July 18th we hiked Black Bear mountain in Inlet NY as the last hike of our Fulton chain trifecta hike. The trailhead starts off on the yellow trail and meanders through the woods for a ways. The trail comes to a fork in the road where you can choose to take the blue or yellow trail up to the summit. We chose to take the yellow trail which was MUCH easier so depending on who you are hiking with this might be something to consider.
Yellow trail continues meandering over light vines and small rocks until about the last .5 mile ascent to the summit. This is a steeper climb with some boulders and rooty sections and was a bit slick from all the rain we’ve had lately. However, very moderate and fun section (if you’ve hiked things like this previously)
Once you get passed this section there’s a clearing that APPEARS to be the summit but is just an overlook - but check it out; beautiful views.
Follow the yellow arrows on the rocks to get to the summit.
We took the blue trail down - this section was clearly steeper and more challenging than the yellow trail. Bigger boulders, steeper sections, higher climbs etc. so I was happy to take this route down. I do however, plan to redo this hike the other way around to see how this would be on the ascent (looked fun honestly but definitely more challenging).
All in all, awesome hike - will do again and by far my favorite of the 3 hikes in the trifecta.
Not for the faint hearted but highly recommend to anyone who wants a moderate with a little challenge at the end hike.
This was our last hike of the Fulton Chain Trifecta - woohoo!