Where There's Smoke: Chapter Two
A Father And Daughter On The Trail To NH's Fire Towers
Welcome to Week Three, Chapter Two of Where There’s Smoke: On the Trail to New Hampshire’s Fire Towers, a weekly Wednesday publication brought exclusively to subscribers of Day By Day. We hope you enjoy this old is new memoir of a father and daughter’s adventure to all of the Granite State’s active lookouts. And while you all are getting these chapters first and we won’t be sharing across networks, the link is open should you want to share or pass on to someone who you think would be interested in subscribing. Please like and comment and let’s make this run a success!
If you’d like to catch up first, here’s a link to last week’s Introduction and a link to Chapter One. See you in the tower!
Song of the Sway
#2 Federal Hill, Milford
We are about a quarter mile up the road trail that leads to Federal Hill’s tall fire tower, when she stops in her tracks and holds a finger up to me. Uma cocks her head toward the forest.
“What’s that sound, daddy?”
The day is warm and clear, but above us, a heavy wind is tussling the tops of the trees and the poplar barks are aching and groaning as they sway.
“That’s the wind blowing the tops of the trees, baby,” I say. “When the trees bend, they sing like that.”
I try to imagine a similar feeling in my adult life; touching the glacial water from Mount Everest, seeing the tops of clouds, tasting a carrot for the first time pulled straight from the Earth. But none of that feels miraculous, maybe because as adults we inhabit the territory of the known. To her, singing trees is really singing, really pure emotion unburdened by experience.
I think of the great German Romantic poet Friedrich Holderlin, who wrote: "I was raised by the song / Of the murmuring grove / And loving I learned / Among flowers."
We stand there a long time, listening to the trees singing.
This feels proper for us, especially here. In 1911, Federal Hill’s first lookout was constructed as a platform, twenty feet up into a pine tree. A phone was strung up onto the platform and the lookout observer was given a map. A proper fire tower, along with a two-room cabin and woodshed toilet wouldn’t arrive for 18 more years, 1929.
Imagine the songs that old pine would sing to the lookout.
This hike is unlike any she encountered so far, about three-quarters a mile to the summit, a couple of steep areas, and with a small, pink Owl Backpack over her shoulders. She’s slow, but only comparatively, and like earlier hikes with my other daughter, I wanted Uma to set her pace. Book times mean nothing when hiking with a four-year-old.
That’s why distractions like singing trees, wild flowers or picking acorns were welcome. Back down at the road, before we started, I had to park the car in the street and we walked around the closed gate to begin the hike.
“It’s like we’re sneaking in!” she said, feeding off that energy for a while.
This was also the first time she had heard about New Hampshire’s Fire Tower Quest Patch. While there were 15 active towers in the state, scaling five made you eligible to earn a patch. That patch would be her first, and for now, hiking to five towers felt doable to her. So, like the incentive of there being a tower waiting for her at the top of these climbs, there was now a patch waiting for her once she did five.
Incentive, incentive!
Like Warner Hill before, this tower in nearby Milford isn’t exactly a hiking or tourist destination. The trail we’re on is basically the overgrown fire road and private property surrounds most of the site. But we’re in the woods and there’s no howling dogs, so the climb feels more like a hike.
“Daddy look, I think we’re here!”
There’s a cluster of small buildings and power stations at the summit, along with a flag pole. And there in the corner is the enormous, 75-foot tower. Federal Hill has the honor of being the most successful active tower in the state, the look-outs often spotting smoke in Massachusetts, more than 40 miles away.
As will become a routine for us, Uma breaks into a run and hits the thin stairs at full speed, but this tower is different than Warner Hill, older, in worse condition, with no wire netting around the railings and platforms. She realizes this quickly and I come up behind her for support.
“Go slow,” I say. “This one is a little creakier.”
“And tall!” she says.
We slowly work our way up, up, up until we reach the bottom platform below the cab. As she did at Warner Hill, she climbs the couple stairs up to the trapdoor to make sure its closed. She already has begun to obsess about getting inside, but it will be a while before she’s able.
Meantime, we lay out our blanket and a lunch of strawberries, PB&Js and chips, and feast 65 feet off the ground like royalty. She pulls Roary the Dinosaur out of her backpack and holds him up over the railing while I loop my arm around her waist.
She takes a deep breath and roars and the trees sway in the wind. And we’re alone up high, on a quest, listening to the tops of trees, hands warm against the hot metal while she laughs and the forest speaks to her.
Talk back, baby. And teach me how to hear.
Federal Hill, Milford (Elevation 700 feet)
Location and Directions: The gated state road/trail to the tower is located on Ponemah Hill Road about 1.6 miles south of Route 101a. There’s no specific parking area, but a few spots exit in pull-offs to the left and right of the gate. Don’t block the gate, however.
Our Route: Like Warner Hill, there’s only one route up, a wide state warden road that’s gravelly in some spots. Total mileage up and back is about 1.5 miles.
If You Go: Federal Hill isn’t really a tourist or hiking destination, which is a shame because the short climb up is a pretty woods walk, well worth the time and effort. Come at any time, pack a lunch and listen to the trees.
Special Update Note: In 2024, Federal Hill Fire Tower was rebuilt and restored! It’s not quite as rickity any longer. There’s also a small parking area down below.
Psithurism - the sound of wind in the trees. Love it.
I love the gangsta-tot pose!!