Loon Mountain Treat

I haven’t had much luck with my “Monday’s off” this fall. A colleague of mine takes Fridays off and he has lucked out with warm sunny days on the golf links (his pastime of choice). I on the other hand have gotten cold grey days with an icy rain falling. Perfect weather to get hypothermia – bleah! It was with great pleasure, however that I woke up yesterday to sunny skies and a good forecast so I decided to take full advantage of the weather. Had to run a few errands in the morning but then chucked some gear in the truck and raced off to the Adirondacks. Beautiful sunny drive down and I arrived at the trailhead with a nice “alpine start” of 1:30pm. No worries though, late day sun often makes for better picture taking so I loaded up all the gear and headed up the trail.
Bright colours still to be had - just not primary colours
Today I had picked Loon Mountain as my destination. It’s actually considerably closer to town than the high peaks so it made for a short drive. The hike itself is not too long either at about 3 miles to the summit. With a firetower on the summit to visit I had often wondered why it was not on the official “Firetower challenge” list. I learned this summer that, until recently, the forests around the base of the mountain had been owned by a lumber company and public access was forbidden. Now – after changes in ownership and new agreements with the state… and all the insueing paperwork and legal hurdles - public access had once again been restored (in 2009). The forest rangers have made a pass at remarking the old fire wardens trail and have plans (one day) to restore the tower but for now the trail is somewhat rough with an additional 1 mile or so walking along the old forest roads before getting to the trail itself. Once it becomes “trail”, it starts uphill in a hurry with some pretty steep scrambly bits climbing close to 1000ft in the last mile. Forest rangers clearly had never heard of switchbacks when they built their approach trails. On this day I even got a bit of a taste for winter as the trail got higher. Never enough for the need of traction devices but just a nice dusting of snow as if to say “we are coming!”
Early signs of the snows ahead
Finally on the summit I added a layer and then took time to enjoy the view. Sadly – while sunny when I started, the grey clouds rolled over as I climbed. And not even very interesting clouds either – just a steel grey November cloud deck(a day early). From the look of the high peaks to the south I would guess the clouds were about 5000ft as the summits of Marcy and Algonquin disappeared in the grey. Undeterred though I shot quite a few frames. While the leaves are mostly gone there is still some beautiful colour to be had. Mostly rusts and bronze with interesting red berries on the Sumacs. The mountains take on an interesting skeletal form after the leaves are gone (appropriate on this hallows eve). Searching around the summit, I couldn't find many remnants of the fire wardens here. Not clear (to me) where the warden’s cabin might have been (up high? down low?) but there was a steady line of telephone poles up the trail indicating his (her?) communication system.
Fall colour - blaze orange - as it's that time of year
The tower itself looks to be in rough shape. The first riser of stairs has been taken down and chained to the base. While it would be an easy scramble on the steel frame up to the first deck, I opted against as the stairs above didn’t look to be in much better shape. The steel frame – while rusty – looks to be fine so I expect a repair job wouldn’t be too onerous. But who has the money these days. Not the DEC that’s for sure. They will be cash strapped for some time repairing bridges ripped out by Irene. The views are fine without the tower so no big loss that I stayed on the ground for this peak. Got back to the car around 5pm and then made the drive home. While only about 2 hours from home my return trip was slowed by lots of goblins roaming the streets of the small towns I passed through. Best to give them a wide berth lest you be “recruited” to their undead army.
Winter looming not too far in the distance