Blue Job Mountain Fire Tower - Farmington NH
Blue Job State Forest
One afternoon we were in Portsmouth, New Hampshire and my husband asked us if we wanted to go for a walk, it would only be 1 mile.
We all thought that was OK. One mile didn't seem bad, we had already went for a 3 1/2 mile walk along the beach in Rye. It probably wouldn't take more than about 20 minutes anyway....
We drove towards Rochester, and kept going. I had no idea where we were headed. Well, we landed at the parking area for Blue Job State Forest. On the way there I saw a Fire Tower and figured this must be the base. It didn't look too far up.
We all got out and went to the trailhead. Of the two paths to choose from, we chose the right path. It was a gradual incline, across a jeep road and then we turned left to what seemed like an old trail. Because the last few days had been raining we had to walk on the sides because there was a lot of mud, and little streams. The trail itself was a couple of inches lower than the sides, almost like a riverbed. Then the incline hit. There were lots of rocks, it was pretty much like that the whole way up. I felt like I was doing stairs. I had to stop and catch my breath a few times (carrying the water for everyone might have attributed to that too). The kids loved it, they just scrambled up the rocks!
It was a good workout, without having to go way out into the woods to get it. The views were pretty good too! You could walk up the stairs on the fire tower. I have heard that on some days they may invite you in to have a look, and explain what they do. We haven't been that lucky yet. The only bad thing was a huge antenna next to the fire tower.
For the hike down we came off the fire tower stairs and walked straight. It was a much more gradual trail and I would much prefer going down on that than on the steep rocks that we came up on.
My husband found a brochure on the NH Division of Forest and Lands that talks about visiting Fire Towers in the state of New Hampshire. We have already been to Pawtuckaway State Park a number of times and thought we might explore our state a little more. After you visit each tower you can actually submit a form where you kept track of the dates you visited the towers, and get a patch sent to you. If you are interested, here is a link for front of brochure and the back of brochure. This brochure will show you where all the towers are, how to get to them, and the elevation level, and the trail length. The brochure shows the directions to get to Blue Job as : Blue Job 1356' (State) Farmington: From Rte. 202A 5.4 mi. East of its junction with Rte.126 in Ctr. Strafford or 2.8 mi. West of its junction with NH 202 near Rochester, take Crown Point Rd. 5.6 mi. Two trails lead a half-mile to the summit.
This would be a good trail to train on before you hit some of the bigger ones. I think it would be a good trail for smaller children too because they can stop and rest if they need to and you still wont be out there all day.
At the top there is some space to sit and maybe have a picnic!
Until next time, have fun out there!
