Hike #1077; Falls Village to Bear Mountain

Hike #1077; Falls Village to Bear Mountain

10/1/17 Falls Village to Bear Mountain CT with Edward DiSalvo, Terri Allen, Jennifer Berndt, Paul Ferlazzo, and Dave Kliphon

Our next hike would be my first after coming back from vacation, and a hell of a long drive, but worth it.
I’d been working on the northbound Appalachian Trail from New York into Connecticut, and this would be the final stretch in Connecticut that I’d never done, from Falls Village to the Massachusetts border. I’d physically connected everything else I’d hiked to West Virginia only a few days before, and now it’d be another. The eight connective state I’d done.

Great Falls of the Housatonic

We met near the Massachusetts State Line, at the most popular trail head parking area in all of Connecticut, the Undermountain lot, on Undermountain Road.
Lowell Perkins was supposed to join us, because he had just moved to Mass, but his car gave him trouble along the way and had to be towed.
We shuttled to the start point, Falls Village, and started walking the northbound Appalachian Trail.
The trail follows the road up to cross the Housatonic River down below the Great Falls. The bridge was a new one from 2016, that replaced the older historic bridge, sadly. The trail went into the woods to the right on the other side.

The Housatonic from the Great Falls

We had already done this bit before, on the previous hike. The trail took us through some stone ruins for a little bit. Some of this was part of “Amesville”, where the Ames Ironworks were. Just north of where the Appalachian Trail turns away from the Housatonic River, the ironworks stood on the shore of the river. In the later years, it was converted to shops for the Housatonic Railroad, as well as a bridge from the main line on the other side. When the current dam was built at the top of the Great Falls, it inundated some of the former ironworks site, so mostly you cannot even see foundations over there.

Ames Iron Works and later railroad shops

I went down to the edge of the water and took some photos of the falls, which were not running as strong as the previous time, then we continued on ahead to the top. We took in one more view, and had a look around. I found a small natural cave below the rocks I had not seen previously.
Once we were done there, we continued ahead on new ground. The trail crossed over Housatonic River Road at Amesville and began to gradually climb.

First Prospect Mountain view

The first climb was Prospect Mountain. It wasn’t too bad. I started out as sweep, but worked my way easily from the back of the group to the front. The trail passed through a couple of sections of mowed fields on it’s way up hill, and through stone rows and rocky outcroppings. I felt like I was light as a feather with the free back, after so many days of backpacking.

Rand's View

I waited up for everyone at the first overlook. We had an overall very fast group. Terri considers herself to be a slow hiker, but she really isn’t. She’s steady, and she just keeps going. When we all stop for a bit, she heads out first and gets a bit ahead.
After everyone caught up, I powered ahead and down hill a bit until I reached Rand’s View, which according to the AT guide book to Massachusetts and Connecticut is among the best on the entire Appalachian Trail.

Rand's View

It was quite beautiful, but I don’t know that I’d give it the distinction of being among the most beautiful views on the entire AT. That’s quite a claim.
I waited again here until everyone else caught up. From there, we headed back into more woods, through an area strewn with rocks. This was a sort of saddle between two peaks of Prospect Mountain. We continued on from here through the saddle and then up to the next point of interest, a rock outcropping known as the Giant’s Thumb.
There are old legends that claim that this had something to do with vikings or something.

Giant's Thumb

There was already a group of people there when I arrived. They told me it was “climbable”, and I said I was alright, I didn’t need to do that.
When they and another group that were milling about left, I decided to climb up on the thing after all. It really had great hand holds.
After I’d done it, Paul also climbed up on it after me.
We made our way from here to the north a bit more, over the next peak of Prospect Mountain. While heading down the other side a bit, we came to the next overlook, a somewhat obscured one to the north I think it was called Billy’s View.

Billy's View

Both Billy’s View and Rand’s View take their names from old farming families of the area.
It was still a nice little spot, and I managed to get a couple of good photos.
Every time we headed back out, I powered ahead very fast. I had a blast of energy and couldn’t go slow.
This entire hike was among the easier ones we’d done in Connecticut, which was the exact opposite of what I had been led to believe of the state. When I’d read into this, it was saying this last section from Falls Village to the Mass line would be the toughest in CT, but it ended up being nowhere near it.

Old road section

The trail descended for a bit, then headed through rather gentle terrain as it picked up a very old woods road, probably some sort of colonial road. The guide book mentioned something about the trail following one of these old roads along the way, but I’m not sure it was all the same one. Sections of foot path interspersed between sections were sometimes the same to avoid washouts, some times might have been different.
Even when I stopped for a couple of minutes to chat with a hiker going the other way, the others didn’t catch up. I decided to take a break at the very steep descent to the north.

Steep descent

There were a ton of other hikers out on this trip. I never went more than five or ten minutes without passing other hikers going the other direction, sometimes backpackers, sometimes day trippers.
I leaned up against a bit rock and waited for the others, and they were all relatively close together. Once we were all there, we descended a bit more from the mountain. It was a very steep section of the mountain, with huge drop offs along the way. The trail had a gentle enough grade, but these Connecticut rocks tend to be quite slippery at times.

AT on Prospect

At one point, the trail even employed the use of a wooden ladder like we have seen at Mohonk Mountain House or on the Long Path in the Catskills.
There was a chill in the air, but it wasn’t terribly hot. When we got to an open spot where the sun was beating down, we decided to break for lunch. I was going to wait for fields below, but we didn’t know what kind of shape they would be in for that use. We finished and continued to the bottom.
The trail reached some open fields, and skirted the side for a bit before emerging on Canaan Road. The trail then followed the road over Moore Brook.

Moore Brook and rail bridge site

Once across, it turned to the right on Cobble Road.
The trail continued on Cobble Road before cutting into the woods, and the guide said the trail would cross over the abandoned right of way of the Central New England Railroad in that section.
I watched closely for the remnants of a rail grade in those woods, but nothing was apparent when we went through. There was plenty of interesting stuff; a cemetery with ironically placed grave names of “Burn” and “Flood” with similar stones next to each other, a grassy field section, and some nice level woods near a church center. No rail bed though.

Former rail crossing

I didn’t know until researching it at home that the intersection of Cobble Road and Canaan Road was actually the railroad crossing! The tracks went right over the intersection, and into the village of Salisbury, it is now a rail trail. I’d have been tempted to follow it if I’d known.
There was a sign at the corner telling hikers to follow the “beautiful ramble” to town for supplies. I had thought they were referring to a crummy road walk, but it turns out the Ramble Rail Trail follows the old rail grade from just past the intersection to the middle of town. I’ll have to do a future trip there (One would work out well from this point through Salisbury, then over the NY side to the Harlem Valley Rail Trail’s southern terminus).

Nice steps

As far as road walks go, this was a surprisingly busy road for the AT. On Cobble Road, a car coming around the corner almost ran us down.
We continued through field and woods, and then came out to Under Mountain Road, where there was parking. There was also a terribly non-private privy, with someone’s house really close by. This section of the AT was secluded enough for a while, but some sections of it were more close to people’s homes than any sections I know of in New Jersey, and NJ gets the bad rap.
Everyone was waiting up, but my burst of energy was still high, so I powered ahead.
I passed a sign denoting fifteen hundred miles from Springer Mountain, Georgia.
The trail followed switch backs of an old road up hill for a while. I was going so fast that I missed one of the turn offs and followed the road a long ways out of the way once. I had to backtrack, but still no one caught up with me.

View from Lion's Head

The trail went up a good section with some nice step work as I continued on. This was a really long stretch. I passed other hikers, but not as many. The section is an expanse, but still has other accesses. I came upon the most people of the day when I got to Lion’s Head.

View from Lion's Head

Lion’s Head is the southernmost point on the Taconic Mountains, which are volcanic formations that were pushed like shingles to this area of western Connecticut and Massachusetts. A lot of what’s in it is Schist, which has the sparkling little pieces of mica in it.
There is a bypass trail that goes around the top of Lion’s Head, which was where I started seeing tons of people. A lot were already sitting around at the top. I made my way up, and stayed off the main view point until there were a few less people. I chatted with a few about what the geology of the area was, among other things.

North view on Lion's Head

The others eventually did catch up, and I got my group shot here because it was the best view of the day. I had a sneaking suspicion that it would be the greatest of the day, but wasn’t sure.
We didn’t take too long a break before heading onward to the north. We were doing pretty good on time so far.
The trail passed another view point where we could see Bear Mountain ahead, and on to Mount Greylock in Mass.
Bear Mountain is the highest mountain entirely within Connecticut and was long considered to be CT’s highest point. It was later realized that CT’s highest point is actually the south slope of Mt. Frissell on the CT/MA border.

View on the way up Bear Mountain

The trail took us down hill gradually, and then into another saddle of land before the climb up Bear Mountain.
The section was very gentle with barely any up hill. We crossed over two brooks, Ball Brook and Brassi Brook. Each had special camp sites for through hikers along them. Apart from that, the miles just melted away in this wilderness expanse. We passed several other hikers, but it started to pick up again when we got to Riga Junction, where the Undermountain Trail connects with the AT. That trail leads down to where we parked in the morning. If anyone wanted a shortcut to the end, it was here.

View north from Bear Mountain

I powered ahead again after the last intersection. The ascent was not what I thought it would be.
Everyone said how terribly tough this would be, but it was really very easy, just long.
I can say, however, that if this was rainy or snowy conditions, it would have been incredibly slippery, and it would have in fact been a tough climb.
The undergrowth changed over to scrubbier stuff; it reminded me of Minnewaska on the Shawangunk Ridge in NY, only the rock surfaces differed.
There was soon a view to the south of me, out to the valleys in about one hundred eighty degrees. I continued to climb, and met up with another guy in some simple sandal shoes going the same way as me. He was fast, so I chatted with him as we reached the top.

Bear Mountain view

When I reached the top, there were a lot of people standing around. There was a pretty blonde girl near the back of the tower talking to people about her through hike she was on. She had been injured but decided to take on the AT south of the White Mountains anyway and just see how she does. I heard some of the story, which was interesting.
Her trail name was “Amazing Grace” because she keeps falling on her face and such, and always gets back up and goes. She was clearly enjoying the attention of everyone asking about her trip.
She told us that Race Mountain I think it was, was her favorite for views in the Mass section to the north, which she had just done. She was born in England I think, raised in France, and then lived in NY City where she just lost her job, and had a year’s worth of funds to hike.

Historic postcard image of the Bear Mountain tower

Our place of seating was the remains of the Bear Mountain Tower, a Pyramidal stone structure constructed on the peak in 1885, erroneously denoting the state’s highest point.

Bear Mountain Tower today

The summit of Bear Mountain is 2,323 feet above sea level. It falls just short of being the highest point, which is the aforementioned Mt. Frissel slope at 2,379.

Erroneous plaque

The story of the tower starts with a man named Robbins Battell of Norfolk, Connecticut, who was convinced that an Encyclopedia Brittanica claim that there were no points over one thousand feet in Connecticut was false.
Battell had the Litchfield Hills including this area surfeyed, and when Bear Mountain was found to be the highest, took out a long term lease on the land. He contracted with stone mason Owen Travis to construct a marker that could be seen from miles around. Over the next three years, despite lack of funds, Travis brought 350 tons of stone to the summit and built the tower.

Historic postcard image of the tower

The pyramid was built in the same style as the old Connecticut stone walls, with no mortar. It stood 22 feet tall, and was twenty feet square around the bottom. On top stood a lighning rock, which reached another seventeen feet up.
As time went by, the tower began to collapse. Because there is no roadway access to the site, restoration of the tower was slow. However, in 1972, the tower was repaired with funding from a private donor, and it was capped with concrete.
Not long after, it needed further restoration work, which was performed by boy scouts. Unfortunately, this too did not last, and the east side of the tower collapsed in 1978.
The plaque, which had been in the east face with it’s incorrect claim of height and stature, fell into the rubble.
In the early 80s, it was decided not to rebuild the tower again, and rather stabilize it’s remains and rebuild the place into that lower level, which is what we see there today.

Top of Bear

Everyone else soon showed up at the top, and all of the previous hikers wandered off to their next destinations. The group sat on the tower remnant, and it was getting a bit chillier.
We could see Twin Lakes out to the east, and well into Mass.
We eventually headed on our way, and said goodbye to Amazing Grace. We continued north and very soon started descending incredibly steeply over rocks that would be horrible in wet weather. This was the steepest stuff on this trip.
The trail went so steeply that we had to from time to time use hand holds to get down.

Steep descent

I suppose this was what people were talking about when they said the Bear Moutnain climb was bad.
We continued to where the trail went for a more gradual down hill, and I watched my phone GPS carefully for where the state line should be. I think my phone died before I could really get it.
Still, it was within a very short distance. The Paradise Lane Trail, which was our next turn to return to the cars, was already over the state boundary just barely.
Most places on the AT are very prominently marked when they reach state lines. It seemd that this one would of course be.

Massachussetts

We reached the intersection with Paradise Lane Trail, where the AT continues into Sage’s Ravine, and there was no state line marker.
I felt gipped. Nothing at all?
I turned around from the Sage’s Ravine sign and walked the trail to see if I could find some sort of signage we might have missed before, but there was nothing.
On my way back down hill, I scanned the woods and did spot a border monument off the trail to the left, with some yellow spray paint. It was really disappointing not to have some grandiose signage welcoming us to Massachusetts. I later found out on online forums that there is a sign, but it’s down in Sage’s Ravine, well beyond the boundary. The reason for this is because a different club maintains that section, and they wanted the sign at the start of their section, not above it on the actual state line.
We left the AT and turned right on the Paradise Lane Trail. It was a bit further than I’d anticipated getting back. Fortunately, this trail wasn’t too too.
I’d read that this rail was put in early on by the CCC or something, so I was expecting it to be a nice woods road. Such was not the case. It was still a rocky foot path. We all stayed together moving quick for a while, then it was Paul, Dave, Jen, and I powering through. Jen fell back slightly, and the other three of us moved super speed to Undermountain Trail.
We couldn’t believe how quickly we’d done this, so we stopped and took a break. Jen wasn’t too far behind, and then the others were only a little behind her.
There were still people hiking up the mountain even though it was getting ready to get dark.
When we were all together, we started heading down hill.

End of the line

The trail followed a very old woods road for the most part, which once went over the lower land below Bear Mountain’s south side. The trail deviated from it from time to time, but for the most part remained on it. At one point, there was a stream flowing in it to the left.
When we neared the bottom, it was obviously more a foot path. It took us directly down to the kiosk at our popular parking area. Only a couple of cars were left by the time we reached the lot, but we were finished with some time to spare before dark.
I felt accomplished for this one, like I got a good workout, but also somewhat melancholy. By finishing the trail in Connecticut, this was kind of a place to draw the line for the day hikes. We are looking at over three hours driving one way to continue this series into Massachusetts. Maybe on occasion I will go up for it, but it’s just too much to keep doing. So, this would likely be my last northbound AT trip for a while.
There is still so much else to see. I would love to keep branching out in all directions, but it will keep getting harder. I can only hope there will continue to be these intrepid people who want to continue with me.