View Full Version : Appalachian Trail to be rebuilt on Bear Mountain
http://www.thejournalnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20051022/NEWS03/510220301/1025/NEWS09
When I thru-hiked, I was disappointed by the Bear Mountain section of trail. I found the trail here to be over used and under maintained. I'm glad that this section of trail is going to get some much needed work.
General Fireball
10-23-2005, 10:28
It was always such a shame that the oldest part of the AT was also nearly the worst--in many areas just a badly-eroded rock scramble, easy to lose the trail, and not pleasant to hike. The reason is that even though they call this the first section of AT to be built, it never really was "built"--it was just a route that was blazed and clipped. And the gradient of the route was such that it was pretty much guaranteed to wash out and erode over time. There are areas where the geology makes steep trail climbs practical; in other areas, a steep trail just means an injured landscape, like at Bear Mountain.
Uncle Silly
10-23-2005, 18:40
I dunno, I didn't mind it at all. Of course I hiked (ran) it fast enough that I didn't pay much attention to little details like how well (or not) it was maintained. I did notice it was difficult to follow in places -- as a NOBO, both going up to the Bear Mtn summit and back down from it.
In fact, one member of the group got so badly lost trying to follow the trail up the mountain that a local ranger mistook him for a SOBO hiker. According to that story, one of the major things needed is to go through and remove old, misleading whiteblazes.