Schuylkill County High Point Trip Report
Bears Head (2,094 ft)
Date: July 14, 2002
Author: Daniel Case
This highpoint, and the radio and fire towers atop it, can be seen for some distance when approaching on
I-81 in both directions. The road to the tower is quite obvious - it's just before the ridge crests on what
DeLorme calls "Lofty Road" and signed with a PA Dept. of Conservation and Natural Resources Bureau of
Forestry sign as "Bears Head Fire Tower", or something like that. There's ample space to park a car or two.
The road itself is also nice and wide, running through the sort of birch-and-scrub-oak with a little pitch pine
that I've seen elsewhere on ridge tops in Pennsylvania. It could easily be passed by cars if it were allowed,
and there's ample evidence of ATV usage.
The first 0.4 mile is very gentle, almost level. At one turn you can see the towers on a bump ahead.
They look further away than they actually are. You reach a sort of three-way fork where it's pretty obvious you
want the left fork. This is where most of the hundred-odd vertical of the climb comes, and the grade gets a
little steeper before leveling out at the towers.
The fence enclosing the radio towers is now closed and locked completely (either Mike Schwartz got lucky,
or they realized locking it saves them money over constant camera monitoring). Similarly inaccessible is the
fire tower, in a separate little pen in back, its cab still painted with a big red-orange "161."
Although the highest ground does appear to be within the fence, at the paved parking pad, you can hit some
ground within an inch of it by staying close to the fence as you walk around back to the right. The best
option, the one that will leave no doubts in your mind, is the two gravel piles in back that were there this day.
The northern one added about three feet to the height of the mountain and, although artificial,
was clearly the highest point.
I also noticed that the road runs a hundred feet further on to a cul-de-sac in a more open area with a nice
view off to the west. The ground here is a little higher, apparently even with the ground inside the fence.
There may also be some equivalently high ground in a brushy area to the left of the gate, halfway down the
fence line.
On the way back we met some guys straining to get their ATVs past the gate. Since one of them was from
New York as well, we chatted a bit. They explained that the road had been pretty much permanently closed
to cars in 2001 due to extensive illegal dumping on the roads it led to. So it looks like this one will remain a
short walk for the time being.
They also mentioned that the mountain earns its name. They've seen more than a few bears on it.
So do be careful.