WAKELY MOUNTAIN fire tower hike
WAKELY MOUNTAIN – A hike to the top of the highest fire tower in the Adirondacks, or not!
It's all a bit confusing. On different pages on NYSDEC's website, the Wakely Mountain fire tower is the tallest in the Adirondacks, or is the tallest in New York State, yet it is likely that neither is true. I looked at multiple references and Wakely's fire tower is claimed to be either 70, 82 or 92 feet high. So which is correct?
First of all, we need to determine exactly what we are measuring. The 70-foot measurements are measured from the top of the concrete footings to the floor of the cab. Most of the fire towers in the Adirondacks were built by Aermotor, a Chicago windmill company whose windmill designs were easily redesigned into fire towers. Built in 1916, the 11-level Wakely fire tower is an Aermotor LL-25 tower and the top of the roof is 9 feet above the floor. A typical footing is 3-feet high so we can see how some references come up with 82 feet for the overall height (70 + 9 + 3 = 82).
I could not find any concrete evidence for 92 feet. I have always admired the work of Barbara McMartin whose guidebooks show great attention to detail and well-researched historical facts. In both early and late editions of her “50 Hikes in the Adirondacks” she stated that Wakely's fire tower is 92 feet tall. I have not run into any evidence to substantiate this conclusion, however. In an email communication, Ingersoll states that "the 92-foot measurement in 'Discover the West Central Adirondacks' dates back to Barbara's original edition from the 1980s, and I apparently never double-checked it for the new editions. If I had, I would've defaulted to a DEC measurement." He goes on to mention that the 2006 Unit Management Plan for that area states that it is 69.6 feet from the ground to the base of the cab and that it is the 3rd tallest still standing in the Adirondack Park.
The Spruce Mountain fire tower in South Corinth, Saratoga County, an Aermotor LS-40 built in 1928, is just inside the Blue Line of the Adirondack Park and is part of the Wilcox Lake Wild Forest. It is listed as 73 feet high (top of footing to cab floor), and so is likely to be the highest in the Adirondacks. In comparison, the Snowy Mountain tower is 47 feet, Hadley's is 40 feet, and the one on Blue Mountain is a paltry 35 feet.
The Meenahga tower is another Adirondack 73-footer but it is a private tower on private land over by Rainbow Lake and is not open to the public.
One thing is for sure: the Wakely Mountain fire tower is one of the highest in the Adirondack Park.
The Wakely Mountain Hike
To get to the trailhead, from Routes 28/30 west of Indian Lake, drive southwest on Cedar River Road (paved at first, then dirt) for 11.7 miles and the trailhead will be on your right.
The trail starts out on an old woods road and is easy walking for 2 miles while slowly gaining over 400 feet in elevation. At a sign, the route turns right and starts climbing with a vengeance. At this junction, if you follow an obvious but unmarked path straight ahead, you will come out onto a beautiful beaver meadow with a wonderful view of the mountain and fire tower.
Back on the marked trail, the climb continues through a forest of beech, maple and yellow birch as you gain close to 1,200 feet over the next 1.2 miles. You will know that you are getting closer to the top when you see some handrails made of wood planks nailed to trees and a short ladder, both of which I found more useful on the descent than on the ascent. Up high, the forest consists mostly of spruce and balsam fir.
The climb eases near the summit and a short path to the right leads to a wooden helipad with a good view east across Cedar River Flow to Snowy Mountain and you will notice Wakely's fire tower peeking out over the treetops nearby.
The summit elevation is 3,744 feet. In 2018, repairs were made to the footings and other parts of the tower to make it safe for continued public use. Below the tower, you will find a picnic table, an outhouse, and a fire observer's cabin. DEC fire towers ceased to be manned in 1988. There is no view unless you climb the tower but you will find that great views start halfway up. At the top, a short ladder leads up to a narrow trapdoor in the floor of the cab which is on the small side, measuring 6 feet by 6 feet. DEC has a radio repeater up here with a solar panel attached to the outside of the tower. I assume that the helipad is there to aid in the maintenance of the repeater, the tower, and the cabin.
The views are in all directions. You can see the High Peaks to the north, and, to the west, one looks across Lake Kora, Sagamore Lake over to Raquette Lake – lakes with a history of great camps. Overall, there is very little civilization in evidence.
Hiking poles will help save your knees on the way back down the mountain. The round-trip distance is 6.4 miles, or 6.5 miles if you do the side-trip to the meadow.
Spruce Mountain
The Spruce Mountain fire tower, on a small 2.54-acre rectangle of state land in the Wilcox Lake Wild Forest, was renovated and reopened to the public in the fall of 2015. I hiked up the blue-marked trail in mid-October of that year during peak foliage.
The 1.6-mile trail gains 1,000 feet in elevation and climbs mostly through hardwoods, but, appropriately, the fire tower is surrounded by spruce trees. The first half of the trail is through state land but much of the rest goes through conservation easement lands owned by Saratoga Plan and Lyme Timberlands – the trail is closed to the public during big game hunting season which, in 2020, goes from October 24 through December 6.
The summit elevation is 2,009 feet. Nearby views from the fire tower include Macomber Vly and Saratoga Lake, and there are distant views to the High Peaks, the Catskills and the Green Mountains of Vermont.
No matter how high each of the fire towers actually is, both fire towers are worthwhile destinations – please, just bring a 100-foot tape measure with you and let me know the results, thank you!
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