The Day's First Hike: Elephant Head Mountain

I'd arrived at the farm late on Sunday afternoon and spent the night there. On Monday morning I drove to the trail head for a hike which I'd discovered on the internet, to the summit of Elephant Head Mountain. The access road was in such rough shape that I parked along the edge of it and hiked up to the trail head, perhaps another two miles. The Mountain Maples along the way were already turning red:

I wasn't sure if I was still on the access road or if I was already on the trail. Its condition improved considerably beyond where I'd parked and I kept thinking I could have driven in farther. But who knew? Besides, there were few places to turn around or park (as you can see here) and it could suddenly become impassable at any moment. So the dogs and I just kept walking uphill:

It was a pleasant walk, certainly not too difficult, though it brought us steadily uphill. There was no doubt that we were heading toward a mountain summit:

Eventually we came to a clearing which I decided should have been the parking area for the trail head. But we'd already walked this far and the hiking trail was listed as being very short, so I located the trail and we headed off into the forest:

The trail was unmarked but easy to follow:

We came to a trail sign which said Elephant Head summit was only a half mile thataway:

The dogs arrived at the sign before me and waited for me to catch up:

The trail took us up through a lovely Adirondack forest:

Mountain Maples were already dropping their red leaves in many places. This looked like it would be a pleasant hike and I had high hopes for a magnificent summit view. I'll post more tomorrow: