Fred Feller writes:

"This past weekend, brother Jon and I managed to summit Bear Mountain #18 in Henry W. Coe State Park, Santa Clara County,California. We set off from my house in Berkeley at 9:30am on Saturday, considerably later than our planned 7:30am start time.  After fortifying ourselves at McDonald’s, we arrived at Coe Headquarters about noon and hit the trail at precisely 12:34.  The weather was cool but cloudless, the trails generally wide and dusty and almost always very steep. Total elevation gain and loss for the weekend was about 8000 feet.  As webmaster David Sklansky has said 'you go to the high Sierra to train for Henry Coe.'

"About 4pm Saturday, we found ourselves on Bear Mountain Road, travelling, for once, on relatively level ground.  [photo 1]  The topo map said the road would get very steep, so we decided to make camp wherever it did so.  When we reached the spot it was obvious and dramatic.  The road ahead went sharply upward, in a series of switchbacks.

"It took us all day to make the trip back to headquarters.  We took a slightly longer route with more elevation change on the way back because I preferred the dirt roads to the somewhat more precarious creek side trails.[photo 10]  All in all, we hiked about 23 miles over the two days.  Jon did about a mile extra, because he took a side trip on the way back to retrieve a rock he had admired but left behind the day before. 

"For anyone who has bothered to read this far and would like one, I will be making 2014 calendars from my photos of the trip, with some help from Shutterfly.  I will gladly send one, for free, to anyone who lets me know who they are and where to have it mailed."

Congratulations, Fred and Jon!

Bear Mountain #13, in Fresno County, is the highest Bear Mountain in California, topping out at around 9500 feet.  I climbed it last Sunday with my friend John Wiley.  It's a hefty hike:  18 miles round trip, much of it cross country.  John was game even though he never knew Joe.  (He took a course in labor law from Joe's father, David Feller, though.)

We camped Saturday night at Courtright Reservoir, a couple of hours east of Madera, and were on the trail by 6:00 Sunday morning.  From the Cliff Lake trailhead to Nelson Lakes was about five miles.  Nice trail, but the cross country traveling after Nelson Lakes was even nicer. 

We climbed the ridge west of Nelson Lakes, and then followed the ridge as it curved southwest past Sportsman Lake and then back north again.  That brought us about a mile and a half from Bear Mountain.

Hiking west, we crossed a jeep road, traveled along another ridge, climbed steeply for a quarter-mile or so, and finally reached the summit.  (If you have a high-clearance 4WD, you could shorten this hike considerably, but you'd miss some of the nicest parts.)  Fabulous views from the top, especially to the east.  There was a weird register box that instead of a register had little knickknacks and toiletries and a couple of business cards left by other hikers.  We left a note about our climb and mentioned Joe and the Bear Mountain Project.

We had originally thought we’d try to climb Nelson Mountain and Eagle Peak, too, but by the time we got to the top of Bear Mountain it was approaching noon, and we needed to get back to the Bay Area that evening.  So we left the other peaks for another day.

On the return trip, John figured out we could save some effort by taking the jeep road north a little bit and then contouring around at 9200 rather than along the top of the ridge, which was a hundred or so feet higher.  So we did that.  We got back to the trailhead around 4:30 and stopped for dinner at La Esperanza in Madera, which I think Joe would have enjoyed.

David Sklansky

Laura Newman writes:

"'If we go for a hike near Tehachapi, we can have lunch at a really good BBQ joint'; that is how I convinced my fella to drive me two hours from Los Angeles to hike up Bear Mountain.  Had I just explained the Bear Mountain project, climbing for Joe, it would have been a no-brainer.  I had called early in the week and was granted a pass by the Bear Valley Springs HOA to check out the area and for me that included a short hike to a peak on behalf of Joe.

"First stop was lunch at Red House BBQ in Tehachapi.  It did not disappoint and worth a detour on future trips up the 14 and 395 highways.  Then on to visit the Cesar Chavez National Monument in Keene, California, just a short drive down Highway 58.  After a short tour of the museum and grounds we headed over to Bear Valley Springs HOA and picked up a huge packet of maps, information, and properties for sale should we be interested.  We quickly headed up to Paramount Drive and parked at the end of the road, walking back to the intersection of Paramount and Wilderness Drive, where we found an old road heading up.  Following this road we encountered a couple of gates but the road was open and outside of any no-trespassing areas.  It was a short hike to the top, finding a lookout, benchmark and the much sought for summit register.  Joe’s name was signed in and a few pictures taken then time to head home.  One last stop at the Bear Valley Country Club for a drink at the bar to cool off completed the day. 

"I didn’t get a chance to meet Joe on the trails but I have a feeling that I know him and more importantly that I would have liked him.  In true peakbagger fashion, he chose a word that set a goal.  Most of us who hike have similar dreams of completing lists; using it only as an excuse to get outside and appreciate the mountains in all their variety offered.  I am sure that Joe would have enjoyed this outing in its entirety from BBQ to peak."

Fred Feller writes:

"On Saturday, June 29, the hottest day of the year so far in the San Francisco Bay Area, brother Jon and I left the relative cool of Mill Valley and Berkeley for an attempt at Bear Mountain #18 in the wilds of Santa Clara County, east of Silicon Valley.  (See photo #1).  Bear Mountain 18 is located in Henry W. Coe State Park which, considering its proximity to the mega-million population centers of the Bay Area, is amazingly isolated.  Relying on Google Map directions, we chose the northern approach by way of Livermore, where the temperature hit 105 degrees.

"We were using the same route as was attempted by Bill Guilford in a valiant but failed effort on June 17, while brother Guilford was en route to Southern California, after attending the memorial for Joe in Berkeley on June 15.  Guilford had used this route based on my directions and warned me that it appeared to be faulty, but I dismissed this as a result of carelessness on his part, plus the fact that he had only my phoned-in instructions to go by, with no map, no GPS device and a cell phone with no reception.  We were equipped with a detailed map, GPS and compass in addition to the Google route map, which appeared to take us straight to the summit of Bear Mountain. 

"Nevertheless, Guilford was right.  After a couple of wrong turns and a return to Livermore for more gas, we followed the only road possible until it ended on the slopes of Mount Hamilton, at the famed Lick Observatory (photo #2).  In the Observatory gift shop, there were many maps of the universe and the solar system available but none of the surrounding territory.  However, when I told the saleslady that we were trying to find Henry W. Coe State Park, she cheerfully said: 'Oh you can’t get there from here.'  She told me that the roads on my Google map were private, belonging to ranchers who were serious about their No Trespassing signs and quite likely to take shots at anyone failing to heed their warning.

"Even if we had been tempted to ignore this advice, we confirmed, on our way back to Livermore, that every dirt road leading in the direction we wanted to go was blocked by a locked gate.  In fact, these gates usually had multiple locks on them; we counted eight on one in particular.  Why the need for so many locks I don’t know, but it made the gates look a little like those bridges on the Seine in Paris on which the railings are covered with locks supposedly put there by lovers who have then thrown the keys into the river.

"On more closely examining my Henry Coe Park map, I noticed that 'No Park Access”'was typed in very small letters next to the illusory road we had been attempting to find.  Brother Jon thought it was rather late in the day (literally) to be making this discovery, but he agreed that, despite our failure to reach Bear Mountain, or even the park in which it is located, it had been a day well spent.  The golden, rolling hills dotted with live oaks we had driven through were a fine sight and we thoroughly enjoyed the visit to the Lick Observatory, which neither of us had ever been to before, nor are we very likely to visit it again, considering its distance from home or from any other attraction.

"Jon had had enough for one weekend, but I was determined to make another attempt, this time from the west.  Sunday morning I headed out in Joe’s Jeep on my own, driving south down Interstate 880 and then California 101, past San Jose to Morgan Hill and then east. A very pleasant 13 mile drive into the hills took me to Coe Ranch Headquarters, where I spoke to several very helpful park rangers.  When I asked whether I could get to Hobbs Road (which on my map leads to Blue Ridge Road and then to  Bear Mountain Road)  from where we were, they said 'sure, are you on foot or on bicycle?'  When I replied that I was in a Jeep, they laughed and told me that vehicles were not allowed in the Park, except for one day a year, in April, by lottery.

"I knew that I was not going to hike the 12 miles from HQ to Bear Mountain that day, in the 100 degree heat, but I asked whether the 24 mile round-trip could be accomplished in one day, if the hiker was in good shape and started early enough.  I was told that it could be done, but that the route was brutal, with an up and down elevation change totaling more than that from Yosemite Valley to the top of Half Dome. I was advised that a 3-day backpacking trip would be the best way to go, preferably in spring.

"So that’s the plan, although brother Jon may go for the one day trek before I get around to the backpacking trip.  Meanwhile, this Bear Mountain can be seen in photo #3, somewhere out there.  Joe’s Jeep is in photo #4 looking wistfully toward the mountains.  Although I never even made it on to the map in photo #1, I enjoyed both day trips and  recommend them to anyone with the time and the inclination to visit either the Lick Observatory or the historical Coe Ranch Headquarters (photo #5), at which I spent a pleasant few minutes."

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