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Little Bear's Adventures — Real (Sometimes Extreme) Outdoor Trips As Chronicled By Papa Bear

Little Bear's Adventures — Real (Sometimes Extreme) Outdoor Trips As Chronicled By Papa BearLittle Bear's Adventures — Real (Sometimes Extreme) Outdoor Trips As Chronicled By Papa Bear (book)

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This book is a compilation of trip reports written in the form of short stories detailing the adventures of Little Bear (Paul Gerard) with his father Papa Bear (Paul J.), the author of these tales. They take place every month of the year, over a period of twenty-two years from the time that Little Bear was fourteen until he was thirty-six years old. Usually, when Little Bear accompanied Papa Bear on his wanderings among the High Peaks, they were blessed by delightful downpours or immersed in ghostly, dripping mists and fog. Always, several unusual incidents occurred under such conditions and recording the event under the guise of a trip report became a rambling account, mixing facts with fantasy-like characters.
Places in Little Bear's Adventures

These thirty-nine short stories describe trips to New York's Adirondack and Catskill Mountains, along the Appalachian Trail in Maine and New Jersey, on the Coastal Trail along the north shore of Lake Superior and others in Arizona, Utah, Pennsylvania, and West Virginia.

About the Author

Paul J. Brach was born in Rochester, NY and is a retired scientist. He is an avid hiker and naturalist, specializing in native flora. Towards that avocation, over a period of sixty years, he went on over 640 camping trips, canoed most of the waterways in New York, hiked several long distance trails in the United States and Canada, and climbed over 1400 peaks.

BOOK REVIEW from The Tanager 39(2): 2. June 2009.
Little Bear's Adventures By Paul J Brach (member & past president of BANC)
The author depicts a series of 39 short trips about an outdoor loving father (Papa Bear — our own Paul Brach) sharing and instilling his love for camping, climbing and hiking with his son (Little Bear — Paul Gerard Brach). The series starts when novice Little Bear is a boy scout of 13 years, and ends with a competent outdoors loving son eighteen years later.

The winter trips are mostly backpacking, overnight trips in the wild backcountry of the Adirondack Mountains. Adventures through the frozen marshes of the lowlands along the Oswegatchie River to the bitter wind swept heights of the Adirondack High Peaks are described. The extreme weather experienced (and apparently enjoyed) by the pair was appalling.

In contrast, the spring, summer and fall backpacking trips were hiked in warmer and less windy weather, but they did not lack for rain, biting bugs and other challenges. His descriptions of trips were often detailed such as "This one mile path through the deep cleft between Mahoosuc Arm and Fulling Mill Mt. is wild looking as giant boulders from the notch's sheer walls have clogged the floor of the notch, necessitating crawling through narrow crevices and vaulting over large ledges that filled the deep cut". And another description at Avalanche Lake, "the rugged trail passed over ledges, around huge boulders, and across crevices on ladders and bridges bolted into cliff ('Hitch-up Matildas')." Many of the trails were familiar to this reviewer, having hiked them in less formidable weather conditions. It was an interesting tale of a father-son series of adventures as they enjoyed conquering the adversities of the great outdoors together.
--Steve Weber