Elmore, Vermont - June 26, 2008
There's no telling what you may see on the two mile long hike to the top of Mount Elmore. Babbling brooks, quiet forests, and colorful wildlife are just around every corner. That's why 60-year-old Woody Brown keeps coming back. He's now hiked this trail more than 120 times. "It's a little mountain that's got a bit of everything," says Brown. "I've seen some pretty spectacular things. I've seen bears, all kinds of deer and wildlife."
Brown is just one of several hundred visitors to hike this mountain trail every year, but the mountain was once more than just a place to recreate. It once served an important purpose-- home to the Elmore Mountain Fire tower. The tower was manned and operated by a fire watcher from 1938 to 1974. There was a tower on the mountain before that, but it was destroyed in the hurricane of 1938.
The fire watcher lived below the tower, on a rocky ledge overlooking the entire valley. Every summer day the watcher would make the steep, quarter mile climb from the cabin to the tower to look for forest fires-- in the days before aerial surveillance. But the hike to work didn't end there. The fire watcher still needed to climb 60 feet up seemingly endless stairs, to a breathtaking vantage point high atop the trees, a view that can now be enjoyed by anyone who makes the climb to the top of Mount Elmore.
"You can see Mount Mansfield over in the clouds. If you look through the clouds you can just barely see some of the ski trails. It's just inspiring. It's just so beautiful, looking out at the countryside and the lake. This is what people think of as Vermont," says Mary Lou Recor, who helped published a book called "360 Degrees: A Guide to Vermont's Fire and Observation Towers."
Click here for more information on visiting Vermont's fire towers and the book "360 Degrees: A Guide to Vermont's Fire and Observation Towers."
Keagan Harsha - WCAX News
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