Ossipee Mt. area Fire Towers: Green Mt., Great Hill, Abenaki - 8/31/14

[Damselfly]

Steve, "Skipper," and friends Karen & Ken R. and I visited three NH Fire Towers today - all in the Ossipee Mt. area.

Green Mt., Effingham - This peak had been on Steve's bucket list for some time. The summit is located in (tiny) Green Mt. State Park, surrounded by the Society for Protection of NH Forest's "High Watch Preserve." We choose to hike from the south, via the Dearborn Trail. This 1.4 mile trail climbs steadily through a beautiful hardwood forest. The trailhead / kiosk is at the end of Hobbs Road in Effingham. The trail bed and footing were quite good. At the summit is a standing tower, old ranger cabin, flagpole, two benchmarks and two picnic tables. There is a warning sign that the tower is in disrepair and should not be climbed - although the sign was ripped off the flagging tape and was on the ground... and I suspect the warning is largely being ignored.

Great Hill, Tamworth - We accessed this peak from the SW side, parking at the intersection of Hemenway Road and Great Hill Road at a designated parking area. The peak and tower is located in the Hemenway State Forest. From this side, the tower was an easy .55 mile walk along woods roads. The tower is in good shape. The tower cab is open, and affords nice views in all four directions; along all four sides are mountain viewing guides / plaques.

Abenacki Tower, Tuftonboro - This standing, wooden-viewing tower, is easily reached by a 0.2 mile trail from a parking area located along Rt. 109 across from Wawbeek Road.


Beth Zimmer
aka "Damselfly"
btzimr at gmail dot com

 

[Amicus]

Roland "Harry" Libby was the Green Mtn. Fire Tower Warden for decades. He had been on duty for years when I first climbed Green Mtn., in 1989, and held that post until he retired after the 2006 season. He was replaced for one year by Ranger Heidi, an amiable young woman who often brought her dog Arlo along with her to the tower cabin, but it has not been staffed since 2007. The lawyers must have made them put that sign up, but I think the tower should be safe for at least a few more years.

The Dearborn Trail, which SPNHF bought and furbished in 2006, is the nicest of the three Trails to Green Mtn., in my opinion. All three are shown on a trail map posted on the SPNHF website. Harry Libby drove up to the Tower every morning on his ATV by the Libby Trail, named after Harry's 19th Century ancestor who cleared a farm southwest of the summit. The Libby Trail is quite eroded and not a treat, but it does combine with the Dearborn for a loop, linked by about 2/3ds of a mile of rough dirt road. It also gives access to an obscure spur trail to Hanson Top, the next summit to the west, which has a view to the south from a pleasant clearing.

Harry and Heidi would always invite hikers up into the cabin, from which the views were even better. Harry was a character, wonderfully friendly.

The Great Hill Tower also has excellent views and I love the diagrams, which identify all visible peaks, 360 degrees. There is a surrounding network of hiking trails in Hemenway State Forest, only some of which appear on the AMC White Mountains Trail Map.

 

[Damselfly]

Amicus.... so nice of you to share what history you had... much appreciated.

Beth

 

[Jazzbo]

Beth

Were there wasps nesting under the cab on the Great Hill Tower? One time when we went up there was a or maybe it was a hornet's nest. I don't know. We had to share the cab with buzzing hornets. The views were awesome, but hornets made it unnerving. Was wishing we had some hornet spray as part of the 10 essentials. Maybe wasp spray should be part of 10 essentials for those who like to visit fire towers. I seem to recall a post earlier this year of some folks getting stung while visiting a fire tower.

Ray