Hunter Mountain Fire Tower hike â€“ Hunter, NY

This was my first fire tower hike, and it wasnâ€™t easy! It started out flat, but then stayed in a steep ascent for two hours to the top. Doing this trail wasnâ€™t our plan, as we got a little lost looking for a different trail head, and found ourselves here. Which is fantastic, because my buddy Rafael, and a mutual friend Cassie, plan on attempting to join the 3,500 Club, which is a club dedicated to those who have hiked the 35 peaks of the Catskill Mountains that are above 3,500â€™ft, doing four of them again during winter. We can now mark this one off our list (especially since Cassie has already done it). So, enjoy!

Nice stone pillars at the start.

There was this stone structure that looked like it might have been the foundation to a building of some sort, next to a stream. We climbed down in there. There was also a huge beam (which I should have taken a side picture of, but whatevs).

This part was wicked cool. So there was this tree, that had apparently fallen and snapped when it hit the other tree, leaving it dangling. It was wobbly as fuck, definitely dangerous, and I donâ€™t know how the wind hadnâ€™t taken it down yet.

Continuing onâ€¦â€¦

How creepy is this??

Huge hollowed out tree, the top looks like it was on fire, but Iâ€™m sure it wasnâ€™t.

This was IN the ground, out of nowhere (no water around), a little trickle.

Best dog ever! Rocco.

Getting closer!

3,500 feet means SNOW!

The fire tower is less than half a mile away. We didnâ€™t go this way, as we would have needed more than our sneakers to get past the amounts of snow.