Blue Mountain Firetower

The weather here for the past week and half has been just amazing. I took the opportunity to head back up North for a hike to get the legs back into climbing. I decided on Blue Mountain, right outside the small town of Blue Mountain Lake, close to the Adirondack Museum. The trailhead is located just north of the museum on the opposite side Route 28N. A two mile trek one-way, this hike seemed like the perfect one to try out on my own for the first time!

Technically I wasn’t 100% alone. Jordan and I were pet-sitting for some friends over the weekend, so I took along Zahra, one of the most well-behaved dogs I have ever met! She made such a great hiking partner!

It was a little warm and buggy, but it was the trail was surprisingly dry, until we got a little higher. There were some icy spots at the higher elevations, but nothing too bad. I didn’t have to break out the microspikes.

The last half mile is pretty steep and slippery since it is mostly bare rock. I had some flashbacks of hiking Allen at the end of last summer. After about an hour and 15 minutes of climbing, we made it to the top!

Blue Mountain has an open firetower, which supposedly has amazing views. I didn’t go up because of the dog, but I would definitely consider hiking again on a day that was a bit more clear.

I ate my lunch and chatted with some boy scouts while sitting on top. Then we wandered over to the other side of the summit for a better lookout.

The descent back down went by quick, another woman hiking on her own started up some friendly conversation and we happily chatted the entire way down.

I wasn’t nervous to hike by myself, as I did my research on the route. It was only 2 miles long and located in a somewhat populated area of the Adirondacks. It is also a very popular hike because of the firetower. The trail was marked with red trail markers so it was easy to follow. I’m very confident in my hiking ability now and felt quite at home on the trail. I made sure to tell Jordan and my family where I would be hiking and gave them the address of the trailhead. I also carry a GPS emergency locator in case anything goes wrong, along with the 10 essentials.

Blue Mountain
Elevation: 3,759‘
Ascent: 1,496′
Distance: 4.2 mi RT

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