Flipsbliss
New member
The Fire Tower Challenge is a worthy cause and a great way to find some wonderful 360 views such as Vanderwhacker Mt. that provides a view of the entire Adirondack High Peaks or the Wakely Mt. tower that is the highest remaining tower at 80ft. Its also a great way to get your friends started hiking on some easy climbs or a short hike keeping the kids interested with a little history and education about the fire towers. But the Fire Tower Challenge is not a hiking challenge as much as a driving challenge with a lot of long drives for a short hike. So, Sunday 4/3, I initiated my idea of how to make a day of it, worth the drive and combining some of my hobbies; hiking, kayaking and birding while completing the Fire Tower Challenge.
We loaded up the car with kayaks, hiking gear, binoculars, lunch and plenty of maps and books for our day trip north. Our goal for the day was to climb Belfry Mt. off Exit 30 of the Adirondack Northway where you take a right off the Exit 30 ramp, a turn I (and probably many of you) have never made in my 10+ years of hiking the Adirondacks. The hike is a whopping .6 miles round trip (that's point 6, including side trips for bathroom breaks) that took us about two hours in driving time. But our effort, in the first leg of our trip, was rewarded with a great view from the tower of many high peaks from a different angle, a part of Lake Champlain and Vermont's Green Mts. for a mere short stretch of the legs. After lunch we started to leave and a bird on one of the guide wires caught our attention with constant chirping, seemingly directed at us. Not until I viewed him in the binoculars did I realize it was a beautiful Indigo Bunting. As we descended down the road he seemed to follow us to a point, most likely protecting a nest by drawing our attention to him.
Our next stop was to pick up a kayak paddle at a manufacturer in Westport and then test it out on beautiful Lincoln Pond just two miles north of Belfry Mt. However, after talking to the owner and canoeing enthusiast we decided to paddle Dead Creek in Vermont just across the bridge at Crown Point along the east side and connected to Lake Champlain. I later learned that The Dead Creek Wildlife Management Area was established in the 1950's and is a 10 mile stretch of shallow waterway. It is best known for the masses of Snow Geese that collect during mid-October on their trek southward. As many as 20,000 pass through a season. This area also is great for biking and has the Lake Champlain Bike Trail, another idea to combine with a Fire Tower Challenge.
This turned out to be a fantastic area for kayaking and birding which also turned out to be a beautiful relaxing day out on the water after such a strenuous climb. Again we were rewarded by mother nature with great sightings of a Bald Eagle, Osprey, American Black Ducks and Great Blue Herons. The Eagle came out of the trees and surprised us, making a fly by just 30ft. above us, checking us out as we got a great look at him in awe! Best look at an Eagle in flight I have ever seen. The 8-10 mile round trip along the Creek was populated with at least 9 sightings of Great Blue Herons in flight or frozen in knee deep water waiting to snatch a fish for lunch. And finally on our return we spotted an Osprey soaring above and raising excitement with the other smaller birds in fear of what the predator bird might do. We then located her nest atop a man-made platform in the marsh. We approached to get a better look and she took flight again, circling the area and watching us as we admired her. We then retreated realizing our intrusion may have startled her but were thankful for the air show and respected her habitat we had the privilege to visit.
This area is a protected wildlife area that is just wonderful to visit and take in natures creatures in their habitat. It reminded us of Cape May that we visited this spring for the migration of 1000's of birds. The views are one of a kind special here with the Adirondacks to the West and the Green Mts. to the East you have to be impressed. From the boat launch to the north it is accessible via canoe or kayak to the public but to the south of the launch is an area that is restricted to boaters and hikers (people). In the parking lot we met a gentleman and volunteer who filled us in on that area and the Vermont Eagle program that is in its last year of a 4 year program to bring back Eagle's to this area of Vermont. It has been a great success, we can attest, and next year will be the test to see if the Eagles come back and breed on their own as they did years ago before man interrupted their cycle.
Check it out here if your interested.
http://www.cvps.com/eagles/
Leaving the area we headed for home and choose a nice scenic ride down 9N along Lake George and stopped for a wonderful dinner at the Algonquin Restaurant on the Lake. What a great day, it sure beats the marathon, peak bagging, list checking, P&J sandwiches days gone by. Been there done that! Now this is how to do a Fire Tower Challenge! Looking forward to our next tower bagging challenge. Happy Trails!
We loaded up the car with kayaks, hiking gear, binoculars, lunch and plenty of maps and books for our day trip north. Our goal for the day was to climb Belfry Mt. off Exit 30 of the Adirondack Northway where you take a right off the Exit 30 ramp, a turn I (and probably many of you) have never made in my 10+ years of hiking the Adirondacks. The hike is a whopping .6 miles round trip (that's point 6, including side trips for bathroom breaks) that took us about two hours in driving time. But our effort, in the first leg of our trip, was rewarded with a great view from the tower of many high peaks from a different angle, a part of Lake Champlain and Vermont's Green Mts. for a mere short stretch of the legs. After lunch we started to leave and a bird on one of the guide wires caught our attention with constant chirping, seemingly directed at us. Not until I viewed him in the binoculars did I realize it was a beautiful Indigo Bunting. As we descended down the road he seemed to follow us to a point, most likely protecting a nest by drawing our attention to him.
Our next stop was to pick up a kayak paddle at a manufacturer in Westport and then test it out on beautiful Lincoln Pond just two miles north of Belfry Mt. However, after talking to the owner and canoeing enthusiast we decided to paddle Dead Creek in Vermont just across the bridge at Crown Point along the east side and connected to Lake Champlain. I later learned that The Dead Creek Wildlife Management Area was established in the 1950's and is a 10 mile stretch of shallow waterway. It is best known for the masses of Snow Geese that collect during mid-October on their trek southward. As many as 20,000 pass through a season. This area also is great for biking and has the Lake Champlain Bike Trail, another idea to combine with a Fire Tower Challenge.
This turned out to be a fantastic area for kayaking and birding which also turned out to be a beautiful relaxing day out on the water after such a strenuous climb. Again we were rewarded by mother nature with great sightings of a Bald Eagle, Osprey, American Black Ducks and Great Blue Herons. The Eagle came out of the trees and surprised us, making a fly by just 30ft. above us, checking us out as we got a great look at him in awe! Best look at an Eagle in flight I have ever seen. The 8-10 mile round trip along the Creek was populated with at least 9 sightings of Great Blue Herons in flight or frozen in knee deep water waiting to snatch a fish for lunch. And finally on our return we spotted an Osprey soaring above and raising excitement with the other smaller birds in fear of what the predator bird might do. We then located her nest atop a man-made platform in the marsh. We approached to get a better look and she took flight again, circling the area and watching us as we admired her. We then retreated realizing our intrusion may have startled her but were thankful for the air show and respected her habitat we had the privilege to visit.
This area is a protected wildlife area that is just wonderful to visit and take in natures creatures in their habitat. It reminded us of Cape May that we visited this spring for the migration of 1000's of birds. The views are one of a kind special here with the Adirondacks to the West and the Green Mts. to the East you have to be impressed. From the boat launch to the north it is accessible via canoe or kayak to the public but to the south of the launch is an area that is restricted to boaters and hikers (people). In the parking lot we met a gentleman and volunteer who filled us in on that area and the Vermont Eagle program that is in its last year of a 4 year program to bring back Eagle's to this area of Vermont. It has been a great success, we can attest, and next year will be the test to see if the Eagles come back and breed on their own as they did years ago before man interrupted their cycle.
Check it out here if your interested.
http://www.cvps.com/eagles/
Leaving the area we headed for home and choose a nice scenic ride down 9N along Lake George and stopped for a wonderful dinner at the Algonquin Restaurant on the Lake. What a great day, it sure beats the marathon, peak bagging, list checking, P&J sandwiches days gone by. Been there done that! Now this is how to do a Fire Tower Challenge! Looking forward to our next tower bagging challenge. Happy Trails!
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