Hadley Mountain - 9/3/11

Hadley Mountain can be a great hike to get a view of the southern adirondacks from atop a restored firetower.  On this day though, it was extremely humid outside and the black flies were out in full force.

The weather forecast for the day was questionable with 40 % chance of scattered severe thunderstorms so we chose a shorter hike close to home.  Another reason was the closure of the Eastern High Peaks due to storm damage from Hurricane Irene.  While driving to the trailhead, we noticed all along the roadways cut up logs and branches that had been removed from roads, but not yet cleared away.  We got to the parking area at about 11:15 AM and there were about 10 cars in the parking lot (including a state forest ranger pickup truck).

Leesa, Nick and I were doing this hike and we decided to do a little geocaching along the way.  There were 4 caches hidden along the trail and we found all 4 of them.  As we were hiking we passed the forest ranger along the way.  He was there with a chainsaw cutting up all the trees that had fallen into the trail.  We thanked him for his efforts!

The only safe haven from the black flies was up in the firetower.  The wind up there I think was enough to keep them away.  The cab of the tower was locked, but you could still get a view from the highest platform.  On this day though, it was rather hazy, so visibility was reduced.  We stayed on the upper platform of the tower to have a snack, and then headed back down.

Roundtrip distance:  3.6 miles

Roundtrip hiking time:  1.5 hours

Elevation at summit:  2653'

Elevation gain:  ~ 1490'

Our route is shown in blue

The trailhead sign

Historic sign at the trailhead

Informational sign

Nick signing us in

The forest ranger clearing the hurricane damage

There were quite a few trees down everywhere

The fire observers cabin near the summit

The cabin has been restored, but was locked and you couldn't see in

View of the tower from the cabin

This was near the cabin and was the entrance to the cellar of some former small building

a closer look

The summit

Nick and Mike

We'll have to come back and do this hike again when the visiblility is better.