Hadley Mountain - 2,680'
Hadley has a much larger and flatter peak than the typical Adirondack peak, but the views here are fairly open and great, although you will have to walk around a little to find them. Next time I do this one I’ll bring up a picnic and hang out for a little while. This climb is another short one that would be great to does a pair with another or just a nice morning.
We did this one with in conjunction with another, smaller tower which was a lot of fun and made for a pretty great day.
- This peak is large and wide open, lots of space.
- There’s another one of those cabins up here on this one.
*this excerpt was salvaged from the now defunct www.nysforestrangers.com, thanks to the Way Back Machine, written by Captain Paul T Hartmann (ret.)*
LOCATION: 8 miles northwest of the Village of Lake Luzerne.
STATUS: Remains and has been restored by the Friends of Hadley Mt.
Plans for a tower on Hadley Mt were made in 1916 when satisfactory arrangements could not be made for the continuance of Ohmer Mt. Hadley is 4 3/4 miles northeast of Ohmer Mt. The Conservation Commission purchased in 1916 and installed in 1917, a 50′ Aermotor LL25 tower. It was of a lightweight design and had no stairs but only a ladder up the exterior for the purpose of ingress and egress. Wooden steps were added within the structure to ease access for both the Observer and the general public.
A self-supporting staircase was developed by Aermotor, for installation in the towers purchased in 1916. This staircase amounted to a tower within a tower and was anchored to the original tower. These were purchased to replace the wooden stairs currently in use and were installed in this tower in 1929.
The tower was blown over during a hurricane in October 1919 but was quickly re-erected and back in operation for the 1920 season. During that same storm, Gore Mt. Tower was also blown down.
This tower was closed August 24, 1990, being one of the last active fire towers in New York State.
The tower has been restored by the Hadley Fire Tower Committee in the late 1990’s and now appears on the National Historic Lookout Register and the , being placed there in Sept 23, 2001.
Hadley is one of the mountains included in the Fire Tower Challenge sponsored by the Glens Falls-Saratoga Chapter of the Adirondack Mountain Club (ADK). “To complete the Challenge and receive the official full-color patch, hikers must climb and document, by date, ascents of at least 23 fire tower summits: 18 of 23 Adirondack Park summits and all 5 Catskill Park summits.”
We Give This Trail: 6.5/10
Ratings are subjective: considers trail conditions, difficulty, views and other notable or unique characteristics