The last Catskill Fire Tower Challenge hike we did with Kara was Overlook Mountain and Echo Lake trail. The last time we came to Overlook fire tower, it was still winter and everything was white and frozen. This time it was a rainy, fall morning. We decided we were not going to let the rain…
On Monday we completed Hunter Mountain fire tower. This time we took the blue trail instead of the red Devil’s path trail. If you’re going to hike Hunter Mountain via Becker Hollow Trail know that it is shorter but a 2,240 feet elevation gain. For two miles you just keep going up until you get…
On Thursday, we hiked Balsam Lake Fire Tower and Red Hill Fire Tower with our friend. She only has 2 more towers to complete before getting her Catskill Fire Tower Challenge patch. The first tower we did was Balsam Lake Mountain. For us, this was the third time hiking this trail and it felt the…
Since we want our friend to complete the Catskill Fire Tower Challenge, we took her hiking Mount Tremper tower first. This is one of the easiest hikes for me since the trail is just a continuous uphill. There are no downhills and uphills that would make this problematic. This might be a little boring for…
One of the Catskills fire tower challenges that I wanted to delay doing was Hunter Mountain fire tower. In the summer when we did it, I was sweating, huffing and puffing and remember miles of uphill trail. Perhaps in the summer it seems worse that it is because of the mosquitos and heat. This time…
After completing the Overlook Fire Tower trail, back in the car we went to hike to Upper Esopus fire tower. This is located about 20 minutes from the the Overlook parking lot, in the Catskills Visitor Center. The Upper Esopus tower is the new addition to the previous Catskills fire tower challenges. It was added…
When we first did the Catskills fire tower challenge we completed it in two days. There were 5 fire towers on the list but a new one has been added recently, the Upper Esopus. So while there are six fire tower challenges in the Catskills, our Peakquest scratch off only includes five. Since we never…
