Adirondacks

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The Adirondack Park is a publicly protected, elliptical area encompassing much of the northeastern lobe of Upstate New York. It is the largest park and the largest state-level protected area in the contiguous United States, and the largest National Historic Landmark. The park covers some 6.1 million acres (2.5×106 ha), a land area roughly the size of Vermont and greater than the National Parks of Yellowstone, Yosemite, Grand Canyon, Glacier, and Great Smoky Mountains combined.

The Adirondack Park boundary, commonly referred to as the ‘Blue Line,’ contains the entire Adirondack Mountain range, as well as some surrounding areas, all within the state of New York. The park includes all of Hamilton and Essex counties, as well as considerable portions of Clinton, Franklin, Fulton, Herkimer, St. Lawrence, and Warren counties and small portions of Lewis, Oneida, Saratoga, and Washington counties as well. (The Clinton County towns of Altona and Dannemora, despite being entirely within the park boundary, are specifically excluded from the park by statute, due to the large prison facilities in both towns.)

Not all of the land within the park is owned by the state, although new sections are frequently purchased or donated. State land comprises 2.7 million acres (1.1×106 ha), about 45% of the park’s area, including the highest peaks in New York State, as well as Mount Marcy, the highest elevation in the state. About 1 million acres (400,000 ha) of this is classified as wilderness, with most of the remainder managed under the somewhat less stringent wild forest classification. Villages and hamlets comprise less than 1% of the area of the park; the remaining area of more than 3 million acres (1.2×106 ha) is privately held but is generally sparsely developed.[3] There is often no clear demarcation between state, private, and wilderness lands in the park. Signs marking the Adirondack Park boundary can be found on most of the major roads in the region, but there are no entrance gates and no admission fee.

Pillsbury Mountain Firetower

Andy | July 31, 2010

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.

Map of the hike.

View Pillsbury Mountain in a larger map

Wakely Mountain Firetower

Andy | July 22, 2010

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.