Tour of Balsam Lake Mountain

My favorite fire towers are always the ones that are not only climbable, but with access to the cab as well. My first Catskill fire tower hike was an amazing experience - not only was it staffed with interpreters,but one of the interpreters had a special connection to the mountain.

Our hike started off on the Dry Brook Ridge Trail beginning at the southern approach to Balsam Lake Mountain in Beaverkill, NY. The sign to the "fire tower" almost got lost in the glare of the sun, but fortunately Sister's eyes are better than mine, as I would have led us down the path marked "trail," go figure. I'm not sure where that would have brought us to, but I think it may be part of the southern "loop."

Almost overlooked the sign to the tower

From the Dry Brook Ridge Trail, we met the Balsam Lake Mountain trail which was steeper but not horrible. Along the way we found things that we had not encountered on any hikes in the Adirondacks this year, such as rock walls across the trail (perhaps for run-off,) rocks containing rocks and possibly quartz, and Indian Pipes. Sister pointed out the Indian Pipes, which are "albino" plants lacking chlorophyll, but resembling a mushroom but they are not actually a fungus. Without chlorophyll, they do not require the sun that other plants do, allowing them to grow in the dark forest.

"Chlorophyll... More like bore-aphyll!"~Adam Sandler in Billy Madison

We made a wrong turn in Albuquerque at a very deceptive sign. We followed the sign leading us to the new lean-to and privy, however, the trail seemed to disappear into nothing in both directions from the lean-to site. Bushwhacking got us nowhere so we retraced our steps back to the sign we followed at the most recent intersection. We realized that Balsam Lake Mt was also the name of the lean-to. We continued up the trail where we initially took a left, this led us to the spring which was in the guide book, so we knew we were back on track!

The sign clearly makes Balsam Lake Mt and Lean To to be two separate things in the same direction. You wouldn't have gone straight either!

Balsam Lake Mt Lean-To dedicated to Elinore Leavitt - past President and Chair of the Catskills 3500 Club

We continued to the summit where the tower became visible through the trees. Posing for pictures with the tower behind, we got distracted by these beautiful wild flowers which we were told was fireweed. At the tower we were greeted by Tom and Laurie, the volunteer interpretive guides. Suppressing the urge jump, clap, and shriek "INTERPRETIVE GUIDES!" we kept our cool and followed Tom to the top of the tower. He gave us a tour of the Catskills, and even parts of New Jersey and Pennsylvania. He let us use his binoculars to see the towers on Red Hill and Hunter Mountain, and to see the large stone structure on a mountain in New Jersey. He showed us the valley where Laurie, the other guide grew up, and the cabin that her father built!

The Tower

Fireweed

He explained the triangulation that the observers used to do, moving the alidade on the topographical map in line with where the smoke was. Observers staffing other towers would do the same, calling in their data via telephone. With the multiple location points observed, fire fighters had a better idea of where the exact location of the fire was.



Laurie gave us a tour of the cabin that her father, Larry Baker, build. We toured the kitchen, equipped with a stove and telephone, where the original topographical map is located. Signs and gear adorned the wall. We saw the water packs that the fire fighters would wear into the woods to use to try to extinguish the fire. My father-in-law actually wore these several years ago when he was a volunteer fire fighter in Pottersville, NY. We saw a picture of Laurie with her father taken several years ago. She showed us one of the Catskills books where she is pictured with her father as well.

The cabin that Larry Baker built - note Smokey the Bear on the door!

Father and daughter

After our tour, we were given signed and dated cards, just like the observers used to pass out, saying that we made it to the summit of Balsam Lake Mountain. Between the two, Laurie and Tom are members of prestigious groups such as the 46ers, winter 46ers, Catskill 3500 club, Views and Brews, and probably a few that I'm forgetting.

Balsam Lake Mountain was the home of New York State's first fire tower, built in 1887 with wood by the Balsam Lake Mountain Club. It survived until 1901 when a lightning strike took it down. It was replaced with another wooden tower in 1905. Telephone lines, an access road, and a cabin were added in 1919.

The current 47' steel tower was build in 1930, closed in 1988, and was restored and officially reopened in 2000.

Information from:
www.catskillcenter.org/towers/balsamlake.html


For more pictures, see my Flickr Set

Dreams Crushed at Hadley Mountain

The first time Sister and I hiked Hadley Mountain was last year, before we knew the Adirondack Mountain Club Fire Tower Challenge existed. You can imagine my excitement when Sister called to tell me she hiked it again with a friend and that there was a Potsdam intern at the top passing out signed cards proving that you got to the top, as some of the original fire tower observers did when they manned the towers.

**crickets**

OK, maybe you can't imagine my excitement. But it is exciting - to us. He even had the cab of the tower open so you could get up inside. Jealous of Sister's souvenir and inside-the-cab experience, I convinced a coworker who was excited about the hike, not the intern, to hike it again with me. Well, apparently he has Wednesdays off. Or at least that one he did. Anyway, according to the write up on him in the free local paper, there are also interns on Mt. Arab which we already climbed, and Blue Mountain which is our next adventure this coming Saturday. There's still hope.

Brad-the-Intern's natural refrigerator

Despite the padlock on the cab to the tower, coming back empty handed with no signed card, the view was great, the weather was fantastic, and the mountain seemed much easier than it did as a beginner hiker last year. In fact, it seemed easy.

Stupid padlock!

Anyway, here's the run down of my first and sixth fire tower hike, Hadley Mountain:

June 2, 2006
3.6 mi round trip
Elevation change 1526 ft
Summit Elevation 2675 ft

The 40 foot Aermotor tower originated in 1916. Its original steel ladder up the side was a safety concern, and eventually wooden stairs were installed in 1918. These stairs did not survive the weather well, so in 1929 some permanent steel stairs replaced the wooden ones. However, before these steel stairs were put in, in 1919 the tower was blown over in a wind storm but was quickly repaired and back in use within a year. The tower closed in the 1970s and remained unused until it was restored in 1995-1996 by the Hadley Fire Tower Committee with the help of the DEC ranger corps.

The tower, currently open for climbing

Its original destination was supposed to be on top of Ohmer Mountain, but a property dispute led it to be placed on top of Hadley Mountain instead. It was one of the original 10 towers purchased by the Conservation Commission, costing about $530.00 at the time.

From the tower you can see the Green Mountain range to the east, The Great Sacandaga Lake to the south, and a few High Peaks of the Adirondacks to the north. On a really clear day you can see the Catskills to the south as well. Spruce Mountain, also a fire tower mountain, is to the west. The cute little bald mountain below is called Roundtop.

Sacandaga Lake

Roundtop Mountain,

Looking below in the valleys gives you a great appreciation for all the green that you see, because it was all destroyed in 1903 and again in 1908 by wild forest fires. The soil has still not completely recovered from being sterilized in these fires.


Information from:
http://www.nysfiretowers.com/Hadley_Mountain.htm
Views from on High: Fire Tower Trails in the Adirondacks and Catskills, by John P Freeman


Click here to see the full photo set of my hike up Hadley Mountain.

Mt. Goodnow: The Self Guided Tour

Tower number six of the Adirondack Fire Tower Challenge for my sister and I was Mt. Goodnow. We proved to be hard-core hikers taking on our second fire tower hike of the day. Luckily for us, Mt. Goodnow was on the way home from our morning hike up Mt. Arab and drive down the Roosevelt-Marcy Trail. This trail is named for the dangerous route that Vice-President Theodore Roosevelt traveled from his hike up Mt. Marcy and stay in Tahawus to the North Creek train station after learning that he was to be sworn in as President after the assassination of William McKinley. To read my previous post of Mt. Arab, click here. To read about my post on Tahawus and the Upper Works, and to see where Roosevelt stayed, click here.

Mt. Goodnow is located in Newcomb, New York, and was named after Sylvester Goodnow who was the original owner of the mountain and had homesteaded the base of the mountain in the 1820s. The mountain was later purchased by Archer and Anna Huntington who out of love of the Adirondacks donated it to the College of Environmental Science and Forestry so that it could be preserved and maintained. The Huntingtons were a wealthy couple, Archer was a Spanish history scholar and his wife Anna was a sculptor. Some of her works can be seen in Brookgreen Gardens nears Myrtle Beach, SC. Below is a picture of one of Anna's sculptures taken by Sister on her vacation in Myrtle Beach.

"Diana of the Chase"

The College of Environmental Science and Forestry was kind enough to produce informational booklets about the mountain with a description of the history of the mountain and some stops along the way. The first station marked the tall sugar maples and white ash trees. It is suggested that a disturbance, such as wind, firewood gathering, or logging created a hole in the forest canopy allowing these trees to grow quickly, shading out the competitors. Perhaps the shade tolerant American beech trees will take their place some day. The trees towered above us, the actual tree tops out of sight due to the fog.


We stopped for a while to take pictures of the boulder hugging yellow birch. The self-guided tour booklet proposes that the boulder, covered in moss, lichen, and ferns provided conditions satisfactory enough for the yellow birch tree seed to sprout! It was gravity that pulled the roots down over the boulder, and it's predicted that the tree can survive another 300 years.

Tree hugger hugging

This is the old Huntington barn, which we used as shelter from the rain for a while. Up in the loft remains a fire hose, its opening peaking out the window of the loft. Several feet down the mountain appears to be the foundation and remains of Archer's cabin.

Just below the summit is a bedrock that we were able to catch some pictures through the breaking clouds from on the way back down. The bedrock, according to our booklet, is constantly changing, with minerals gradually be weathered from the edge. An earthquake centered at Goodnow Pond registered at 5.2 on the Richter Scale at 6:20 am on October 7, 1983.

Alas, the tower. Look closely up at the cab of the tower, that's me waving down to Sister. There is a 360^o panoramic view from the top, but with the rain and clouds, we could not see it. I recommend checking out a 360^o panoramic view provided by Carl E Heilman II. This was the first tower we were actually able to get up into the cab of, and only the 3rd tower we could climb all the way up. Inside the cab is a display with the job description of the observers, and a list of those who manned the tower from 1922-1979.

Click on each picture for a zoom image

I have many, many more pictures available on my Flickr page that I recommend checking out. The photoset includes pictures and more detailed descriptions of our morning hike up Mt. Arab as well.

Information from:
The self-guided tour booklet provided by the College of Environmental Science and Forestry
and from the following websites:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anna_Hyatt_Huntington
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Archer_M._Huntington
http://www.nysfiretowers.com/Goodnow_Mountain.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roosevelt-Marcy_Trail
http://www.naturepanoramas.com/41991521.html