Woodhull Mountain Bike-n-hike

On Saturday I went with a few people from SAOAC up to the Adirondacks just south of Old Forge to hike up Woodhull Mountain and see the firetower. (Someones YouTube Video) The total distance from the parking area is about 15 miles, but 10 of it is along and old railroad bed, so the easy thing to do is bike the 5 miles in/5miles out and only hike the 5 up and down the mountain. It wasn’t that noticeable but on the bike ride in, there’s just enough of an incline to make it a challenge. Once we reached the bridge over a creek, we left the bikes chained to a couple trees (though quite frankly I don’t know if anyone would hike in 5 miles hoping to find some bikes). The trail itself was a fairly gentle climb I thought, only one big tree down across it that we had to go around. It seems to be a pattern so far this year, that there will be a tree down about a tenth of a mile of the summit of any mountain I climb. The firetower itself is in good shape. They use the cab for a repeater station, so even though it was unlocked, there’s no windows so we only went up the the last landing. After, we walked the short distance to where the former observers cabin would be. Found an old Clorox glass jug hanging in a tree with some mystery liquid inside, it didn’t smell like bleach. Once we descended, on the ride back we headed over to Remsen Falls, just a short 1/2 mile detour. This is a handicapped camping area, with the proper permits and clearence ahead of time, you can drive back there and have a picnic or stay overnight. Overall, with the detour to Remsen, 16 miles in just about 5.5 hours. So far I’ve completed 9 out of the 28 fire towers of the Fire Tower Challenge. More to come as the summer progresses. Click on the pic below for more pictures…