Mount Bear Oct 19 (Return of the Doot)

A last minute invite from friends brought me back to Mount Bear, with some of my favorite people in the world. 12 miles hike planned. We started much like before, up the AT which would lead us to Bear Summit.
I was way overdressed in the start, having double layers and a hoodie on, and we moved at a fairly fast speed (Yet still slow enough to enjoy our surroundings) The mud and muck from the spring was completely gone mostly was fallen leaves and a nice hard surface. From trail start to the first AT sign I remember last time being covered in sweat and feeling it. This time not so much. We stopped at log bench one, I got out of my layers and moved forward to the actual AT marker point, and took our first break. We had several hut hikers pass us and had a fast snack. This sunday we saw alot of people on the trail compared to last time.

AT Trail to Bear Tarik and Ian discuss how big my muscles are.

From the sign, we really moved fairly fast up the paths to the rocks, again other than the mini falls, zero water or mud on the trails. In fact I think this sped up our movement as we had little to avoid. I make a note here to say when we got to the summit it felt like we were there super fast, and I had no tiredness or even fatigue. Plus when I'm with these three, I enjoy the adventure more and more, I laugh more, hear silly stories and feel comfortable enough to say whatever stupid things in the world that pop into my head. I know I've said it a million times but the right people make this even more enjoyable than normal (Thanks Ian,Tarik and Jessy love you guys) Ok, Back to the trails, the summit was full of lots of people, so we found a small nitch off to it, had our lunch and Ian showed us some really cool places about CT/MA hut crossings. Learning new things every trip, one day I will share it with others who are out there. We decided to add on two extra miles and do Sage's Ravine which is the crossing from CT into MA. So we headed down the steep slope towards Sage's. This is the only part of Bear I ever worry about not cause its hard but cause its alot of loose rock. But again, no trouble, no mud, no water, we cruised right through.
 Sage's Ravine, please if you are out on Bear go down this trail, you will thank me for it. This creek starts out tiny and crystal clear, and grows. Side small creeks feed into it, and it becomes some really amazing water falls. We moved passed alot of amazing rock formations, where you could easily hide bears, wendigo's and ninja's, small little caves, hollow ground and other neat things. Yes, I could show you all sorts of pictures but for this section you need to experience yourself. You will thank me for it.

Jessy and Tarik crossing logs over the river.

As you move further down the ravine, you will notice all sorts of dual and tri staged water falls, some with rushing water, some that trickle over the side. For the most part you can climb onto rock and look over them, look down into the ravines and see how the water has rounded the rocks into various shapes. Water will change the surface of anything as well as its size. There are alot of amazing pools that you can see are smooth as marble. This section will lead you to the CT/Ma border. We moved onwards passed the campgrounds heading to mass. About a mile into it, you will reach the border, you will cross a small rock section and see two signs.

One side of AT CT

Across the River in Mass AT

We had a small snack break here, signed into the AT trail box, shared a good laugh, and a drink. I think at this point all of us agreed, wish we could be out here more and more, and less and less work. We packed up, and headed out of Ma, back into CT to make our last 3 mile descent. I had noticed the bog on the right side of the trail had gone down alot, and the frogs last time were tadpoles, giant now. We were moving fairly good and spirits were high, as we made our way back the last 1/4 mile or so we decided to run/hike fast, we all crossed the ending together like a team. And amazing sunday to say the least.

Bear Summit, to the left are the huts on Mass side.

Sage's Ravine falls