Warmup #3: Bear Brook State Park- 5/23/20
450 feet - 4.2 mi
We wanted to try something a little different this weekend, and rather than climb a mountain we resolved to do a flatter hike but focus on distance instead of elevation gain. Some of the hikes in the Whites are quite long, a few approaching 20 miles, and we wanted to try a longer hike. It turned out that the mosquitos were really bad and we cut it short, but the hike was good while it lasted.
Bear Brook State Park in Allenstown, NH is a 10,000-acre park with hiking, biking, camping, hunting, fishing, and archery options available to visitors. I've been to the park several times, mostly to fish for trout in the titular brook. We got a very early start, leaving the house by 6:30am. We entered the park from Deerfield Rd, near the campground, and parked at a lot off to the right. There were a couple other cars, but fortunately no crowds.
Starting from the parking lot, we followed the Bear Brook trail which runs along the brook itself. All the trails in the park are well maintained and this was no different. We could see some evidence of use by mountain bikers, but hadn't run into any yet. The bugs were annoying, even with the copious bug spray we applied, but the brook itself was nice to look at.
There was a structure of sorts that caught my eye as we passed part of the stream. There were large concrete pipes laid in the stream, and a trail continuing on the other side. It appeared to be either the remains of a bridge or the site of a future bridge, though the visible moss seems to indicate the former. I have my doubts that a low bridge would be built on top of the pipes, since it seems potentially very disruptive to the trout habitat, but we didn't stick around to ponder it. We snapped a picture and moved on, because the bugs were very hungry this close to the stream.
We reached a junction with a wider trail, Lane Trail, and decided at this point that we'd had enough of the bugs and wanted to cut the walk short. So we started heading back in the direction of the parking lot. The hike had been mostly flat so far, and we were suprised to find that this trail climbed slowly but steadily as we left the stream behind. According to an app on my phone, we climbed almost 150 feet before the trail crested onto a long gravelly straightaway. The bugs weren't as bad here and so my wife in particular was much happier. We also met our first fellow trailgoer since the parking lot: a toad.
Eventually Lane Trail connected with another snowmobile trail, Hayes Farm trail. Just before this connects back to Podunk Road, we broke off to follow Big Bear trail back to the parking lot. Here we ran into a pair of mountain bikers, and it was clear that this trail was catered to them. Mostly downhill, lots of switchbacks and hairpin turns, and a few small rock jumps. It was nice and smooth though, and well suited to hiking too.
After the 2 bikers passed us, we didn't run into anyone else until we got back to the parking lot, and the trail was pleasant and peaceful in sharp contrast to the parking lot, which was strangely full of cyclists. Probably 20 cars, most of them seemingly having just arrived, carrying bikes on roofs or tailgates. We simply got in our car and headed home, but I'd like to go back with my bike some time. I'm not much of a mountain biker but the trails looked very smooth and extremely fun.
All in all another good hike, if only half the distance we had hoped to hit. At any rate we won't be doing an 20-mile 4000-footers any time soon, so we'll have more time to build up to that.