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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.
Posts Tagged ‘Fire Towers’
Featured Trail: Belfry Mountain Fire Tower, Moriah
Featured Hike: Snowy Mountain Fire Tower, Indian Lake
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.
Featured Area: Wilcox Lake Wild Forest
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.
Adirondack Wildfire: The Destruction of Long Lake West
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.
Fire Tower Lightings Planned For Saturday
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.
Wakely Mountain Fire Tower, Adk’s Tallest, Reopens to Public
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.
Fire Tower Fever: Adirondack Experience Event Saturday
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.
Mount Arab Fire Tower Centennial Event
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.
Azure Mountain’s Fire Tower Centennial
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.
Stillwater Fire Tower Gets New Interpretive Sign
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 Mtn Fire Tower’s 2017 Season Recap
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’s Fire Tower Guide New Edition Reflects Big Changes
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.
New Edition of Fire Adirondack Tower Book Features Restorations
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.
Poke-O-Moonshine Fire Tower Marking 100 Years
They started put being paid $60 a month for their half-year, all-weather stints in the fire tower. Overall, there were twenty-one Fire Observers on Poke-O-Moonshine from 1912 through 1988. Most came from nearby Keeseville, and the first three worked in the original wooden tower before the current one was built in 1917.
That makes the fire tower 100 years old. It was part of a crop of standardized steel towers that New York State built in response to the catastrophic forest fires of the early 20th Century. Drought, high winds, lightning, heaps of logging slash, and sparks from lumber-hauling trains had combined to burn almost a million acres of New York forest over two decades. » Continue Reading.
Friends Of Poke-O-Moonshine Silent Art Auction
As part of the Poke-O-Moonshine Fire Tower Centennial (1917-2017), this summer, The Friends of Poke-O-Moonshine, Adirondack Architectural Heritage (AARCH), and Ausable Brewing Company will be hosting an Exhibit and Silent Auction of artwork related to the mountain, its human and natural history, and its fire tower. This is in place of the exhibit that was to be held at the 1719 Block Gallery in Keeseville.
The auction will be held from 7 to 9 pm on July 28 at the AARCH offices at 1745 Main Street, Keeseville, and on July 30 during the Poke-O-Moonshine Fire Tower Centennial Celebration at Ausable Brewing Company, 765 Mace Chasm Road, Keeseville, from 4:30 to 8 pm. 2D works of Poke-O-Moonshine-themed art, including works on paper or canvas and photography, are eligible for entry. » Continue Reading.
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Latest News Headlines
- Saranac River trail network keeps growing
- Tupper Lake's water woes
- Santa's Workshop: 75 years of magic
- Powering up their way: Adirondackers living off the grid
- Following merger, Boquet Valley school communities look to the future
- Tips for planning an off-grid system
- Tempers lost at Adirondack library meeting
- Warren County report shows major housing shortages
- APA developing battery energy storage application
- Southern Adirondacks mining expansion gets APA approval
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