Hadley Mountain

Looking out towards VT and the Tongue Mt Range

I was quite beat from the previous two days of hiking.  Originally I planned to hit the Wolfjaws on the way out, but 10+ miles just seemed a bit much.  Instead I decided to stop along the way home and hike up to Hadley.

Hadley Mountain is part of the Catskill/Adirondack Fire Tower challenge which I recently completed.  My previous visit was in the summer and part of a five tower, 20+ mile day.  It was nice to just do this one alone and call it a day.

If I were to label a hike average in effort, this would be it.  Hadley, like Overlook and Tremper, requires roughly a 2 mile ascent with 1,000 feet elevation gained.  Many other fire tower hikes fall in this category.

Lot more snow than I expected

Overall, though, Hadley is not at all average.  The trail heads through a beautiful forest of hardwoods.  Near the summit there are some nice ledges with some great views of Great Sacandaga Lake.  The climb up the fire tower provides views in all directions.  The high peaks of the Adirondacks are scene in the distance.  To the east are the green mountains and the Tongue mountain Range near Lake George.  A couple local guys pointed out the smoke coming from the paper factory in Glens Falls.  This provided some orientation and also some knew info.  I didn't know there were any paper factories still going.  In the Age of Trump, one assumes the U.S. manufactures absolutely nothing.