Former Beartown Ski Area(Beartown Mountain State Forest-Berkshires)

Decided to take advantage of the last "mild" day for the foreseeable future by checking out an abandoned ski area on the northern slopes of Beartown State Forest in the Berkshires.  Unfortunately, the ski slopes are no longer visible from below but were located on Burgoyne Ridge, which itself is easily visible directly above the Onyx Paper Factory on Route 102 in South Lee. The Ski Area ran from the mid 1930's until the mid 1960's, and was, for a time, one of the largest ski areas in southern New England.  Other regional Ski Resorts, however, began to grow and expand by the 60's, featuring modern lifts and snow guns, which ended up leaving Beartown out in the cold after three decades.

My goal today was to check out some of the remnants of the old Ski Area, so I headed onto the backroads of South Lee, parking at Gate 4 on Beartown Road, just past its intersection with Pine Street and Willow Ave.(Elevation 960 feet)

From the gate I headed west on an unmarked but obvious wide, old woods road. There was only about 3 inches of snow on the ground to start so I decided to carry my snowshoes and wear only if needed up higher.  In less than 3/4 mile of easy hiking, I arrived at Twin Chimneys, which were erected back in 1939 and were part of the CCC Lodge.  

Another angle of the Twin Chimneys, still standing strong after all of these years. 

From the Twin Chimneys, I headed up onto the Polar Trail, which was the main ski slope at Beartown.  Although there are no trail blazes, it is pretty easy to follow the old slopes, as they ascent quite steeply up through open woods.  I turned around several times on my way up, enjoying some very good, filtered views to the north. 

The climb was fairly aggressive, gaining over 650 feet in less than half a mile.  The snow drifted a bit in spots as well, but was never more than 5 or 6 inches at its deepest.

After a good, thigh burning climb, I hit a dark conifer forest and the yellow blazed Ridge Trail, which I briefly followed up to the high spot on Burgoyne Ridge at 1703 feet Elevation. 

After hitting the nondescript high spot, I turned back east, following the Ridge Trail past some more rusted, old, ski resort remnants.

I took the Ridge Trail over to the Kodiak Trail, which was another old ski slope, but even steeper than the Polar Trail.  This trail, at the time of operation, was rated as "Expert" level, and is indeed quite vertical in spots.  I can only imagine how challenging this terrain must have been on a pair of skis.  

A bit lower down on the Kodiak Trail, with the woods seemingly dropping north into the abyss below.

From a small opening in the trees, a look NW towards Yokun Ridge.

I descended steeply back down to the woods road I started on, eventually making my way east back to the car.  Turned out to be a pretty nice day out, with clearing skies and temps in the mid to upper 30's.  Hiked just under 2.5 miles RT, with 800 feet of total ascent for the afternoon. 

For further reading on this and other former Ski Areas in New England, please refer to one of the these amazing sites!

 https://www.nelsap.org/ma/beartown.html

 https://www.newenglandskihistory.com/Massachusetts/beartownmtn.php