In Newcomb there is a world of forest and some superb views. The spring bonus snow we got last weekend made a hike up Goodnow Mountain even better than expected.
The heavy snow that fell the week before had been sitting for a few days and made a sturdy base so we were able to climb without snowshoes. Three inches of mega-crystalline super-fluff on the surface made everything twinkle.
The trailhead for Goodnow is well marked, just a few miles west of the village of Newcomb and the Adirondack Interpretive Center. Students from SUNY's College of Environmental Science and Forestry maintain the trail.The snow covered most of their work but the bridges felt sturdy under foot and made nice patterns as we crossed.
This trail is a beautiful woodland path. It starts low and climbs gradually so you can look around and appreciate the forest. There are numerous small brooks that add nice sound effects, gurgling to life after being muffled all winter by the snowpack.
We flushed a few grouse and took a close-up look at a skinny little spider that was probably hoping for some snow fleas to eat. None were apparent—the temperature was around 20 F.
As we got closer to the top we came through a saddle that was the only place we considered putting on the snowshoes we had carried. For one hundred yards we trudged through knee deep drifts where clearly the wind had blown with force and piled up the dry snow the previous night.
From the saddle we reached the old barn. Guidebooks tell that the Anna and Archer Huntington who once owned the land logged with horses and this dilapidated barn is what remains. Above the cabin we passed through the little col and then up to the summit, where the fire tower surprised my companions even though they new it would be there.
Fire towers to me are elegant in a mechanical way. The stairs can have a rickety feeling but the cables hold tightly. At around 60 feet in height, the tower at Goodnow is one of the higher ones still standing. From it you can see a 360-degree wow when the sky is clear, which fortunately it was last weekend.
There are very few places where hikers can get a comparable view for the amount of effort it takes to climb the 1000 feet up this mountain.The sky had opened with sunshine for us and we could see all the way to the High Peaks in the north and across the much-discussed Essex Chain of Lakes to the south. On the top level of the tower we got our bearings and identified the distant peaks with the help of the interpretive panel.
We didn't investigate the ranger's cabin. It hasn't been used for fire observation since 1979 but I've read that research is being done on canopy cover from the fire tower. The solar panels on the ranger's cabin must be powering the remote camera and other instruments. Photos of the forest from above could tell scientists about changes in leaf-out timing from year to year.
After an excellent lunch, (Why hike without good food?) we descended. Inspired by some great fisher tracks we bushwhacked and found interesting scent posts and tracks that danced down a fallen tree, eventually leading to a brook and putting us back on the trail.
Goodnow is a great hike in any season. The view is outstanding, the fire tower is historic and the trail is easy on the legs. We were about an hour and a half up and the same coming down, including stops to examine lots of things both ways. We planned to ski some of the AIC trails but will have to come back when we have more time.
