Early this morning, after visiting Monson Village, I still had a little time and since I was in the area, I thought I’d visit Federal Hill. Monson was great, but I need to go up something each week, and without any guarantees on the calendar for the next several days, I wasn’t going to let a chance to ascend something get past me. Even if it’s to go up something relatively small.
It’s been a little while since I’ve visited Federal Hill. The first time I checked it out was in 2010, when I was getting a little bit of the peakbagging itch and had stumbled on the “New Hampshire Fire Towers” list. Federal Hill is one of the closest ones to me on the list, and one of the shortest, so it was an easy peak to check out and see if I’d like to see more of these so-called “Fire Towers.” Turns out I did.
As time would allow, I started checking out the rest of the peaks on the list until I discovered one of them, Croydon Peak, was on private land, and unavailable to hikers. With other mountains drawing my attention, like the 4000-footers, the fire tower peaks became less of a priority, and I eventually forgot about climbing them. But as of this writing, it appears that Croydon has been removed from the required peaks to complete the list, which means summiting all of the Fire Tower summits is now an attainable goal. I’m only a few peaks away so maybe I’ll check the rest of them out!
The Federal Hill Fire Tower in Milford, NH
Fire Towers are Cool
Let’s be honest, fire towers are cool. It’s okay to admit it. Even though Federal Hill isn’t located high in the mountains and only takes ten minutes to hike up, or thereabouts, it’s still fun to get to climb a lookout post like you’re a little kid again. And it looks like the tower on Federal Hill recently got a face lift, because the stairs going up had new wood treads and the rails had a fresh coat of federal gray paint. Very apropos. Online reports indicate the restoration happened towards the end of 2024 and I’d say it’s holding up very well so far.
It wouldn’t be much of a fire tower if you couldn’t see anything from the top, so naturally there were some good views when I made it to the observation platform. From there you could see some of the monadnocks and a ton of the hills in the surrounding area, and it made me happy to see some bigger mountains even if I couldn’t climb them. My favorite sight, though, was not in the distance, but on the tower itself, where words of wisdom were left by the graduating class of 2025 (I assume from Milford High School).
As a hiker on a never-ending quest to derive the positive spirit of the woods, but short on time today, it was great to be spoon-fed some cliff notes from the younger generation. So, without any more words from me about it, let me share what the kids would like you to know:
“Everything you can imagine is real.” – Pablo Picasso 
“Every Step Counts” 
Fire Tower Love 
Big love to you, too, stranger! 
This one I actually really liked. Never heard that before, and I paused on this. 
Somebody missed English class too many times, but has the right attitude. 
“Someone loves everything you hate about yourself.” 
“Fuck the oligarchy.” 
“You have time.” 
“Life is pretty dope I guess.” 
“You look amazing!” 
“Love always.” 
“Wanting to be someone else is a waste of who you are.” 
“People change and things go wrong, but just remember life goes on.” 
“If you never try you’ll never know.” 
And of course, “Hi Agatha’s Boobs.” 
Creativity needs sustenance. 
How lucky are we?
See you out there.