You Are Here: Mt Magalloway

I had seen on the news that the Fall Foliage colours were nearing peak in far northern New Hampshire, so with another beautiful day on tap, my 14 year old and I headed way north. A 4 hour drive to Pittsburg and Mt Magalloway. This peak had been on my radar as it's on several lists I have been working on, the NH Fire Tower Quest (which we already have the badge for, but I wanted to complete at the same time), the NH Fire Tower list and the 52 With a View. In order for my son to hike, he insisted on something short. Mt Magalloway is about 2 miles total, which was just perfect for him. (He can certainly hike more, he was just being a teenage boy!). I wasn't so sure the meteorologists were right about the colours, as we headed north, there were definitely spatters of colour, but nothing crazy. Once we hit Route 302 in Twin Mountain and continued north, things changed. Colours galore. It was beautiful. To get to Mt Magalloway, head north on Route 3 in Pittsburg and turn right on Magalloway Road, which is a gravel road signed for logging. Thankfully we didn't encounter any logging trucks today, but the road was a little busy(ish) with weekenders out enjoying the gorgeous day. Continue on this road for 6.4 miles until you see a sign pointing to the right that says "Fire Tower". Apparently this road is called Tower Road and the trail head is a couple of miles down. This road becomes significantly rougher, but most vehicles should be fine if they take it slow. I feared with the perfect weather the mountain would be busy and was pleasantly surprised to only find 3 vehicles there before us. We donned our cold weather gear (it was only 45 degrees) and headed up the Coot Trail. My plan was up Coot and down Bobcat, as I had read that Coot was steeper, so get that done on the up. I had also read on a very recent trip report that the trail had been widened and graded ready for Winter and snowmobiles. I cannot imagine snowmobiles heading up this trail (although they do) due to its steepness. That would terrify me! Steep it was, right from the start and didn't ease up until about 0.1 miles from the summit. I also found with the recent grading, it was somewhat muddy and slick. Not muddy that would get you super dirty, just a mud that made footing a little difficult to grasp onto. However it is only 0.8 miles to the top, so I just took it slow and enjoyed being out. The amazing thing was once we reached the top, we had the summit to ourselves briefly. We had passed 2 groups on our way up that were heading down. So I said to Cam, let's quickly get up the tower as I knew there were people coming up behind us and I wanted to enjoy it before they arrived. It was windy off and on, which always makes me a little nervous when on a fire tower, but when the wind died down, it was so perfect. We took some pictures and just took it all in. Glorious. The summit is quite large, with a cabin (that used to be available for rent, though it seems a little in need of a hug right now and obviously closed up due to Covid). Behind the cabin is a spur trail called the Overlook Trail (I had seen a picture of a sign, but couldn't find one today), we took this 0.2 miles out to another amazing viewpoint, although a little hairy as the viewing area is quite small and the drop down is significant. We safely stood back a couple of feet and took some pictures. Once we got back to the summit, the group behind us had arrived, and I'm so glad we did the tower when we did. The group consisted of a couple of large families with lots of kids running around. Several other groups started arriving after them, so we timed it just right. There is a picnic table near the cabin, so we stopped and enjoyed a snack before heading back down. Bobcat was a pleasant change from Coot, no mud and a much gentler grade. There is a lot of blowdown carnage, most of which has been cleared or at least made passing possible. A view point a little way down from the top is another bonus. We arrived back at the parking area to find it full of cars. Definitely glad we timed it the way we did. Another perfect day in the woods.

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