Kane Mountain, located in the Shaker Mountain Wild Forest can be ascended via two routes which can be used to make a loop hike. A fire tower is located on the 2,060-foot summit.
Kane Mountain East Trail is the most direct route, ascending 560 feet and 0.8 mile from the Kane Mountain Trailhead Parking Area to the summit. » Continue Reading.
Bald Mountain (2,350 Feet) is located in the 16,028-acre Fulton Chain Wild Forest, which includes about 20 miles of marked foot trails.
This very popular short hike leads to a long ridge with views and the Rondaxe Fire Tower, which has been restored and can be climbed. » Continue Reading.
Belfry Mountain Fire Tower, part of the Hammond Pond Wild Forest, extends 0.3 mile and climbs 120 feet on a service road to a fire tower on the 1,820-foot summit. This is considered by many the easiest hike to an Adirondack Fire Tower. » Continue Reading.
Snowy Mountain Trail, part of the Jessup River Wild Forest, ascends 2,000 feet and 3.8 miles from the Snowy Mountain Trail Parking Area to the fire tower at the summit, which often has deep snow in winter. Snowshoes and/or micro spikes are recommended on this hike during the winter months. Check current conditions here.
The Fire Tower is a 47-foot tall, restored Aermotor LS-40 tower at 3,897 feet elevation. The trail crosses the West Canada Lake Wilderness and the Township 33 CE. Respect posted signs. » Continue Reading.
Wilcox Lake Wild Forest is located in the southeastern area of the Adirondack Park and is made up of approximately 125,000 acres of Adirondack Forest Preserve lands in Fulton, Hamilton, Saratoga and Warren counties.
The DEC managed Wild Forest unit offers a variety of recreational opportunities, including hiking to the fire towers on Hadley Mountain and Spruce Mountain, camping on Wilcox Lake, and ice fishing on Garnet Lake. The area includes 92 miles of marked trails, four lean-tos, 63 primitive campsites, and multiple parking areas. » Continue Reading.
Over the years I have put my canoe into the waters at Low’s Lower Dam (constructed 1907); and paddled the meandering Bog River Flow up to Hitchins Pond.
I have carried around Low’s Upper Dam (built in 1903*), many times. I usually choose to camp on Low’s Lake, so I keep on going. But occasionally a day paddle and a short hike around Hitchins Pond is in order. It’s on these day paddles that I often walk the road (actually the old Maple Valley Railroad bed), as part of the Horse Shoe Forestry Company, constructed by Abbot Augustus “Gus” Low in 1900. If you know where to look, there are “sidings” where A. A. Low’s sugarhouses were located. » Continue Reading.
Stillwater Fire Tower is set to be lit on September 1st from 9 to 9:30 pm, as part of “Light the Tower.” Lighting fire towers on the Saturday of Labor Day weekend started with fire tower enthusiasts in the Catskills.
This is the third year Stillwater has been lit. Stillwater Fire Tower can be seen from the Bald Mt/Rondaxe tower, from Stillwater Reservoir, Tug Hill and the Black River Valley, and Fort Drum’s air control tower.
The Hurricane Mountain Fire Tower in the Hurricane Mountain Wilderness Area and St. Regis Mountain Fire Tower in the Saint Regis Canoe Area will also be lighted.
The event is being sponsored by Friends of Stillwater Fire Tower. » Continue Reading.
The 70-foot tall Wakely Mountain Fire Tower, the tallest fire tower in the Adirondacks, has reopened to the public. A storm brought the tower to near collapse in December 2017, and the area had been closed to visitors over safety concerns.
The public can once again hike to the summit of the mountain, climb the fire tower, and enjoy the 360° panoramic views of the central Adirondacks from the cab of the tower. The tower is located in the Wakely Mountain Primitive Area in Hamilton County. » Continue Reading.
ADK (Adirondack Mountain Club) and Adirondack Experience, The Museum on Blue Mountain Lake (ADKX), have announced a celebration of fire towers and the people who restore and maintain them.
Fire Tower Fever, a family-friendly event set for July 14, 2018, at Adirondack Experience, starts at 10 am and ends at 3 pm. In between, the day offers presentations, anecdotes from volunteers involved in tower restorations, book signings, guided hikes, an introduction to the ADK Fire Tower Challenge, and Smokey Bear-themed scavenger hunts. » Continue Reading.
Friends of Mount Arab are set to celebrate the 100th birthday of the Mount Arab fire tower on Saturday, August 11th from 9 am to 2 pm.
Friends of Mount Arab board members will be at the trailhead. Steward and board member Tom Cullen will be at the summit observer’s cabin. It is a short jaunt to the summit, 1 mile each way, and the ascent is very family-friendly. The Adirondack Mountain Club recently organized a Trail Steward Workshop on Mount Arab, and all the waterbars are greatly improved. » Continue Reading.
The first time I went up Azure Mountain, it was because I’d read about it in a trail guide – it was only a mile hike so I thought it would be pretty easy. The trail started out very gradually, passing a small clearing with an old stone fire place and a picnic table. (I would later learn that’s where the fire observer’s cabin was located.) But after that, the trail became steep. Only a few switchbacks, then practically straight up the mountain – a 900+ foot elevation gain in a pretty short distance. On one stretch there were even a couple of bare poles, leaning at rakish angles, with insulators on the top. (They once held the telephone wire that went up to the fire tower). » Continue Reading.
The Stillwater Fire Tower has received a new interpretive sign that recounts Stillwater’s the towers that preceded the present 1919 steel tower. The latest tower was reopened after restoration in 2016.
The sign is bolted to the tower near the empty drill hole in the bedrock that once held a Verplanck Colvin Adirondack Survey marker from 1882. » Continue Reading.
Hurricane Mountain’s fire tower continued to benefit in 2017 from a strong partnership between dedicated community volunteers and the state Department of Environmental Conservation.
The tower restoration project also attracted generous financial support from the 46er Trust and daughters of the Longware family that organized the “Save the Tower” Campaign back in the early 2000’s. » Continue Reading.
ADK (Adirondack Mountain Club) has released the second edition of its hiking guide, Views from on High: Fire Tower Trails in the Adirondacks and Catskills. Revised and redesigned, it includes a new chapter describing fire towers outside of both parks. The intervening years have seen what coauthor Jim Schneider refers to as “fire tower fever,” a sweeping enthusiasm that has helped prompt restoration of numerous towers and their trails.
Written by John P. (Jack) Freeman and Jim Schneider, Views from on High enables hikers, history buffs, and others fond of Adirondack and Catskill trails to visit and learn about 30 historic fire towers. Detailed trail descriptions are accompanied by numerous photographs and maps as well as an essay about these structures written by historic preservationist Wesley H. Haynes. The new chapter, Beyond the Blue Line, by tower aficionado Jacob C. (Jake) Wilde, describes 13 additional fire towers, three of them demonstration towers. » Continue Reading.
Author Marty Podskoch will give a presentation on the new edition of his book, The Adirondack Fire Towers: Their History and Lore, The Southern Districts at the Stillwater Hotel on Wednesday August 9th at 7 pm. He will highlight the Stillwater Fire Tower restoration work and discuss the history of the fire towers in the Southern Adirondacks.
The new edition features a chapter devoted to the men and women who helped restore the Adirondack fire towers since Podskoch’s book was first published in 2003. The six restored towers in this volume include those at Stillwater, Spruce, Adams, Hurricane, St. Regis, and Lyon mountains.
The book also contains information on the 28 state and three private towers in Herkimer, Warren, Washington, Saratoga, Lewis, Fulton, and Hamilton, counties. » Continue Reading.
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