Signal Mountain Fire Tower 8-18-2014

vftt.org

Help Support vftt.org:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

WeRmudfun

New member
Joined
Jan 28, 2013
Messages
169
Reaction score
0
Location
Southern NH
After getting to bed late on Sunday, then waking up early on Monday and bushwhacking Mount Dustin, we were pretty tired when we got to Signal Mountain. It was supposed to be an easy hike as far as a trail up goes. We had a detailed report on how to get to the summit. This was #78 for us on the list of the 93 fire towers that are standing, once stood or were proposed.
We found the parking area easy enough, but then it was a real mystery where the abandoned ATV trail was. All we saw was the remains of logging. It was a repeat of Mount Dustan. :( We looked at each other, looked towards the mountain, shrugged your shoulders and started cautiously walking over all the timber scraps.
Our ascent consisted on timbers scraps, logging beds and bushwhacking. It was a nasty hike up until we hit the woods, even then it wasn't that great. The GPS showed the old Jeep road heading to the summit, but that appears to be long gone. We tried looking for the ATV trail, but eventually we gave up and just did a direct bushwhack to the top.
As our luck usually runs, we found the ATV trail...360 feet from the top. :rolleyes: Well we made it to the tower anyway. The tower itself is showing signs of its age, as many of the stairs are missing. We still climbed it though and the views were great. After coming back down, we decided to take the ATV trail and see where it goes. It was nice to descend easier than we had ascended. The trail started to go away from where we had parked and we weren't sure if it would curve back around. As I said we were tired and didn't want to end up miles from where we parked, so into the woods we went again.
There was a point on this bushwhack that we found artifacts (wire and insulator) when I looked at the GPS, we were on the old road to the tower. Unfortunately it was just a small section and really didn't resemble a road, we just bushwhacked in the right area. We did find the ATV trail again too and followed it as far as we could. It ended right at the logging area, far back from the parking area and can not be seen from there. The trail is still there and we assume it goes all the way to the top, so we tried to show how to get to it at the end of the video.
We are also including our GPS track for anyone interested in this hike follow our descent path (the top track), not our ascent...no one should have to go through that! :D
GPS Link...
http://en.wikiloc.com/wikiloc/view.do?id=7608922

Video Link...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n-vv6FPjUzw&list=UUvonD5mWIH03yQY3eosLwcQ
 
Top