Delaware County Highpoint Trip Report

Bearpen Mtn

Date: September 13, 2008
Author: Brennan Connelly

After having read a report on catskillhiker.com about a southern approach to Bearpen, (actually, the COHP is about 1/2 mile north of the summit) and a Catskill 35er, and to Vly, Bearpen's neighbour, I decided to give it a shot.

The directions called for taking Delaware CR-37 (Lake Street - at the gas station on Main) north from Fleischmanns on NY-28 into Greene County, where it becomes CR-3. I followed it to the end of the line (about 8 miles), staying right at the final fork with Johnson Hollow. At this point, the road looks great but there are literally 100 NO TRESPASSING signs, one of which states that the road is private to the top of the mountain (although it didn't say which one). Not wanting to get shot or arrested and, unwilling to drive 40 miles around the mountain to the well documented northern approach, I settled for having my way with Big Indian Mountain, which is another Catskill 35er in the region.

So, the moral of the story is: There is no southern approach to Bearpen, unless one could track down J. Hubbard (No number listed, which was unfortunate, as I did have cell coverage at the road closure), who would be the guy behind the miles and miles of negative signage.