Beebe Hill Fire Tower (2x) (Beebe Hill State Forest)
Hike Type: Loopty Loop
Distance: 4.69 miles
Elevation: 814 feet
Time: 1 hour, 43 minutes
Hiking Challenges: Taconic 12er
Hiking Challenges: Taconic 12er
The Hike
The drive from Ludlow to Beebe Hill was nice and simple, and featured a stop at the lovely Loves truck stop right off of I-90 once in New York. There were 10-15 more minues of driving once off the highway, and it was lovely! I drove past a different trailhead for Beebe Hill State Forest, which confused me, but I trusted my GPS and it was correct. The driveway to my trailhead was pretty rutted, but thankfully short. It was a chillier 19 degrees now. The AllTrails route I had was a short hike, less than two miles, so I figured I'd start there and extend it if I was feeling good. The start of my hike did get slightly delayed, because there was a super old cemetary right next to the trailhead (which is apparently known as Fog Hill Cemetary and/or Frenchman Cemetary, but I couldn't find out any more information on it). There were some graves from the 1800s!
From the trailhead, I followed blue blazes over a bridge and trampling needle ice, which soon leads to a register box. The blue blazes stop here, and red blazes go both left and right - I went right to climb up Beebe Hill. I crossed another little bridge in beautiful woods and wiggled around some blowdowns after the bridge. There was a comical amount of needle ice on the trail - it almost felt like a gravel trail. There were a few short steep sections before crossing a stone wall and a few woodpeckers.
I was looking around, enjoying the open forest views, and feeling grateful to actually enjoy stick season (but to be clear, I'm excited for leaves again, too). The trail continues to climb and eventually levels out for a while, which was lovely. The trail crossed a spur to a shelter, that gave off spooky vibes on which I truly cannot elaborate.
After the shelter, the trail crosses a bridge over wetlands and what I assume to be a vernal pond, and there were raccoon tracks frozen to the bridge (actually, looking at the photos again, I think they were beaver tracks! - WAIT NO just kidding definitely raccoon). Anyway, the trail continued, easily climbing, past a privy in the woods, and soon entered the summit clearing!
There was a cabin that appeared to be mid-refurbishment, and to the right down the road was the fire tower, which also looked recently refurbished. I climbed up the shockingly not-sketchy fire tower (recently painted, not wobbly, and EXCELLENT traction). The stairs did get skinny near the top, but the cabin had all of it's windows and just wonderful views! The best views were towards the Catskills.
I climbed back down, lamented about not finding a disc, and continued my hike. I hiked down the fire tower road, turning left onto what seemed like an older road. At the next junction, I turned left again onto a blue-blazed trail, the Upper Horse Trail Loop, that had a "Caballero" sign further down. I noticed a spur to the shelter partway down the trail - noted! The blue trail undulated for a bit before descending, past a confusing area, through an area of new growth, and then down toward the big pond which abuts the trailhead.
Here, I took off my fleece and turned right onto an unblazed old road (the same old road I turned onto from the fire tower road). There was a lot of logging evidence down here and lots of birds singing to each other! I followed the road for a short while and then turned left onto the yellow-blazed Lower Horse Trail Loop, parked with normal NYDEC plackards and also older yellow ones with horse heads!
I caught my first spiderweb of the year while descending on the yellow trail. I noticed most of the NYDEC blazes looked brand new. I continued to descend for longer than anticipated, eventually hitting a low spot with an easy creek-hop crossing. From the low point, the trail easily climbs up switchbacks. It climbed just enough to keep me warm, which was welcome especially now because there was a cold breeze.
The yellow trail meandered around a few stone walls (or one big one?), joining, leaving, and joining another old road later on, eventually terminating at the tower road! The walk up the tower road was nice and easy, and it felt much chillier now that the clouds had rolled in. I checked out the cabin and fire tower again, hoping to find a disc, but I was unsuccessful.
To mix things up, I follwed the red trail down, turning to check out the shelter and following the spur down to the blue trail (I did get a little off-trail, but AllTrails got me back on). I turned right on blue, and then left onto the old road, whic I was able to follow all the way back to the car. I enjoyed some nice views of the pond with the world's loudest geese near the end. There was a trail that looped the pond, but I needed to get to New Jersey! This was such a lovely way to start my weekend!
Step-by-Step
- Park at Beebe Hill State Forest Parking off of CR-5 (Barrett Pond).
- Start hike following blue markers.
- At trail register, continue right, now following red markers.
- At terminus, turn right onto road.
- Climb fire tower, turn around.
- Follow road toward next jct.
- At jct., turn left.
- At jct., turn right onto old road.
- At jct., turn left onto yellow.
- At terminus, turn right onto road.
- At summit, turn around.
- At jct., turn left.
- At jct., continue right.
- At terminus, turn left onto old road.
- Follow old road to car.
Photo Album
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