Just perfect weather and great trails made this trip with Bear Chaser truly fine. Friday we left one vehicle on the Highland Scenic Highway at the Big Beechy trailhead and drove around to the Fisherman's Trail near Summit Lake Campground in the Cranberry Backcountry. The descent to the Cranberry River was easy - trail not too muddy. Contrary to expectations, we saw no one on the river, so we camped there at the foot of the Big Rough Run Trail. There are enough good trees there to support quite a few hangers. Saturday morning I practiced casting while Bear Chaser fished.
He caught a nice brown trout. In fact he liked it so much, he caught it 3 times (once with his Tenkara rig, twice with his hands).
Later we hiked up the Big Rough Run Trail, my favorite, I think. Then we entered the Wilderness and descended the Laurelly Branch Trail to the Middle Fork Trail on the Williams River. On the way we passed an old logging road I've taken in the past to Hell-For-Certain Branch (where to look for me if I ever come up missing ). Laurelly Branch wasn't as wet as it can be, so this made another easy day, though quite a bit more mileage. We camped where Big Beechy Run flows into the Middle Fork of the Williams River. Again, there was no one else there (on a weekend!), though we did meet one couple hiking on the way and saw another couple pass by after we made camp.
Sunday morning we headed up the Big Beechy Trail, and Bear Chaser lived up to his name. He spotted a black bear on the trail ahead of us, but his bear-chasing super powers are now so finely honed that he merely made eye contact with it and the critter took off before I could see it. I asked him to dial it down a bit next time. He says Big Beechy is his favorite trail, and I can see why. Most of the trail runs along a ridge above 4000 feet through red spruce forest with moss and ferns covering much of the ground. We were continually entertained with bird songs while we hiked all three days. Wood thrushes were all over the place, and the sometimes reclusive winter wrens were there, too. When we emerged on the Scenic Highway and drove back to Bear Chaser's jeep parked at our starting point he obliged me by not scaring off the bear we saw along an overgrown logging road near the Fisherman's Trailhead, so we watched it for a while as it ambled away, continuing to stop and browse. Good company, three days of sunshine with high temps around 70 and nighttime lows in the high 40s and 50s - it couldn't have been better.
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