Tom Rankin
Well-known member
It rained Saturday, so Laurie and I visited 2 breweries near Cooperstown. (More on the 'brews' later).
Sunday, we decided to tackle not 1, not 2, but 3 firetowers! The first one was Kane. It was just .7 miles to the tower (with about 500' of gain) from the trailhead. The summit offers a pretty good view of the surrounding area, but no high peaks were in sight. It's pretty far South in the ADK Park. We were done by 9:15. The bugs were moderately bad here. The cab on the tower is open. The caretaker's cabin door had been wrenched off its hinges,
, but the inside was in pretty decent shape.
Off we went to Pillsbury, a little further north. It takes a while to drive back into the trailhead. The road is unpaved and has quite a few 'moguls' in it. The actual trailhead is down a 1.1 mile stretch of very rough dirt road, that only 4WD vehicles made it in to. We chose the longer walk. The hike itself was about 1.6 miles each way, ascending 1300'. The views here were better than in the morning. There were glimpses of mountains very far away north that might have been the high peaks. We ate lunch here. This cabin is locked. The cab was open. We saw a jackrabbit/snowshoe hare (is there a difference?) on the summit that almost ran into us before it veered away.
For the 3rd tower, we drove still further north to Wakely. The approach road seems to go on forever, and is mostly dirt, but easily passable. The trailhead has a dirt road leading into the woods. We debated driving it, but opted to walk. After about 1.5 miles, we came to the end of the road, where a Jeep was parked. It turned out to be a volunteer that helps maintain the tower and cabin. She and her fiancee plan to get married up there this August! This climb is about the same as Pillsbury: First the road walk, then a steep climb over about 1.5 miles. Again, the views here were great. The high peaks were definitely visible, but viewed thru a thin haze. The cab was locked here, but the cabin was open. It is in amazingly good shape inside, almost like a museum. You half expect the caretaker to return at any minute!
There is a heli-pad (made of wood, and deteriorating rapidly) near the summit! There is also a pile of propane cylinders and other garbage. Hopefully, the volunteer's plans include removing this stuff eventually.
We noted a large wooden sign with the words "SAVE THIS TOWER" at the base of the tower. Hopefully, that will happen. As has been noted in other threads, there is no view on this summit w/o the tower.
We finally finished our trecking at about 6:00. We had done about 13 miles, and climbed about 3800'.
On the drive back, 3 does were crossing the road, and once across, they lingered at the edge of the road. I held out my hand, and they started walking towards the car. A collie and an old man sat near by watching us. The dog never barked and the man never stirred. Obviously, the dear in this area are quite used to humans, and dogs, and vice-versa!
The 'brews' portion of the journey was at Brown's in Troy. A little out of the way, but boy do they brew a good Oatmeal Stout!
Sunday, we decided to tackle not 1, not 2, but 3 firetowers! The first one was Kane. It was just .7 miles to the tower (with about 500' of gain) from the trailhead. The summit offers a pretty good view of the surrounding area, but no high peaks were in sight. It's pretty far South in the ADK Park. We were done by 9:15. The bugs were moderately bad here. The cab on the tower is open. The caretaker's cabin door had been wrenched off its hinges,
, but the inside was in pretty decent shape. Off we went to Pillsbury, a little further north. It takes a while to drive back into the trailhead. The road is unpaved and has quite a few 'moguls' in it. The actual trailhead is down a 1.1 mile stretch of very rough dirt road, that only 4WD vehicles made it in to. We chose the longer walk. The hike itself was about 1.6 miles each way, ascending 1300'. The views here were better than in the morning. There were glimpses of mountains very far away north that might have been the high peaks. We ate lunch here. This cabin is locked. The cab was open. We saw a jackrabbit/snowshoe hare (is there a difference?) on the summit that almost ran into us before it veered away.
For the 3rd tower, we drove still further north to Wakely. The approach road seems to go on forever, and is mostly dirt, but easily passable. The trailhead has a dirt road leading into the woods. We debated driving it, but opted to walk. After about 1.5 miles, we came to the end of the road, where a Jeep was parked. It turned out to be a volunteer that helps maintain the tower and cabin. She and her fiancee plan to get married up there this August! This climb is about the same as Pillsbury: First the road walk, then a steep climb over about 1.5 miles. Again, the views here were great. The high peaks were definitely visible, but viewed thru a thin haze. The cab was locked here, but the cabin was open. It is in amazingly good shape inside, almost like a museum. You half expect the caretaker to return at any minute!
There is a heli-pad (made of wood, and deteriorating rapidly) near the summit! There is also a pile of propane cylinders and other garbage. Hopefully, the volunteer's plans include removing this stuff eventually.
We noted a large wooden sign with the words "SAVE THIS TOWER" at the base of the tower. Hopefully, that will happen. As has been noted in other threads, there is no view on this summit w/o the tower.
We finally finished our trecking at about 6:00. We had done about 13 miles, and climbed about 3800'.
On the drive back, 3 does were crossing the road, and once across, they lingered at the edge of the road. I held out my hand, and they started walking towards the car. A collie and an old man sat near by watching us. The dog never barked and the man never stirred. Obviously, the dear in this area are quite used to humans, and dogs, and vice-versa!
The 'brews' portion of the journey was at Brown's in Troy. A little out of the way, but boy do they brew a good Oatmeal Stout!
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