It took me around three hours to get to the top of Bell Mountain. I should make it clear that ‘mountain’ is a bit of a misnomer. At 1702 ft and just a little over 500 ft above Shut-in Creek, it’s just a big hill. But ‘mountain’ sounds a whole lot more impressive. I’ve never been able to claim that I’ve slept on the top of a mountain before 🙂

I’d not explored much around the summit on our previous visit. What I found as I looked around was more camping spots and minor trails than you could shake a fully extended hiking pole at. As I’d expected, the area had been picked clean of wood, and there were lots of signs of people hacking things down to create their own deadfalls. On the plus side, I had the entire summit to myself, and the view was spectacular.

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