Hiking the Beebe Hill Fire Tower Trail

Well, happy belated birthday America! This 4th of July weekend has been a whirlwind, spent mostly eating food. My Girlfriend's parents came out for the long weekend to celebrate the 4th with us. Her Dad and I were going to go do some fishing, but that didn't happen due to reasons beyond our control. Shortly after her folks left town, I made a quick run to the local stores searching in vein to find some parts to fix my beloved chair - which was once occupied by my late grandfather. To keep me from digressing from sad to angry, Jackie made a marvelous suggestion, she said we should go for a short little hike. Well holy shit! I'm always down to hit the trails. Since we are gearing up to nail out some Saranac 6er patches, it is only fitting that we do a few hikes before hand.

I was showing Jackie some hikes we could do on alltrails.com - and we stumbled on this fire tower about a half hour from where we live. It is a nice short hike - just under 3 miles there and back - and the elevation gain is only like 400 some feet. And, so we include the elephant in the room - there is a sweet fire tower that is in reasonable shape to climb at the top. When she suggested we go on a hike, this is where I decided we should go. 

One thing worth noting, is that this is our first hike together. It is also my first hike with a girlfriend... ever. We both had a first on this one! 

I laced up my boots, packed my day bag and went about fetching the girlfriend. She was in the process of cleaning her boots from the last time we went to our friend's bonfire - where there was lots of mud. Her boots were caked in 4 month old mud. She was getting frustrated trying to clean them off. I grabbed some Windex and showed her a sweet trick for cleaning black boots. Squirt, squirt, wipe and repeat as necessary. After showing her the bets trick in the world for cleaning just about anything, boots included, we took off for Austerlitz, where the Beebe Hill Fire Tower is located. 

On the way, we stopped at Stewart's Shop to pick up some bug spray, bottled water and a Red Bull. For those of you that are not from the eastern part of New York, you must know that they have the best ice cream, and store brand dairy products. The Vanilla Dairy Refresher is the tastiest drink ever. When I was living abroad, this was the among the top things I missed dearly. 

We got to the trail head after realizing that I could not recalculate my GPS due to lack of cell service - which is worth noting for this if you rely on your phone. I have AT&T and my ginger girlfriend has Verizon. I had no service the whole way, she got service when we got to the top of the mountain. Blast! 

We got out of the car and set about finding the way up. 

Look for the blue trail markers

You want the trail that is to the right of the gated road. You will know you are going the right way when you see blue trail markers.

We stowed our goodies in my pack, grabbed our cameras and set about our hike. 

The hike, as I mentioned before, is short compared to other hikes I have done. Jackie is getting her feet wet with hiking, she comes from a very flat part of New York. My apologies to Western New York, but there is nothing worth hiking out there. I lived there for a while, I know. The trail is about a mile and change up, and likewise going back down. 

About 1/4 of the way up, I realized just how out of shape I am. I was huffing and puffing for a short while until I got my stride down. I put Jackie in the lead and had her set the pace. I don't know why - but she was hauling ass up the mountain. I thought she would set a slower pace, but I was wrong. On this hike, Jackie had two speeds, 0 and Fuck You. 

We stopped along the way and took pictures of stuff. Most of you will know that there are not many things to take pictures of on a trail. It's all the same - trees. There were some cool things along the way, like this little pond which was about 2/3 of the way up. There was a sign on the pond, an old weathered paint-on-wood sign. I can't for the life of me remember the name. I think Jackie got a picture of the sign. I did snatch her camera tonight to grab some of the images she took and must have glossed over the one with the sign. I took what I wanted and left. How man of me. 

We stopped here and collected ourselves for a few moments and noticed some fresh horse tracks that looked to be but a few hours old. We bantered back and fourth and speculated where the horse and its' human could be, why they were there, and if we would run into the pair up the trail. It turns out that we would have no such luck. We did, however, find a big steaming pile of horse shit a few meters up the trail. We managed not to get horse shit on our boots thanks to the ever watchful eyes of my esteemed ginger. 

The Ranger Cabin for the Beebe Hill Fire Tower

After hiking for another 10 or 15 minutes, we felt that we had reached the summit, and thought that we would finally see this magnificent tower that we read about in the interwebs. We were presented with a building that looked to be a cabin of sorts - which we later found out was the old rangers quarters thanks to Michael Cooney over at Upstate Earth (Click here to read his bit on hiking Beebe Hill)

Jackie said that she wanted to go to the store or eat or something like that - in a funny sort of way. I was joking with her going up the hill saying "I'll tell you what, we run into a gift shop and I'll buy you whatever you want!" We both had a laugh because there was obviously no such thing to be encountered on this traverse. Thinking about it in hind sight, when the trail ends and you see that old ranger cabin, I should have been like "Look! There it is, but it appears the gift shop is closed..." Ha. ha.. ha.. I laugh to myself, because that joke is so unfunny and poorly timed. Yeah... I laugh at my own awful jokes. Fuck you if you cant take a joke. 

Safety first, fire towers can be unstable
and fucking outright dangerous

So we stopped at the boarded up ranger cabin and took stock of where we might find said fire tower. The trees are green and thick, so we did not see it when we first got off the trail. You come out and this cabin greets you to the left. There was a trail through some trees to the right, so we made our way down that way and the fire tower finally appeared! Alas! We reached our objective, our only task now was to climb the tower. Safety first as Jackie demonstrates here in this picture. The railings were a bit wiggly but overall secure. 

I'd love to throw a GoPro from here just to see what
a fall might look like

We walked up slowly so as not to find a loose plank and fall. It is a long way to the bottom as demonstrated by another brave picture taken by Jackie (right). I went first and made sure that everything was 'safe' to climb. I decided to be the king's soup tester as any good man would. I was a but of a puss on the way up because the wind picked up and I was worried that the tower might sway with it. Nothing wrong with a little caution. On the 3rd or 4th landing, I did notice some noticeably loose planks that might cause concern for some. Not to worry, just go slow. 

I feel fortunate to breathe the same air as these trees

When we finally made it to the top, the views were just what I had imagined them to be - totally awesome. 

We set about taking some pictures from the top of the tower once the wind dies down a little bit. It is really small up there. I couldn't help but wish that this thing was my office every day. I can only imagine how it would look in the fall with all the foliage. I think we may have to go back up in the fall and take some fall pictures.

Jackie taking pictures of the marvelous scenery

This was taken facing the east by Jackie.

This is one of my favorite pictures I took at the Beebe Hill Fire Tower.
 It doesn't even look real. 

Me on the way down the Beebe Hill Fire Tower

We stayed up there for a few moments and took some more pictures. We did not stay up there for long because we wanted to get back down and go get something to eat. We climbed down slowly again so as not to eat it on the way off the tower after surviving the way up. It was sturdy so I don't know why I was so worried. I think if I did this alone I would have not given 1/2 a shit about whether this thing was solid or not. Things change when you are with other people I guess. 

Sincerely Yours -Rickman

We got to the bottom and took a few more pictures. Jackie was all curious about the flora, and I wanted to get some shots of the tower, of which the best of all those shots made it to the top of this post. I also had her take this one of me before we hit the trail to go back home. 

All in all it was a great spur of the moment adventure, and I look forward to many more. Hopefully next time I report here, I will be telling the tales of becoming Saranac 6ers. We would also like to nail out the fire tower challenge as well. 

Stay tuned my friends. Be safe, do good work, and keep in touch!







Sources

http://www.dec.ny.gov/lands/66460.html
http://upstateearth.blogspot.com/2010/02/hike-to-top-of-beebe-hill.html
http://www.taconichiking.com/beebe-hill.php

Mountain Clubs Like ADK 46ers and Catskill 3500

Well, it has been quite a long time since I posted anything to this blog. A log has happened since my last post in 2009 - a few more hikes, health issues and some business issues. All things aside, I am getting back up to the mountains, where I fucking belong.

That being said - I am actively working on getting back to the high peaks to knock off a few more so I can be a 46er and get that much coveted patch. While looking for some hikes to do, I started wondering to myself - what is there after becoming a 46er? There surely has to be more clubs like it. I am a points/achievement whore. When I was flying all over the country for work, I was racking up frequent flyer miles. When I drive, I always use Waze because I am collecting points on there to unlock achievements. I am not a rich man by any means, so the only way to get status and respect is by points and badges to show off my awesomeness.

So that being said, I have created a list of places where one can earn some trail cred here in The Northeast:

The Saranac 6er's - This is a fairly new program. When I set off on my 46er journey, this club did not exist. Now it does. You can become 6er in the Saranac Lake region of the Adirondacks by climbing the six peaks that surround Saranac Lake: Mckenzie, Ampersand, Scarface, Haystack, St. Regis, and Baker. There are 3 levels of 6er, they are:

• 6er - Which is done simply by climbing the 6 peaks listed previously. 
• Ultra 6er - This status is attained by climbing all 6 in a 24 hour period. There are specific caveats to this, which you can read about on their site.
• Winter 6er - All 6 peaks in the winter. You can also do them in 24 hours and become an Ultra Winter 6er. 

The Saranac 6er's club is a great starter, and includes a 46er peak, so you can kill 1.1 birds with one stone. Great confidence builder. My girlfriend and I will be attempting the Ultra 6er designation this summer some time. 

Vermont Long Trail (End to End certification) - This achievement is a bit more difficult than becoming a Saranac 6er. This trail goes the entire length of Vermont. It is the oldest long distance hiking trail in the United States. You can do it in one trip, or many over a period of time. You record journal entries and send them into the Green Mountain Club where you get a rocker patch and a one year membership to the Green Mountain Club. Check out their page for more information. 

Fire Tower Challenge - This challenge requires climbing 23 peaks that have fire towers on them. Some of the peaks are in the ADK's and there are a few in The Catskills. 

I will update this list as I go. There are more peak lists over at peakbagger.com -  some of the lists have patches, some do not. It's a great resource to look at, and it includes peaks across the world.