Loon Lake Mountain is one of a handful of fire towers located in the north east corner of the Adirondack Park, in a relatively remote area with no service and very little else around. This one starts from a tiny little parking lot and follows an old service road about 1.5-2 miles before turning off up towards the fire tower.

This is not exactly a very long or hard hike per-se, but it does cram a lot of elevation into a very short mile near the end, making that section feel like an hour-long stair master session. Nothing about that elevation spike is difficult enough to discourage anyone from taking this hike on, but it is formidable.

The Fire Tower on Loon Lake Mountain is an old one, and it shows, both in the off-rust color and the fact that the cabin is currently closed (presumably for safety reasons.) As we approached the summit we spotted the first set of stairs on the tower, fully removed and placed roughly 50-100 yards from the peak.

All of this is rather unfortunate since I’ve never been on a mountain where I wanted to get that extra elevation and breeze more than I did on this one. Restoration seems unlikely, but I suppose you never know – it is “apparently” forthcoming. 

• The parking lot here is quite tiny, realistically having room for maybe 5 cars? You could probably get away with parking on the relatively remote roadside here as well, since this one is quite a ways away from anything else. 
• The Fire Tower on this mountain is closed, and likely will be for the foreseeable future, an unfortunate shame. 
• Views on the peak are pretty solid, even without access to the Fire Tower, there are several spots with 180 degree views and the peak sprawls forward and 20 yards or so.