Fairfield County and Beyond on the Cheap: Bear Mountain

Hiked Bear Mountain in Salisbury, CT this weekend. Its a fairly easy hike with a bit of a scramble at the top but nothing too difficult- though a climb is a climb and all climbs are tough for me. As Bear Mountain is on the Appalachian Trail (AT) we had lunch at the summit with a bunch of Appalachian Trail hikers. It was a lot of fun talking about their experiences on the trail and when they expect to finish. This is the time when a lot of AT hikers are in CT, so its fun to meet with some of them and talk for a while.

Bear Mountain in Salisbury, CT is about a 60 minute to 90 minute drive from most parts of Fairfield County. Salisbury is a very small town but very cute and we stopped after our hike for an ice tea in town at a local bakery. The pies did smell delicious but we didn't try any. It was a great and inexpensive day out, only paying for gas, our bagged lunches and of course the ice teas. Salisbury is also very close to Kent and its always fun to stop off in Kent for an ice cream or to just walk around the stores and art galleries.

For information about hiking Bear Mountain (which by the way is the tallest summit in Connecticut but not tallest point, that goes to Mount Fissel but the summit is in Massachusetts) to go: http://berkshirehiking.com/hikes/bearmt_salisbury.html

We took UnderMountain Trail

Being in Connecticut, a lot of the trail looked like the above

Are you coming? Our Dutchie is a bit impatient with us while hiking

The Summit

This seating area was built in the 1885 to enjoy the view. Not a good picture as it only shows the side. There was enough seating for everyone to have lunch and there was probably ten of us when we had lunch.