Blue Mountain & Goodnow Fire Towers

On Saturday, I went up north with a small group from SAOAC to hike the Blue Mountain and Goodnow fire towers. Blue Mountain was the first of the fire towers to be restored by a group working with the DEC back in 1994. Because of the trailhead being right on a major road it is also one of the most popular fire tower hikes. It’s a 2 mile hike one way with a little over 1500 feet of elevation gain. What’s that mean? Steep sections of rock to climb. I made it up in just under two hours, approx 20-30 minutes behind the rest of the group. Here’s a good link with pictures and descriptions. Another site with some of the history of the mountain, you may need to scroll down a little to the Blue Mtn. Fire Tower section.

After Blue, we went “down the road” (about 20 miles) past Long Lake to Goodnow, which is owned by ESF and set up as a nature trail. It’s 1.9 miles one way and just over 1000 feet of elevation change. Not quite as steep as Blue, but still a good workout on the way up. There’s an old horse barn about half a mile from the summit. Another site with pictures and description.

With these two done, I’ve now completed 11 of the 28 fire tower hikes.

Click on my pic below to see more from my hike….