Mount Arab was the third little mountain we hiked with our kids this spring in order to finish the Tupper Lake Triad. As a bonus, it’s also part of the Fire Tower Challenge, so I got to check one off the list for that challenge as well!
Mount Arab is a fun, easy hike up to a summit that doesn’t actually have the BEST view in all of the Adirondacks… until you climb up to the top of the fire tower. Once you’re up there, the view opens up for miles each way!
Our five year old daughter climbed this mountain easily, and as always the baby was just happy to be along for the ride.
The fire tower on top of Mount Arab.
The Tupper Lake Triad
In order to complete the Tupper Lake Triad, there are 3 mountains that you must hike. It doesn’t matter what order you do them in, time of year, or how long it takes you to finish all three! Although there IS a special patch for people who complete all 3 in the winter.
Mount Arab: 3.2 km roundtrip, elevation gain – 229 metres
Coney Mountain: 3.5 km roundtrip, elevation gain- 171 metres
Goodman Mountain: 5.5 km roundtrip, elevation gain- 177 metres
The Tupper Lake Triad is, in my opinion, the easiest hiking challenge in the Adirondacks. It’s perfect for beginner hikers and kids.
Quick Facts
Length: 3.2 km
Difficulty: Easy
Trailhead Coordinates: 44.213710, -74.595837
Washroom at Trailhead: No
Dogs Allowed: Yes
Cell Reception: Spotty
Wheelchair Accessible: No
Parking: Right at the trailhead.
Cost: Free
Open in Winter: Yes
This was a fun trail!
Getting There
The parking lot for Mount Arab is right off of Mount Arab road. You can use these coordinates to get there: 44.213710, -74.595837. At the side of the road is a small parking lot, with space for about 20 cars. When we arrived there was no one else there, in the early afternoon on a Sunday. Perhaps the threat of bugs in early spring had scared everyone away.
There were no washrooms or garbage cans at the trailhead.
Right across from the lot was a trailhead sign, pointing us into the forest. We crossed the road carefully and set off.
Find this sign to get on the trail.
The Trail
Just a few metres in we came to the trailhead register and signed ourselves in. We make a point of doing this whenever we see a registry because it helps the state of NY know how many people are on each trail, and can also help with a rescue on longer trips, if you ever needed one.
The trail was quite wide starting out, and well-worn into the dirt. We began following red trail markers gently uphill. In the beginning the trail was mostly hard packed dirt, but as we continued on it began to get a bit rockier and root-ier. When we had hiked 0.75 km the trail was quite rocky. And then we walked up a set of stairs, built to get us over a section of trail that was steep rock face and had quite a bit of run off coming down it, potentially making the rock slippery.
Our daughter enjoyed the stairs, slowly, as she enjoys all things while hiking. At the 1 km mark we passed over a trio of small footbridges. The incline hadn’t become markedly steeper at any point. We just sort of continued up the whole way. Then 400 metres later we came to a split in the trail, which we hadn’t seen on the map.
There were a lot of fun spots along the trail to the summit.
The Summit
To the left there was a little baby scramble over open rock face. Off to the right the trail seemed easier to traverse, as all we could see was a dirt path.
Knowing we were close to the summit, I guessed that this may be a looped path to and from the summit, and so we chose to head off to the left thinking it would be easier to ascend that way and descend on the dirt path. When we got to the top of the open rock face, another trail connected to it from the right-hand side, so we began to think perhaps it was just a workaround to avoid this section (which really wasn’t very hard at all).
Almost right after we found ourselves at the summit! At the top of Mount Arab there’s actually a little log cabin as well as a fire tower. The log cabin isn’t open all the time, likely only when there’s a summit steward on site. Try saying THAT three times fast. Summit stewards are lovely folks who spend time at the tops of very accessible mountains in the Adirondacks, chatting with and educating hikers about the area, including some of the potential risks associated with hiking the bigger mountains.
Since we had no view from the ground, we began climbing up the fire tower, which is ALWAYS open! The views from the top were beautiful. And it was so nice for me to be up in an Adirondack fire tower with my daughter, because she hadn’t been in one since she was 7 months old, and now she’s four-and-a-half!
After climbing carefully back down, we sat on the steps of the cabin for a little rest before leaving.
View from the fire tower on Mount Arab.
Trail Thoughts
It had taken an hour and a half for our daughter to walk up to the summit, but we carried both kids down to make things go a little more quickly.
We followed a trail that led off to our left on the way back, which brought us out to any area with a bench and a bit of a view. This new trail that we were on had red trail markers as well, so we just continued to follow them. Eventually the trail brought us right back to the original split, just before the little rock scramble. So who knows where the trail ABOVE the rock scramble came from.
Regardless, we headed back downhill on the path we had already traversed. By the time we arrived back at the parking lot we had hiked 3.5 km according to my GPS. We covered this distance in 2 hours and 10 minutes, so it only took us 40 minutes to descend once the kids were being carried.
I felt so incredibly proud of my kids for being able to summit these three little mountains, and proud of us all for doing it as a family. TECHNICALLY the kids are not Tupper Lake Triad finishers because you have to hike the whole route by yourself, but that’s just not all that important to me. My daughter felt proud of herself too and we had an amazing weekend together.
Mount Arab is a fun little mountain for kids or anyone new to hiking, and I also highly recommend the whole Triad!
Our daughter loves the rockier sections of trail.
Map and Elevation Gain
Our GPS tracked route along the trail.
Whenever I’m hiking somewhere new, I tend to wonder about who was on, and who took care of that land before me. I’ve enjoyed using this website as a place to start learning more about the Indigenous people whose land I’m on: Native-land.ca.
Elevation gain on Mount Arab
Gear We Brought
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For The Kids
MEC Shuttlecraft Kid Carrier (for our toddler)
Bug net to cover the toddler’s carrier
TULA Toddler Carrier (for our 5 year old)
Insect shield pants for our daughter (they shield from ticks!)
Hydro Flask water bottles (insulated so our toddler’s milk stays cold and doesn’t leak everywhere)
Sun Bum sunscreen
Bug spray
Snacks!
Rain jacket and pants for our daughter
MEC Newt Suit for our son’s rain gear
Rainboots from Walmart that were AWFUL and kept falling off while we carried them. Note to self to upgrade these.
Smarties (for bribing)
For Us
Map
Compass
Bear bell
Hiking Boots (mine are Keen)
MEC hiking poles
Fjallraven hiking trousers (so many pockets, and good stretch!)
Polyester long sleeve top
Rab 4 Ultra lite emergency shelter (this link is for the 2 person)
Garmin inReach (this is a satellite communication device we bring with us everywhere, just in case there’s no reception and we need to call for emergency help!)
Nalgene water bottle
MEC Aquanator rain pants (these fold up small and aren’t very heavy so you can easily stash them in your pack)
Arc’teryx rain jackets
Mount Arab’s fire tower from below.
