Great North Woods Adventure 2019 - Magalloway Fire Tower

Trip Details
Date: September 20^th, 2019
Total Distance: 2.13 mi (via Garmin fenix 5X)
Total Time: 1 hour 15 min
Total Elevation: 909 ft gained
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After checking into Lake Francis State Park campground, we headed a bit further north and eventually down eight miles of dirt roads. NH's most northern fire tower, which is part of the Fire Lookout Tower Quest Program, is Pittsburg. Any further north and you would have to cross into Canada.

• The first five miles of dirt roads are well graded, but once you turn onto the tower access road the road gets quite a bit rougher. We ended up using BishopX's wife's SUV for this trip for this one dirt road in particular. It is the safe bet. A car could make it down the road, but some of the ruts are quite deep and there are a few boulders sticking out of the road so having higher clearance is nice.
• We took the Coot Trail up, which feels like the old access road. The trail is about 0.7 miles and is relatively steep the entire way. You earn your way up this mountain on this trail.
• Historically, you could rent the former watcher's cabin but it was all boarded up and did not look like people used it. Maybe its season ends after Labor Day.
• We got our best shop of fall colors from this fire tower, but even this far north we were still probably a week early. 
• There is another lookout trail just past the cabin that gets you a nice view into the valley. 
• The Bobcat Trail feels more like a hiking trail and is much less steep. It stays high for awhile before dropping down, but it never felt too steep so the elevation gain seemed more managed on this trail. This trail is also about 0.7 miles.

In case you need a bathroom.

Is this a private camp? I cannot find any information about it.

Looking down at the cabin from the fire tower.

Horntail just hanging out.

Rump Mountain. The profile of this one was just too easy to find.

Looking into Canada and at Mont Mégantic.

Mount Washington and the Presidentials.

View from the lookout.

Cliff face at the lookout.

Lookout on the Bobcat Trail. Rump and Mégantic are visible.

The Bobcat Trail is not signed at the trailhead and starts down the road a bit. 

Looking back at the cars from the Bobcat Trail starting point.

At one point on the access road you drive through tight hedges.

The mileage is off as the GPS crapped out halfway up the Coot Trail and did not kick back in until I was on the fire tower.