In my quest for fire towers, I went far north and did Lyon and Loon Mountain fire towers.  Two very different hikes.  Both were very muggy and took a lot out of me making me actually eat on the trail!  I also went through nearly 5 L of water over the 12.7 miles.

Lyon was the first one.  This was a lovely trail, not that steep, many switchbacks until the very top where it joins the old trail and has a little bit of scrambling.  The views up top were perfect though.  First I went to search for the true summit, and I think I hit it, but the GPS map says I was just off.  No big deal.  I then went up the tower and saw the 360 view that included views of the wind farm in the south of Quebec.  I took a quick lunch then went back down.  I tried following the old trail from the top, but I kept slipping on the wet rocks and had to go off trail in order to safely get down.  When I reached the junction with the new trail, I just took that all the way out.

Loon Mountain fire tower was another story.  First, I ate more food before I started, and then headed over to the trail register.  Big sign that the tower was closed.  Well, I should have checked, but I'm here and ready to go, so I went.  Most of the first 2 miles is road walk.  About 1.5 miles in there is a turn off to an old road that is very wooded and shaded, a very welcome change in environment.  Then at 2 miles, the climb starts.  It's steep, but not bad for the first 1/2 mile of that climb.  The last 1/2 mile though is steep and eroded picking your way around the rocks and trees until you hit the ridge.  I got to the tower to find that the first stair case was removed to keep people from climbing the tower.  The footings of the tower were not in good shape and needs a fair amount of concrete work.  Hopefully the Fire Tower Association will deal with that soon.  The views from the top were wonderful though.  You could see clearly down to Whiteface and Esther, and off in the distance I could recognize Haystack, Basin, Saddleback, and Gothics.  Saddleback really does look like a saddle from this viewpoint.  Then it was a quick hike down and back home without any incidents. 

This makes fire tower 7/27