Sunday, I went south and did a couple lovely fire towers.  First up was a 2.5 hour drive to Balsam Lake via Beaverkill Rd.  There are 2 ways up this mountain, so you can do it as a lollypop loop.  The trail itself is in rather good shape, and apart from a couple spots of mud and a bit of water on one of the steeper parts, it was a dry trail.  I went up the easy way, going straight when the trail to the tower breaks off to the left.  This took me up a valley between Balsam Lake and Graham and Doubletop mountains (2 of the 35'ers that are on private land and currently off limits to hiking).  The valley was beautiful.  Leaves weren't out yet, but you could see the trees were starting to bud.  When I met the trail from millbrook road, I turned left and went up to the tower.  on that part of the trail, there was a good sized puddle of standing water.  It was big enough that some frogs/toads had laid eggs and there were a few bundles of tadpoles waiting to hatch.  Shortly after I made it to the top and enjoyed talking to the rangers that were eating lunch up there for 15 min or so.  The hike down was the short way.  As I was going down that, I fully appreciated going up the long way as this was steep (the app I used said there was a 42% slope at one point compared to a 30% slope max on the way up).  I got down to the trail in quickly, and was back at my car not long after.  Overall, 4.4 miles with a 2 MPH average speed.

I then went over to Red Hill Fire Tower.  First problem was that there was no cell signal at the end of the 6 mile dirt road leading to Balsam Lake.  I had to guess at which way to go when I got to the main road as all I had that worked was my hiking app and I could see that if I went left (opposite of the way I got there) I would be heading towards 17 and where I know there would be signal.  Turns out, that was the right way to go and I got to the town of Livingston Manner, found signal, and a route to the Red Hill trailhead on Dench road.

This trail was a little rougher than Balsam Lake.  But, overall, it was a beautiful trail.  The whole trail was dry and there was only 1 blowdown to contend with, and that was just a log across the path that looked like it was there a while.  This trail was a bit steeper, but it was still a fun hike.  The rocks were all a rust red, which made it interesting color wise.  Again, the trees were bare, but they were further along in budding than Balsam Lake was.  I got to the top about an hour after I started, and it was again, a lovely peak, and I got it to myself.  Again, like Balsam Lake, it was treed in, and the observation deck was closed, so I didn't bother climbing the tower to get the view.  The hike down was quick and the same as it is an in and out trail, and I had signal by the time I got back to the main road and was able to navigate home quite easily, even if it involved 15 miles behind a car that insisted on doing 5 below the speed limit the whole way.

Total 7 miles for the day.

3/6 Catskill Fire Towers done

1/33 Catskill 35'ers done