Mt. Arab Firetower / Panther Mountain
Hiking Arab Mountain & Panther Mountain | Tupper Lake, NY | March 2023
On our first full day in the Adirondacks, we slept in, had breakfast and tea, and basically just lazed around for a good part of the morning. As the morning warmed up ever so slightly, we decided to go and hit a shorter trail and a firetower that we had missed on our first pass through the Firetower Challenge: Arab Mountain. The trail is only a 15 minute drive west of town and we were at the trailhead by 10. The snow that came through the night before had only left a dusting on our car and the roads, but we were pretty sure the higher we got, the more snow there would be. Plus, as we drove in we noticed that the summit was just barely visible through a cloud. Snowshoes would be the vehicle of choice on this hike.
A second car pulled up as we were shoeing up, but he must have gone a different way, because we never saw him. We signed in to the trail log and began our trek up the mountain. Charlotte bounded through the snow, stopping only to smell some tracks which I can only guess belong to a fisher. The trail was an even grade and as we had guessed, the higher we were, the deeper the snow got with drifts at times covering the packed trail completely. But the look of the forest with untouched snow was magical. All the tiny twigs and branches were covered in spiky ice/snow/frost.
The trail itself was only a mile or so to the top. And just like all the times before, we could never see the firetower until we were right on top of it. We stopped on the porch of the ranger cabin and caught our breath before I took off my snowshoes to climb the tower. The views from the top were pretty good, but the clouds were very low, practically right above our heads so we couldn’t see very far. Charlotte did not appreciate being left at the base of the tower and insisted on coming up to the first landing – even though we explained that she actually hates going down those steep stairs.
Now that we had caught our breath we were starting to feel cold, so we took our pictures and then started back. Charlotte and I set a brisk pace and made short work of the mile back down, while Jess took her time. It’s a shame that these hikes don’t count towards any winter hiking challenges.
We made it back to our home and made lunch and relaxed again for a couple hours. Jess offered to let me go hike alone to give Charlotte a break (she does so well on hikes, but we didn’t want to wear her out by throwing multiple peaks at her in a day), but the hike I had in mind was 5+ miles and it was probably not best for me to start so late in the day. Instead I suggested that we go together to a very short hike just East of town: Panther Mountain.
We arrived at the trailhead around 3 only to find that the parking area was not plowed, and there were a few deep almost frozen over ruts, but we parked anyway. I knew we would probably have difficulty getting out, but figured we should hike first. Again we grabbed our snowshoes and crossed the highway to the trail. This trail is short but fairly steep and we were thankful to have the cleats on the bottoms of our snowshoes, because the trail was quite icy for the first quarter mile. But soon ice gave way to snow and we were doubly glad to have brought our snowshoes instead of just microspikes.
The summit offered great views to the South over some of the ponds and lakes. Goodman, our peak from yesterday, was probably visible, but there are so many small peaks it’s hard to say for certain. We then carefully made our way back down the snowy and icy trail and back to the car and our unplowed parking spot. We were indeed stuck in the snow, but Jess remembered a ‘life hack’ and suggested we throw the floor mats under the rear wheels. This did the trick and we were back on pavement just as someone pulled over to offer help. We returned home to a happy puppy, hot showers, and hot dinner.
