Andy Martin writes:

"I've climbed 4 Bear Mountains 'by accident' to date [#21 on 8/1/2003, #14 on 5/11/2004, #3 on 5/21/2007, and #11 on 9/6/2010].  Don't have pics, but could provide route info if needed."

Fred Johnson writes:

"I have climbed 4 of California's Bear Mountains: 

#11    5-22-05    Solo.  Located about 1/4 mile beyond locked gate on upper Stallion Rd off CA 4. Site of CalFire's 'Fowler Bear Mountain' L.O.

#19    8-10-07      Drive-up with CalFire worker to CalFire's 'Shasta Bear Mountain' L.O.  Approached over private property by gated road near #14884 Dry Creek Rd

#20    10-10-06    Solo  from locked gate less than 1 mile from summit, which is site of CalFire's "Siskiyou Bear Mountain" L.O.  Approached from Harris Springs Rd near Hambone via a network of FS and logging roads.

#21    8-7-95    Solo from Doe Flat and Devils Punchbowl via trail and XC. 

Cheers and good luck with this new project in memory of Joe Feller---obviously one of those good guys whose productive life ends much too soon."

I shared a house with Joe Feller when we were in law school, and we stayed good friends after graduation.  I've never known anyone with a greater zest for life than Joe, or with a more consistently open, curious, and good-humored approach to the world.  I think the first hike I ever took with him was at Cape Cod during the week-long reading period before a set of final exams.  I was reluctant to take a day off from studying, but Joe made the point, obviously correct, that we weren’t going to study the whole week anyway, so we might as well plan a road trip.  Joe had lots of views about road trips, most of which I came to share.  He thought, for example, there were two cardinal rules for a successful road trip:  first, to have a fully worked out itinerary, and second, to be completely willing to abandon the itinerary.  Those have always struck me as good rules for life, not just for road trips.

The picture on the “Welcome” page of this website was taken at the top of Mount Dana on a hike that Joe and I took in 2011.  The day before that we climbed Sonora Peak, the high point of Alpine County, CA; that’s where the picture on the “About Joe Feller” page of this website was taken.  I think it was on the Sonora Peak hike that Joe came up with the idea of the Bear Mountain Project.

Yesterday I drove out to the Stanislaus National Forest to meet a friend and hike up to Corral Ridge, the high point of Calaveras County.  Part of the appeal of that destination was that the trailhead is on State Route 4, which also passes close to the highest prominence peak of Calaveras County, which happens to be named Bear Mountain.  That made for a nice side trip on my way home.

This Bear Mountain is basically a drive up.  You take a gravel road called Stallion Way south from Route 4, between the mining towns of Angels Camp and Copperopolis.  (Angels Camp is where Mark Twain claimed to have heard the story recounted in “The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County.")   The road climbs about 1400 feet over four miles before arriving at a locked gate, and after squeezing through the gate it’s a quarter-mile or so on foot to the summit.  Most of the top is given over to antennas, but there’s also a fire tower, which apparently you could climb as recently as 2005, but which, alas, is is now boarded up and fenced off.  The best views, I thought, were looking to the west, just before getting to the gate.

It was fun day, but I wished Joe could have been along for the trip.

David Sklansky