Black Bear Mountain (Adirondack Park)
Distance: 5.25 miles
Elevation: 797 feet
Time: 2 hours, 18 minutes
Hiking Challenges: Fulton Chain Trifecta, ADK Jr. 29er, Operation Alaska Benchmark Challenge
The Hike
The trail for Black Bear Mountain starts at the lower end of the parking lot, paralleling the road for a short moment before dipping into the woods. The trail followed what felt like an old woods road for the first part, which was very gentle and scenic. I imagine in a wetter season this area could get very muddy, but it was mostly dry on this day. After some rolling "hills" (more like lumps), the trail divides at a fork, starting the loop of this lollipop loop hike. I took the right fork up the blue trail, which I recommend. It is easily the steeper trail, but I wouldn't want to descend this way.
The trail passes a couple clearings - either logging or old camps? Not sure. Then, it begins to climb on a wide, wet, rooty trail following blue blazes. Confusingly, there were a few instances of yellow blazes as well. Maybe it used to be all yellow blazes and they recently switched to blue? Either way, there are no junctions, so it wasn't too confusing. This hike was quickly becoming my favorite because it had more of a wilderness, rugged feel to it, unlike the previous ones which were more family-friendly tourist hikes. The trail begins to pick up steepness, even having a rope to help guide at a certain point. As the trail climbs, the tree cover begins to diminish, hinting that the summit is nearby.
After some more heart-pumping hiking, a yellow arrow points to a turn and the summit area opens up, which is beautiful. It appeared that someone had stolen the benchmark, or maybe it was a bear. This was easily my favorite view of the day - and I had the whole summit to myself! The cloud cover was breaking up, exposing the beautiful blue sky, and the vista had rolling hills, distant high peaks, and plenty of lakes. A little past the first view there is a large meadow-esc area that has my favorite view of the nearby lakes and high peaks behind them. I couldn't believe I had all this to myself after the past two hikes!
After taking far too many photos I continued the hike back into the woods, which followed a very pretty mossy section. The trail started descending rather steeply (still not as steep as the ascent), and landed in a dark, moist area that was equal parts beautiful and spooky. It started as a narrow footpath and slowly opened up to a wider woods road, crossing a brook a few times. This part did feel a bit long, but when the previous two hikes were both shorter than two miles, it made sense that this felt longer. Once I reached the original fork with the blue trail things moved along more quickly and I was soon back at the car, but shockingly enough - there was no one else in the parking lot! I felt like I had missed a memo? I had the thought of heading back up Rocky now that I would be alone, but the thought of a shower compelled me. My first day in the ADK definitely had a rocky start with my crankiness, but a great ending!
Step-By-Step
- Start hike on the downhill side of the Rocky Mountain Trailhead parking (Google Maps).
- Follow path to "Black Bear Mtn" sign, turn left at sign to travel away from road.
- Follow yellow-blazed trail towards southerly approach.
- At fork, turn right onto the primarily blue-blazed trail (but sometimes yellow) to summit.
- At summit, continue on yellow-blazed trail down mountain.
- At junction, turn left and follow arrow toward Rt. 28 Parking Area/Black Bear Mtn. Trailhead.
- At fork, continue straight and complete the loop.
- Hike back to parking area.
