Part 2, Hiking Mount Arab

We continued our way up Mount Arab. The trail was well maintained and not at all difficult, but was rather unrelentingly uphill. That's something an old geezer like me notices:

The dogs were very happy in spite of the rain, or perhaps the rain was helping keep them cool and free of deer fly attack:

We all stopped at the base of a rocky cliff covered with vegetation:

Wild Blackberries were in full bloom - in fact, they were past their flowering prime and many were beginning to become berries already:

I was especially taken by this venerable old Yellow Birch. I later read that some of these are 120 years old or more. They had been spared from cutting in the heyday of logging because Yellow Birch wasn't worth much then. If one wanted to commune with the trees, this friendly, wise old fellow would be a good place to begin:

The rain became heavier as we neared the summit and I realized that I wasn't going to see much in the way of scenic overlooks:

I knew we were almost there by the rock formations and the miniaturized trees:

And indeed I was right. Seamus led the way as we broke out of the forest and saw the fire tower and caretaker's cabin directly ahead of us:

The fire tower was built on a rocky outcropping and the dogs ran ahead to check it out. It was built, I later read, in 1918:

I tied the dogs to the base of the tower and climbed to the top. But all I could see was a solid wall of whitish-gray fog. I was disappointed, but then reminded myself that I'd known it was raining and cloudy when I'd begun the hike. It would be ridiculous to expect God to part the clouds for my benefit. I'd just have to give up the idea of taking photos. Just then, the clouds began to lift and part, revealing a hint of the spectacular Adirondack landscape below:

I kept shooting pictures in all directions as the clouds continued to roll off and away. This shot was of the moving cloud bank as it moved past the caretaker's cabin. You can see the trail we arrived on just to the right of the cabin. I stayed up in the top of the fire tower to take photos of the landscape as the clouds cleared, but I'll post more about that tomorrow: