Bearpen is the easy one of the pair, and some count it as untrailed only because no foot trail exists. A NYS snowmobile trail passes the hunter's cabin porch and climbs to the top, starting at a slight incline, turning rocky and moderate, then levelling off. From the end of Route 3 south of Fleischmanns, the Vly and Bearpen route is the usual way to string both summits together, and the account gives 756 feet of climbing from Vly across to Bearpen.
The view is the draw. The old ski runs near the top open onto wide vistas, and the Schoharie Reservoir is among them. That clearing dates to the Princeton Ski Bowl of the late 1950s and 1960s, where skiers rode a rough auto road to the summit rather than a lift, and the lodge and rope tows left remains in the forest. Backcountry skiers now use the glades, dropping roughly 2,100 vertical feet toward the valley. There is no canister here.
Parking rules apply: use only the east side of Route 3 before the snowplow turnaround, which is private property, and carpool.
