Last October I went for a hike up Lyon Mountain. The first 3/4 of a mile you can drive up to the parking lot, then from there, it’s a two mile hike to the summit, or about 3 miles if you take the new trail.
The old trail, following an old woods road is eroded and rough in places, but it well traveled as it much shorter. The new trail, being so twisty is not as well traveled, but it is far less steep and tends to be less wet in the spring time.
Heading up from the parking area, the first part of the trail follows the old trails route, before swinging left near a registration kiosk.
It was very colorful along the new trail as all the maples where at about peak color going up the mountain.
I decided to switch over from the new trail to the old trail, once I reached the point where the trails reached their closest point at the midpoint up the mountain.
As you get about 2/3rds the way up the mountain, you can look back and see Lake Chazy.
The old trail certainly is eroded and in rough sape in some parts. You can understand why they re-routed it.
Ah, finally see the fire tower.
Hazy day, but there’s Lake Chazy and the farms along it.
Wind turbines of the Chazy Highlands…
Lyon Mountain is a popular hike, as seen by all the hikers on the ledge.
There are at least three different mountains in the Adirondacks known as Owls’ Head due to their small rounded peaks, with broad cols for shoulders. This one is the one near Long Lake, that has a 30 foot LS 45 Aermotor Firetower on top of it.
Sargent Ponds Wild Forest Kiosk. This is where you sign in, so they can have an idea on trail use, and make it easier to find you if your lost or injured.
1/2 Mile In. The trail crosses this downed tree.
Boardwalks. Parts of the trail cross marshy areas on board walks, like these constructed on the first 3/4 mile of the trail.
T Intersection. Make a left at one mile, to go up Owls Head. The other direction takes you to the Lake Eaton State Campground.
Grown Over Steel Trail Marker. It looks like in 1982, the state experimented with these imprinted steel trail markers along the trail, long since largely grown into the barks of the tree.
Views as You Ascend. This is looking backwards, towards the Sargent Ponds Wilderness, Lake Eaton, and the timber lands between here and Tupper Lake.
Observers Cabin Ruins. The cabin the fire warden lived in years ago, is not located on top of Owl’s Head, but below it on the shoulder. It’s a 1/4 mile hike to the top, and you accent about 200 more feet, up the pointly little head. The cabin was probably located here, so the warden could meet visitors, and escort them to the top.
Well Worn Trail. Part of the trail is well worn, and is on open rock face. The good news however is with the lush tree cover, you don’t have to worry about acrophobia up here.
Reaching the Tower. You can’t see the fire tower until your almost on top of it, due to the heavy trees that surround the summit of the mountain, except for the bald portion where the tower is located, open to views to the south and east.
Survey Marker. It says it was placed in 1942 by USGS. It’s right below the fire tower proper.
Fire Tower. The fire tower is a 30 foot LS 45 Aermotor tower, pretty typical for NY State. It’s one of the short little towers, like also seen on Rondaxe Mountain in Eagle Bay.
Forked Lake. This is looking south from the summit towards Forked Lake Campground and possibly Racquette Lake. The mountain in the distance is Wakely Mountain, one of the other fire towers originally used to pin-point fires in the Adirondacks (it takes two towers to locate a fire through triangulation).
Long Lake. This is another picture of Long Lake, a little bit farther north, with the shoulder/col of Owls Head visible in the foreground.
North. In the distance is Saranac Lake and Lake Placid, with Whiteface just beyond it. Not the clearest or nicest of days, but still visable. In the foreground is the col/shoulder of Owls Head.
Blue Mountain. Blue Mountain is another fire tower / mountain that is visible from Owls Head. Located about 10 miles away, in the foreground are Minnow Pond and Mud Pond.
Sargent Ponds Area & Timberland. This portion north of NY 28 Corridor and Fulton Chain of Lakes is relatively flat, wild, and many portions privately owned as timberland.
Float Plane. Owls Head is not the quietest mountain out there. Throughout the day, tourist float planes for hire, fly on and off Long Lake, just to north of mountain. They fly quiet low, as they are making the decent back to Long Lake.
Long Lake Village. While hazy today, you can see village of Long Lake quite well from the tower. It’s always crazy there, and I try to avoid towns whenever I’m in the Adirondacks.
Fire Tower Corner. I always like pictures of the angles and construction of the fire tower. While common after climbing so many, fire towers have a lot of character in their structural steel.
Tower Cabin Closed. It’s unfortunate but the tower’s cabin on this tower is closed, as it’s used for communications equipment.
Sitting on Mountain. Just sitting back and looking south from the open rock face a top Owls Head.
Old Telephone Poll. Descending the trail off Owls Head, I saw several of the old telephone poles, heading up to the former Ranger’s cabin. Some have been cut down, and used to control run-off on the trail, but others still remain.
Pillsbury Mountain Firetower is located at the edge of the Jessup River Wild Forest and the West Canada Wilderness. To reach there, you have to drive North of Spectulator, and take about 6 miles of fairly smooth logging roads through International Paper’s Perkins Clearing Easement.
Hiking Bridge Across Miami River. Not that th Miami River really deserves to be called a river, but on the trail up the Pillsbury Mountain, its particularly small.
Taking the trail Up Pillsbury Mountain. It’s about two miles long, and not a difficult hike, although you do gain about 1200 in elevation.
About a 1/4 mile before reaching the tower, reach marshy and thick boreal forest that the trail passes through, with some re-routes to avoid the muck kicked up over the years.
Approaching Fire Tower.
People Die Here. I kid you not, that’s what the cabin says when you first get here. Combined with the creepy fire tower top, it’s kind of neat.
Tower Cabin. That sure looks scary, doesn’t it? Now I understand why people die up here, probably with a secret DEC Forest Ranger, who hides up there, shooting at people he or she doesn’t like. Or maybe not.
The tower is pretty conventional with normal looking landings, a rangers cabin, and a clearing for a helicopter to land in an emergency.
The views from the tower are quite great. Looking east thru the Jessup River Wild Forest.
Snowy Mountain to the North. If you look carefully, you can see the tower up top of it.
South towards Lake Pleasant and Spectulator.
Moose River Plans and West Canada Creek Wilderness from Pillsbury Mountain Fire Tower.
North towards Cedar River Flow and Wakely Mountain. If you look carefully, you should be able to see the Wakely Mountain Firetower from here.
On the afternoon of Thursday July 22nd I hiked up to the Wakley Mountain Firetower. The weather wasn’t perfect, but it was still quite popular, passing several hikers and families visting this tower. The views are pretty good, but probably not as good as Pillsbury Mountain or Snowy Mountain to the south. The nice thing is it’s a 5 minute drive from Cedar River Flow and pretty close from Moose River Plans too, and provides a great overview of the Plains.
You can print the above map, by clicking it, to be taken to a high resolution (500 DPI) that will print nicely on a laser or inkjet printer.
When you first start up the mountain, you pass a “Warning! Road Washed Out” sign. This sign is at the parking area for Wakely Mountain, to warn drivers that they won’t get very far on Wakely Mountain Road, since the DEC has basically abandoned it.
Washed Out Road to Wakely Mountain. I honestly don’t expect the DEC to fix this road, but instead will make people walk the entire 3 miles up the mountain, because that keeps the eco-facists happy.
The End of Wakely Road. That said, you’d be hard press to get a vehicle this far, due to the wash out at the earlier marsh.
As you climb, you pass this big boulder On side of Wakely.
The first two miles of the trail are pretty flat, a small incline that increases above 400 feet in elevation over two miles.
Marsh Along Wakely Mountain Trail. That’s Payne Mountain, not Wakely Mountain in the background.
The Final Mile. You might think the previous two miles of the Wakely Mountain trail where easy, rising maybe 300 feet, until you hit the last mile, as indicated by this sign. It’s another 1200 feet on up for that last mile.
The trail up Wakely Mountain is badly eroded due to heavy use and neglect by the DEC.
The last mile up Wakely Mountain is a long one, especially if you start late in the afternoon as I did. You are treated with some limited views while climbing Wakely Mountain, but all and all, there isn’t a lot to see except steep trail (but no open rock face!).
Once you almost reach the top of the mountain, you come to the Wakely Mountain Helipad. This is used by emergency responders, providing quick access to the top of mountain, to either access the tower for observation, or to help those injured on top of the mountain.
Next to helipad is a trash pile. I was wondering how this trash ended up top of the mountain, but after thinking about it a bit, it probably was trash from the ranger’s cabin, that was dumped here some time in the past, and was dug up in the re-construction of the helipad.
Eventually you reach the fire tower, about a 500 feet from the Helipad. The Wakely Fire Tower is an interesting Aeromotor LS 25 tower, that originally lacked a staircase, but was added in the form of an internal ladder, for the convience of hikers and the fire warden alike. Prior to the 1919 addition of the “stairs tower within the fire tower”, you had to climb a ladder on the side of the tower, to get all 60 feet to the top of the tower.
Here is the original ladder you had to climb. They removed the lower flights to discourage people from trying to use the ladder, although the stairs themselves also lack any safety fencing, so it’s a bit scary if your not used to climbing towers.
A close up over the tower within the tower.
The firetower presents one with spectular views of the upper Moose River Plains, from the marshy end of Cedar River Flow to the Lost Ponds area, to around Wakely Dam and Wakely Pond.
To the east is the Blue Ridge Wilderness and Blue Mountain.
Looking down towards Indian Lake from the Fire Tower. There are many beautiful peaks to the south east.
You can also see the High Peaks from Wakley Mountain.
And the Fulton Chain of Lakes.
Cellar Mountain somewhat blocks the views to the west, as you look down to the plains, towards the ridges that follow along the NY 28 Corridor.
The tower’s foundation sadly is in bad shape and needs work. The cabin of the tower is also only accessible via ladder, if your crazy enough to do that. It lacks safety fences on the various landings. Hopefully the state will find the funds and resources to restore this beautiful and popular tower, even though it’s likely to be expensive due to the need to use to Helicopter in supplies and possibly ironworkers to restore it.
Kane Mountain is located next to Canada Lake, which is just north of Caroga Lake on NY 10. I hiked up there one evening, after spending the day hiking in the South-Central Adirondacks. It is a wonderful, quick hike, perfect after a long day of hiking or outdoor activities as one heads back to the Mohawk Valley or Albany as the case may be.
The trail up Kane takes you up about 500 feet in elevation over a 1/2 mile. It’s an old woods road, and well traveled, so don’t worry about hiking after dark if you have a flash light or even just moonlight.
Reaching the top of the mountain you reach the Firetower and an old Forest Ranger’s cabin, which sadly has been broken into and vandelized. It still was interesting to walk in and take a look at the cabin, including the tiny little woodstove that once was there. The bunks and other furniture where long gone from it.
Remind me again why people have to be such pigs?
The Fire Tower has some really interesting views out of it, and it is an interesting place to watch the sun set from in the evening. Here is looking from the windows of the observer station, which have the glass removed.
Looking due South, you can see Canada Lake, Sheely Mountain, and the Mohawk Valley to the South. Once you get South of Sheely Mountain, the area around Caroga Lake is relatively flat until you get to the other side of the Mohawk Valley, with the ridges Schoharie High Lands.
The light flickers over West Lake, which is connected to Canada Lake.
Looking at the Southern Adirondacks, heading North along the NY 10 Coridoor. Until recently visiting this portion of the Adirondacks, I always generally viewed these lands as relatively flat, but instead as this picture shows, actually is fairly rugged, with peaks in the 2,000-2,500 elevation range, which is about 500-1,000 above the valleys below. Not flat exactly.
Watching the setting sun from the Fire Tower.
Through the tower windows in the cab as the sun sets.
Due to the clouds, it wasn’t a perfect sun set, but just before the sun disappeared into the clouds, here is what I saw.
After sunset, looking at the fire tower by the last light of the day.
This past year I have spent a great deal of time hiking up mountains and visiting fire towers. Here are pictures of the second five fire towers I visited this year, along with a short description and maps in the second part of this series.
June 29, 2009 & June 30, 2009:
Sugar Hill Fire Tower
The Sixth Tower I visited, was Sugar Hill State Forest / Horse Camp is located outside of Watkins Glen. It’s an equestrian facility with 50 miles of trail, along with a small hiking/no horses area. They have free camping, and 3 equestrian lean-tos and one hiker lean-to on the Finger Lakes Trail. A definitely cool place to visit if your in the Finger Lakes.
The seventh tower I visited, Red Hill Fire Tower is located south west of the Catskills, barely in the park, with views of the south-western Catskills, the High Peaks, and down towards the Delaware River in Pennsylvania.
The Eightieth Tower I visited, was Balsam Lake Fire Tower is located in about 10 miles south east of Margretville in a very rural portion of the Catskill Mountains. It is the only tower in the Catskills actively staffed by DEC Fire Rangers on weekend (mostly acting as guides).
August 7, 2009 & October 10, 2009:
Leonard Hill Fire Tower
The Nineth Tower, Leonard Hill Fire Tower is currently inaccessible, pending renovation. They have removed the bottom to flight of stairs to discourage people from climbing the tower. That said, the DEC Forest Ranger has cleared out a camp site/viewing area directly to the west of the Tower for those who want to enjoy the amazing view due west of the Western Catskills and Upper Schoharie Valley.
October 11, 2009 & October 12, 2009:
Mount Utsayantha Fire Tower
Mout Utsayantha was the Tenth Tower I visited. This fire tower is on a public village park, above Stamford, NY. You can drive right up to it — I visted it twice one weekend. It gives you amazing views of the western Catskills, the area around Summit and Emmenece State Forest, the Upper Schoharie Valley, and on clear days out towards Oneonta.
The Eleventh Tower: Rising 1,000 feet above the low lands of Pine Plains, this firetower gives you beautiful views of small towns, lakes, farmlands, mountains, and a five state region of the Hudson Valley on clear day.
This past year I have spent a great deal of time hiking up mountains and visiting fire towers. Here are pictures of the first five fire towers I visited this year, along with a short description and maps.
The first fire tower I climbed this year was Overlook Mountain Fire Tower outside of Woodstock. This tower is nearby the remains of the Overlook Mountain House and has some rather awesome views.
The second fire tower I climbed this year was Hunter Mountain Fire Tower outside of Hunter. This is the second highest mountain in the Catskills at 4040 feet. The views are less exciting compared to other mountains I’ve been up. I took the much steeper Beecker Hollow Trail, but one can take the longer horse trail in from the west side, if you don’t mind stepping in horse manure.
The third fire tower I climbed was Hadley Mountain Fire Tower in the Adirondacks near Hadley and NY 9N. This has some amazing views of the Great Sacanadaga Lake along with the Southern Adirondacks.
April 19, 2009 & August 2, 2009:
Beebe Hill Fire Tower
The fourth firetower I climbed this was Beebe Hill in the Taconics near Exit B3 of the NYS Thruway Berkshire Spur. It has great views of Northern Columbia County’s rolling country. There also is the Chance of Thunder Lean-to nearby the fire tower, so you can climb it up at night like I did one beautiful Saturday in August.
The fifth fire tower I climbed this was Mount Tremper in the Catskills. Despite having almost no views until you climb the tower, it does have some interesting views of the interior Catskill Mountains. It was a somewhat hot and hazy day when I climbed the mountain.
