Bear Creek

 Going up, it is is an easy climb, and even boring. But when you come down you will find out why the locals love this trail so much. Speed and fun factor are HIGH. There is a tiny, gnarly trail, Bear Creek Trail 136, at the very top of Bear Creek Spur, but it isn't necessarily worth the yawner climb up the gravel road.

 Parked the car at the head of Bear Creek South, road up that first, no big deal it's just a gravel road. I'd recommend riding this one clockwise (opposite direction shown on Trailforks) as the best downhill is at the end when you go CW direction. The Bear Creek Cut is an awesome short cut to cut out the FS road and hit the downhill single track portion at the end when you're going CW. You can get multiple runs in and cut down the round trip mileage. If you do ride it CW, the main FS road that makes up the back portion of the trail reconnects with the single track on your right as you come up and around one of the corners -- we missed it the first time and went a little further down the gravel road till it ended and had to turn back (don't get lost!).

 Absolutely beautiful scenery! The climbs are not that difficult. The downhill at the end is amazing!

 Parked the car at the top of the gravel road labeled Bear Creek South on Trailforks, right at the start of Bear Creek Loop. (Glad we skipped that part - it was boring uphill gravel with not much room for cars going by.) We started the loop to the left (clockwise - opposite of Trailforks map) with a lot of single track climbing - nothing insanely steep but we walked a lot of it because my lowest gears were skipping and we’re used to riding in Florida without those kinds of ascents.

Once you get to the fire road close to the middle point of the loop, it’s much more rolling and easy to ride. I actually really enjoyed the fire road despite others saying it’s boring. It’s beautiful and you can get more speed if you’re not comfortable with that yet on tricky single track. Could also focus more on the scenery.

On the far side of the loop (east side, 3/4 way through when traveling clockwise), we jumped on the Bear Creek Cut, which is shown as a black diamond but it wasn’t nearly as steep or tricky as other parts of the trail labeled as blue. That brought us back to the west side of the loop we had ascended earlier, and it was a really nice, fun descent I felt comfortable with as a more beginner rider who hasn’t been on a lot of real “mountains.” More advanced riders were flying down but I could easily control speed and stay slow.

We then got back to the end of the loop and decided we wanted to go back for another half-loop using the Bear Creek Cut. This time we ascented to the right side of the loop (counterclockwise, as shown by Trailforks). I was instantly glad we didn’t descend that side - it was MUCH steeper with switchbacks and way out of my league for descending. (For this reason, I recommend the clockwise loop described above crossing back to the left side at Bear Creek Cut to any beginner riders.) We had to walk nearly the entire ascent, with my low gears out of commission and our legs tired in general.

It evened out more once we got to the fire road, which had one big tree down that was a bit of a puzzle to crawl through with bikes. We then got back on Bear Creek Cut and repeated the same descent, even more fun the second time.

Highly recommended scenic trail for beginner-intermediate riders looking to challenge themselves without the scary drop offs off the side of the trail. Aside from the steep portion of the right/east side of the loop described above, I never felt scared of falling off a mountain side or severely injuring myself, which is my kinda trail! I’m sure it would be great for advanced riders going fast too.

 Parked the car at the top of the gravel road labeled Bear Creek South on Trailforks, right at the start of Bear Creek Loop. (Glad we skipped that part - it was boring uphill gravel with not much room for cars going by.) We started the loop to the left (clockwise - opposite of Trailforks map) with a lot of single track climbing - nothing insanely steep but we walked a lot of it because my lowest gears were skipping and we’re used to riding in Florida without those kinds of ascents.

Once you get to the fire road close to the middle point of the loop, it’s much more rolling and easy to ride. I actually really enjoyed the fire road despite others saying it’s boring. It’s beautiful and you can get more speed if you’re not comfortable with that yet on tricky single track. Could also focus more on the scenery.

On the far side of the loop (east side, 3/4 way through when traveling clockwise), we jumped on the Bear Creek Cut, which is shown as a black diamond but it wasn’t nearly as steep or tricky as other parts of the trail labeled as blue. That brought us back to the west side of the loop we had ascended earlier, and it was a really nice, fun descent I felt comfortable with as a more beginner rider who hasn’t been on a lot of real “mountains.” More advanced riders were flying down but I could easily control speed and stay slow.

We then got back to the end of the loop and decided we wanted to go back for another half-loop using the Bear Creek Cut. This time we ascented to the right side of the loop (counterclockwise, as shown by Trailforks). I was instantly glad we didn’t descend that side - it was MUCH steeper with switchbacks and way out of my league for descending. (For this reason, I recommend the clockwise loop described above crossing back to the left side at Bear Creek Cut to any beginner riders.) We had to walk nearly the entire ascent, with my low gears out of commission and our legs tired in general.

It evened out more once we got to the fire road, which had one big tree down that was a bit of a puzzle to crawl through with bikes. We then got back on Bear Creek Cut and repeated the same descent, even more fun the second time.

Highly recommended scenic trail for beginner-intermediate riders looking to challenge themselves without the scary drop offs off the side of the trail. Aside from the steep portion of the right/east side of the loop described above, I never felt scared of falling off a mountain side or severely injuring myself, which is my kinda trail! I’m sure it would be great for advanced riders going fast too.

 Rode this yesterday 11/24/20. Going up is really wet with lots of leaves so it’s pretty slippery. The big down fall was all the downed trees. I had to Trek with the bike on my back down some pretty steep ravines then back up to get back to the trail. I could have turned around but I’m not that smart. The down hill was great.