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High Peaks experience on Mount Adams

From left, the MacIntyre Range, Mount Colden and Mount Marcy, with Cliff Mountain in the foreground, dominate the view from the cab of the Mount Adams fire tower. (Enterprise photo — Justin A. Levine)

NEWCOMB — Mount Adams is only a few hundred feet shy of being a High Peak, and although the summit of the mountain is completely treed, climbing a few steps up the fire tower offers views of the High Peaks that are hard to get without actually tackling one of the 46.

Situated near Tahawus, the old ghost town near Newcomb, Mount Adams is one of the more difficult of the Adirondack fire towers. It’s not the longest or the highest, but with an unrelenting climb for more than half the hike, it’s up there.

The trailhead is located just past the old Blast Furnace, which has been stabilized by the Open Space Institute, which owns several hundred acres of land in the area. In addition to Mount Adams, the trailhead is also the access point for Allen Mountain, a trailless High Peak.

Setting out, there is a fork in the trail just a few hundred feet from the trailhead, where it meets the Hudson River. Hang a right and make your way to the suspended cable bridge over the Hudson, which would have been easy enough to just walk across in mid-August. But I imagine winter and early spring hikers would have a hard time crossing the river without the bridge.

The trail is flat and easy for the first mile, and while there were numerous mud pits, most were still firm enough to walk right through without even getting dirty. That being said, Leave No Trace principles call for hikers to walk through the mud, whether your boots will get dirty or not.

At just shy of a half-mile, the trail hangs a left near Lake Jimmy. There used to be a large floating log bridge that took hikers across the lake, but it was damaged and the trail has been rerouted around the lake. Much of the bridge is still there, but it only spans about halfway across the lake.

As the trail rounds the lake, there’s a small bridge over the lake outlet and then dozens of planks to walk on as the area is somewhat wet. Again, in mid-August it wasn’t bad, but in spring or a wet year, the bog bridges would be quite welcome.

Just after the 1-mile mark, the cabins of the fire observers come into view. A printout in one of the cabins — the one that’s not actively falling down — said it was in rough shape even more 50 years ago.

“Even in 1967 when I spent the summer climbing her, that cabin was in serious disrepair,” the printed email, from Rick LaCourse, says. “I never spent a single night on the mountain, but climbed it each morning and returned home each evening. Most of the other memories are related to the quiet loneliness of each day in the tower with a rare visitor.”

At the cabins, the trail makes a hard right, and the trail up Mount Adams begins on the left about 100 yards later. Having followed yellow state Department of Environmental Conservation trail markers up to this point, the Mount Adams trail has red discs.

This junction was surprisingly hard to notice. I walked right past it the first time, and then again when I realized my error and turned around. There’s a small sign indicating that it goes up Mount Adams, but the sign was several feet off the main trail and partially hidden by leaves. I ended up tacking on an extra mile due to missing the Adams trail the first time.

Hanging a left onto the mountain trail, it begins to climb and doesn’t stop until the summit ridge is reached. Moving through the woods, there were woodpeckers and other birds flying around. It was quiet and peaceful, as well as rocky. The trail requires a bit of hands and feet scrambling in a couple of spots, but it’s not technical.

After 1.35 miles on the red trail, the tower pops up out of nowhere. The summit and ridge are completely treed-in, meaning the only view to be had requires a trip up the tower.

After climbing a couple of flights of stairs, the High Peaks begin to stretch out in all directions. The tower was restored after Tropical Storm Irene, and includes a great map table that makes it easy to pick out landmarks like Mount Marcy and Mount Colden. The 360-degree views from the tower are hard to beat.

Mount Adams

ACTIVITY: Hiking

DISTANCE: 3.2 miles, round-trip

DIFFICULTY: Hard

DIRECTIONS: From Newcomb, take state Route 28N toward Minerva and turn left onto the Blue Ridge Road at 1.7 miles. Take the Blue Ridge Road to a left onto Essex County 25/Tahawus Road and then turn left again at 6.1 miles to stay on Route 25. The Blast Furnace is located 1.7 miles farther on, and the trailhead is on the right at 1.8 miles, just past the furnace.

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