Central ADK Firetower weekend

After last weekend’s chaos of showing 37,000 of my closest friends around town I decided that this weekend I would spend some slightly more quiet time in the woods. I did get a few requests for photos of Race Weekend events but alas, while I do carry my camera in the truck, I rarely have time or even think to pull it out and actually take any pictures – too many other things on my plate. That said there are some really nice pictures from Race Weekend here and here and here.

While this past weekend was not slated to be the best weather wise I still loaded up the car and headed south on Saturday morning. I think in the end I cashed in a lot of karmic chips as I scored some pretty great weather for hiking. As I pulled out of Ottawa it was raining but the clouds started to part as I hit Tupper Lake. I was headed a little further south this weekend with hopes to climb a few firetower peaks. With that in mind I headed towards Indian Lake and then over to the Cedar River dam to hike up Wakely Mountain. Wakely has been one of the firetowers I’ve wanted to hike to for a while. It’s remote location and commanding view of the “little great range” were attractive but it is also the highest firetower remaining in New York which sounded cool. The hike itself was a good one. First a 1 ½ miles through relatively level hardwood forests and then another mile or so straight up the peak. Clearly this trail was cut before anyone thought of switchbacks as the trail climbed right up the fall line with little or no respite from the steep climb. Getting to the summit I was greeted with the 70 foot tower – the only one I’ve come across with guy wires to provide additional stability. Once I climbed it I realized they were certainly needed on this day as a heavy wind was blowing. In the cab of the tower I discovered it rocking and swaying back and forth – very much “Mister Fire Wardens wild ride”. The views were stunning with light clouds floating by so – while my stomach stayed with me - I grabbed some photos of Snowy and the other mountains to the east. Bit of a newbie down in this part of the park so I wasn’t sure exactly what I was looking at … but it all looked nice. Back on the ground I checkout out the firewardens cabin(creepy) before heading back down. Bugs were mostly a non-issue as the strong breeze kept them at bay.

From there I decided to check in to Lake Durant to set up a base camp. At this point I discovered I was out of cash so I drove (quite a distance) to Old Forge for the nearest ATM and then – as luck would have it – I was near Rondaxe peak for another firetower hike. This was a much shorter hike of only a mile and very limited elevation gain. Getting there around 6 in the evening I discovered a dozen cars in the lot and many hikers met me coming down the trail…. But I ended up on the summit by myself. I guess the hiking community all had dinner engagements to get to. Took my time and enjoyed the summit before heading back down as the sun started to dip. Back at camp I made dinner and got a fire going. Been a while since I sat in front of the campfire and it was a very peaceful way to spend the evening. It was quite cold however with a temperature of +2C as I went to bed. The cooler weather was doubly appreciated though as it meant the bugs were non-exsistant (frozen in their homes?) and it certainly meant for a great nights sleep tucked in my tent.

Around 5 am I was awoken by rain on the tent… okay, no early hike. When I did get up the rain had mostly stopped but nearby Blue mountain was encased in low cloud. The weather lady on NPR kept assuring me that more clouds and heavy storms were coming so I decided to skip climbing Blue in the morning and instead headed north to Long Lake. Once there I found Owl’s Head summit free of clouds so I pulled into the trail head, loaded up the pack and headed into the woods. Again this hike started out quite peacefully with a mostly flat woodland trail before making a right angle turn straight up the fall line. What’s with these fire rangers anyway? When I reached the summit I was quite stunned to find brilliant blue skies. To the east the morning clouds were headed out to sea and there was nothing but blue skies to the west. Blue mountain was completely clear. Drat(quietly cursed the NPR weather lady )!! Enjoyed the summit – again strong winds were blowing but the Owl’s head tower is considerably shorter than Wakely so no swaying in the breeze. After enjoying the summit for an hour I headed back down to the car, got cleaned up and drove in to Long Lake to grab a bite to eat. To my surprise, as came out of the shop with a sandwich in my hand, I could see dark clouds cresting Owl’s Head summit. Where had they come from? Sure enough, not 5 minutes after driving out of town the rains started to sheet down(quietly recanted my curses of the NPR weatherlady). When I drove through Tupper Lake the whitecaps were huge and the temperature had dropped about 10 degrees. As I passed through Tupper Lake the rain turned to snow! It didn’t stay on the ground though so I was wise not to pack my skis. I guess that’s the closest I’ll get to snow in June (missed it by a day) which I’m told happens all the time. All in all a great weekend of hiking and I managed to luck out with beautiful weather while I was hiking and crappy weather while I was in the car. Somehow I know I’m gonna pay for that down the road…