bear Mountain Trail (cut by Camp Mowglis in 1942), back in business.  
Name
Name: Pancks and Tesco Heaney 
E-Mail
E-Mail:  
Date Submitted
Date Submitted: 2015-07-13 
Link
Link: https:// 
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