Bluntly, Maryland has done a rubbish job of preserving its fire towers. There is one modified one at Jug Bay used as a viewing platform; another at a school district site not open to the public; and one at Deep Creek Lake State Park that, until recently, was actually open to visitors. I have seen at least one more located on private land - as in, not even in a private forest, but a random backyard. Clearly, it was not a HOA neighborhood!
The Thayerville tower at Deep Creek used to be open about one day a week in summer, staffed by a ranger, but a couple of years ago it was decided it need repairs, and now no one can go up there. It was refurbished in 2009 and looks fine, so I'm not exactly what the problem is, and no one seems to be rushing to do anything about it.
Nevertheless, it's been on my Maryland bucket list, and T and I finally got to visit it, even though we couldn't go up the tower itself.
We had the advantage of staying in the campground, which allowed us to shave a bit of distance and elevation gain off the hike. Still, it's not a truly difficult hike. It gains about 600 feet of elevation over a sometimes rocky trail, but the stones are well-placed rather than trippers or rockers.
Not too far from the tower is an observation platform, which probably has nice views in winter. From the base of a tower, there is a sliver of view following the power lines, but presumably the best view would be from the top.
We returned via a different, slightly longer route, partially using an old road. Our total mileage was 4.25.
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