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Balsam Lake Mountain Fire Tower

Andy | August 8, 2009

Last weekend, after hiking up to Slide Mountain, I decided to drive another 30 minutes west to Balsam Lake Mountain. This was the final fire tower in the five remaining trails in the Catskills.

Across from the Dry Brook Parking Area is the blue trail heading south to the Balsam Lake Fire Tower. It is not well marked, but there is one sign that points across the lot, then this well worn sign at the start of the old woods road that leads to the fire tower.

The first 2.25 miles of the trail runs entirely through private lands, and is heavily posted. There is also very few blue markers, so don’t be surpised until you reach the kisok that you feel you are on the wrong trail.

Seeing this was very re-assuring, as I signed my name into the book, and knew I was on the real trail. The kiosk is set about 1/4 mile back from the road. But if you’ve seen the first sign, your okay, as you’ll eventually reach the kiosk.

Here is a picture of the old woods road. When the tower was open, the Ranger could drive all the way up there. Today, you can technically drive in until you get to the start of the state land, although it would be rough without a pickup. This trail is not particularly steep.

Along the trail is several old telephone polls, used to carry telegraph and/or telphone lines up to the way up it.

At 2.25 miles you reach the intersection of the blue and red trails, the red one that takes you to the tower. It might be only 3/4 miles to the tower, but you still have to go an additional 600 feet in elevation, on a trail with several moderately steep uphill.

At 2.5 miles you reach the Balsam Lake State Forest, and about a minute later, you reach the 3,500 elevation mark.

You climb and you climb, and the trail opens up. You think your at the top when you here, but your not. Think about hiking for another 15 minutes.

Finally, you see the Ranger’s station and the tower. This makes you happy, especially if you climbed Slide Mountain before this.

The fire tower is staffed on summer weekends, and the cab is open for inspection. At the Ranger’s cabin, there is historic posters from back in the day when the tower was staffed.

Here’s the tower against the very grey sky.

There are some views from the tower, but not super interesting or exciting. Maybe if it was clearer, with deep blue skies it would be a lot purtier.

Here is the inside of the cab of the tower. There is a fixed map to help the ranger in the past observe where a forest fire was, and then call down to the firefighters.

Here’s the Ranger’s Cabin from up top in the tower.

About 200 feet lower, and a 1/4 mile to the south, there is a spring. Also nearby is a lean-to, that is popular on the weekends.

The fire tower steps.

Here is a map of the hike that I took.

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Leonard Hill

Andy | August 7, 2009

There is a currently closed, but slated for reconstruction, fire tower a top Leonard Hill in Schoharie County. You can drive up there with a car or truck as the road is well maintained.

You get there by driving out Broome Center/Potter Hollow Mountain Road, then taking a left up Leonard Mountain Road, which is located right in the middle of Broome Center. You take Leonard Mountain Road about a mile until you see an truck trail marked solely by a “Leonard Hill State Forest”, and take a right on it.

After about a mile on this truck trail, you are on a ridge between Hubbard Hill and Leonard Hill, and can see Leonard Hill Fire Tower ahead. Continue on that truck trail by another mile, and you’ll arrive up to the tower, and you can drive right up to it’s base.

The tower looks a bit rusted in a places, but structurally good. It is awaiting a reconstruction project that the last time I had heard was delayed by concerns over the high cost of gasoline last summer.

To discourage people from climbing a potentially unsafe tower, they have removed the first two flights of stairs.

Just across from the tower is a beautiful campsite, with some fantastic views of the Catskills and the Schoharie Valley. I spent the following night down there, camping out. It was cloudy that night, however if the weather was beautiful, there could be a great sunset to watch from here.

Here is the Schoharie Valley.

Blenhium Mountain and the NYPA Blenhium Power Reservior can be seen well from the campsite. The reservior is partially lit up at night from generating equipment and safety lights by NYPA.

Here is the valley below, and the mountains beyond it, the Emminence State Forest.

Here is a map of Leonard Hill.

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Red Hill Fire Tower

Andy | July 13, 2009

The Red Hill Firetower is on a relatively small in-holding of land by the state of New York that’s part of the larger Sundown Wild Forest. This was the forth Catskill firetower I have visited in recent weeks. I hiked on a beautiful Monday, which I had decided to take a vacation day on.

Red Hill is the easiest firetower to hike up to in the Catskills, even if it’s one of the most difficult to drive from the Albany-area. It is located outside of Grahamsville, about 10 miles North-West of Rondout Reservoir. There is only local dirt roads and windy county roads that run from NY Route 55, which itself is certainly not an expressway.

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Here is a sign telling you it’s not a tough walk.

This is typical, relatively flat trail which you walk on for the first 9/10 of a mile.

The last 1/2th of a mile is relatively steep compared to the first part, maybe gaining 400 feet in elevation, and you’ll have to stop and breath a few times as you go up towards there.

When you reach the top, there is an Ranger Station (open weekends) and several picnic tables. There are big signs saying fires are prohibited due to the fire danger, when the grass is dry. That should be a no brainier, but in the summer and winter, it seems a bit absurd. Must be a bad experience from years ago. There is no outhouse, you’ll have to walk off into the woods to find a place to squat and do your business.

This is the tower, directly across from the Ranger Station. It is staffed on the weekends.

The views aren’t anything to write home about, unless you want to see mountains that are less then remarkable in the distance. This is to the north.

Red Hill is the southern edge of the Catskills, and as you can see looking to the south, the landscape is quite flat.

Most of the area around the tower is heavily wooded and owned by either the State or New York City DEP Water. There are a few farms around, especially looking west.

On the weekends, you can go into the tower’s cabin. Weekdays it is closed, supposedly because of vandalism. It’s bullshit if you ask me, because who drives 125 miles into the sticks and hikes 1.4 miles to vandalize an old tower? Mount Tremper is open.

Despite the lousy views (it’s a relative term), the fire tower must be popular, or so the many signs that warn people the tower can only support six people.

When I was leaving the fire tower I happened to hear an SUV coming up with the former Ranger (now a private individual). They where planning to paint the tower steps on Monday. He offered to unlock the tower, but I was inpatient, and he wouldn’t let me do it with the keys myself. I don’t know if I or him was being more of a dick.

After I left, he closed off the tower, because he was painting the steps.

Here’s a map of the route to the fire tower.

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This gives you an idea of what you see from the tower. Most notably, Doubletop Mountain and Rondout Reservoir. Nothing really super impressive though, just mountains and very little civilization in this rural part of Sullivan County.

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Mount Tremper

Andy | June 6, 2009

Last Saturday I went hiking up Mount Tremper in the Catskills. This is one of five remaining fire towers in the Catskills, and I was excited to do my fifth tower in the Catskills.

It was a nice day out, warm, but not to warm. It also was quite clear which I discovered when I reached the top of the mountain. The trail is 2.5 miles to the top, but it’s elevation increases are moderate, following an old woods road to the tower the entire way. Parts of the old woods road are eroded away, but it’s still an easy hike, as long as your patient.

As I often go hiking along, one technique I use on such a trail like this is to bring my Mp3 player and listen to podcasts as I hike on up. I knew it would be about a two hour hike up, so I put two hour long programs on the player, and the time passed quickly.

About 2/3rds the way up the mountain there is a lean to, the Baldwin Shelter once can stay in. There also is another lean-to adopt the mountain.

Once you reach the top, there are no views except a few between the trees. The only views you can see from this mountain are from the fire tower, which are quite spectaular, however you must go all the way up into the tower’s cabin before your above the tree level.

The views from the tower are amazing. This is out toward Hurley and the Ashoken Reservior.

Here’s Devils Clove. Some reflections are noticeable from trying to shoot through the windows of the Fire Tower cabin.

Slide Mountain through the windows of the tower. It was hot up there, and the bugs and glass made it hard to get pictures. I tried to open a window in the tower, but the latch wouldn’t budge.

Descending the tower.

I walked a ways onto the blue trail beyond the tower, searching for other views, however there are no views except on the tower on Mount Tremeper. A nice hike for sure, but I would have preferred some views where I could sit down, have my lunch, and enjoy the edge of the mountain.

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Palenville Overlook

Andy | May 25, 2009

On Memorial Day 2009, I decided to go on an afternoon hike to the Palenville Overlook, along the old Catskill Mountain House Road, which was used for horse and buggies during the era of that great mountain house prior to the installation of the inclined railroad and later automobile.

The first part of the trail is a moderately steep old wagon road that climbs about 1,000 feet to the site of the Halfway House / Rip Van Winkle Hollow. If it wasn’t gated closed, it would be passable by an automobile. When you reach the ruins of the Halfway House, there are horse tie-downs and ruins of the old tavern known as the Half Way House. It’s where passengers could get a good strong drink and so could horses, as they made their way up to the Mountain House.

After this nice place for resting, the trail climbs a bit more and becomes a lot less steep. You pass by a private hunting cabin, and finally into the forest preserve. You arrive at a pinic area with nice views of the valley, a picnic table, horse tie-downs, and a fireplace full of trash.

From there the trail gently goes up, with two big switchbacks. The trail to the Palenville Overlook switch-backs down about 100 feet off the old Catskill Mountain House Road, and then winds on a narrow trail about another mile to the Palenville Overlook.

You then cross the ruins of the old inclined Otis Railroad tracks, in which all that remains are foundations. According to “AMC’s Best Day Hikes in the Catskills”, the rails and other scrap metal was sold to the War Department during World War I. By then the automobile had made this mode of obsolete as the old horse trail up the valley. All that remains is the cut on mountain, where a high-tension power wire runs.

You eventually reach the Palenville Overlook. The views are amazing, although it was fairly hazy the day I went there. There are awesome stone-built chairs out of old Palenville Mountain House ruins, that provide a great place to sit with a book, as you enjoy views of the Hudson Valley looking south-east. There is another view along the escarpment of the valley somewhat to the north, that gives more due-east views.

From there, I hiked back to the old Catskill Mountain House road, and up to the site of the old Catskill Mountain House ruins. I took some pictures, and then started down the mountain, when I realized I had left my hat up the Catskill Mountain House site. So I ended up backtracking, and ended up missing Memorial Day dinner at my parents house. But so be it.

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Hunter Mountain via Mink Hollow

Andy | April 10, 2009

On Friday I hiked up Hunter Mountain, the second tallest peak in the Catskills at 4040′ elevation above sea level. From the trail head you clime 2020′ feet in elevation, about doubling your height, but it’s not that bad when you consider the climb is over 2.5 miles via the Becker Hollow Trail.

It was a beautiful sunny day, although I was well aware that rain was expected by afternoon. I had gotten a late start, not reaching the trail head until about 9:30 AM. It was quite hot going up, in part because there was little shade to hide out under.

The first part of the trail was relatively modest, but it quickly got steeper. It didn’t seem that bad, but I could feel the elevation, and with the sun it was quite warm. I took frequent breaks, stopping for lunch, pictures, water, and just to cool down, especially where I could find shade under the pine trees.

Around 3500 elevation marker, the trail headed south and got snowy and icy. It was a steeper hike, but not any worst then any other of the Catskill peaks. Then the yellow trail split off the blue trail, and it was a 1/4 mile up to the fire tower.

The fire tower is in the middle of the Catskills, so the surrounding mountains block the view of the valley except for a few views, such as down the Palenville Clove. Westerly views are the best, as are some of the southerly views.

The top deck of the fire tower of is missing the safety screen. Not that it matters much as the railing makes it pretty unlikely to fall, but I still have enough of a fear of heights to be extra careful. Stupid, sure.

A little ways to the south on the blue trail, about 1/2 mile, there is another view that overlooks the south-west, including West Kill Mountains, Slide Mountain, and Belleayre, all clearly identifiable.

This hike is definitely worthwhile when things are green out, if you enjoy looking at mountains. But it was awful gray out, especially by the time I reached the top, and it had clouded over. The lack of views of the Hudson Valley and the river was somewhat disappointing, but not surprising.

I slipped on some ice on the way down, slide about 10 feet and certainly felt it the next day. Other then that, it was a nice descent, much easier then going up. It started to pour, just about the time I reached my truck.

Be sure to see the Central Catskills Photos, where many are from Hunter Mountain.

Hikers – Trail Head
Purple Line – Becker Hollow Trail
Flag – Hunter Mountain Firetower
Balloon – Hunter Mountain South-West Overlook

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Burnt Knob and Acra Point

Andy | March 22, 2009

The previous Sunday I hiked up Windham High Peak. This Sunday I parked on Big Hollow Road, went to the second peak west of Burnt Knob via Black Dome/Escarpment trail, then back east over Acra Point, and back down on the Batavia Kill Trail.It was cold and sleet was coming down. It felt kind of strange with a sunburn from the previous day. It was gray out, with a few times with blue sky peaking out between the snow squalls.

Watching the snow come down on the mountains was cool, as they rolled in and out. On Acra Point I couldn’t see anything at all because it was coming down so hard. Other times, it would just appear hazy from the ice pellets taking away from the clearness of the day.

I wish the weather bad been nicer for taking photos. There where some real nice views up there, argumentatively nicer then some that you see from Windham High Point, which is several hundred feet higher. I do want to do redo this part of the trail once things green up out there. I plan to continue doing more of the escartment trail, each weekend a new section. My goal is to hike a new mountain every weekend, until it gets too warm out do it comfortably.

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State Land

Maps - Photos - Videos

Balsam Lake Mountain Fire Tower

Leonard Hill

Red Hill Fire Tower

Mount Tremper

Palenville Overlook

Hunter Mountain via Mink Hollow

Burnt Knob and Acra Point