Cattle Mountain(Wilcox Lake Wild Forest-Adirondacks)

Had only about a half day of free time for hiking today, but with a pretty nice weather day on tap, I knew I wanted to get out exploring.  Also, being a weekend, I wanted to find something obscure where I was almost assured of solitude.  Cattle Mountain, a small 2129 foot summit in the town of Wells seemed to fit the bill.  I had read a trip report on this peak and it looked like there was some open rock with good views.  Perfect!  Drove to the end of the driveable part of Pumpkin Hollow Road(at least for my low clearance vehicle), east off of Route 30 and parked there.  This is the spot where the road enters DEC land. 
After parking the car, I began my hike heading NE on the road.

After passing a couple of campsites, the road ends at a gate.  Just past the gate is a snowmobile bridge crossing over Doig Creek.

The main snowmobile trail keeps right after the bridge, but a good herd path continues left(north).  The path is pretty easy to follow, with a bunch of blowdown to avoid as well as a stream crossing.

The path basically leads right to the foot of the mountain, and after about one mile, I left the path and began a steep bushwhack towards Cattle's south summit.

Nearing the south summit, I began to see open rock up ahead.

Once I hit the open rock slabs, the views were good.  I wandered around, heading slightly up to find even better views.  The first set of views were wide open and ranging from south to west.

West views with Corrigan Hill standing above a large wetland.

Great view NW.  The peaks visible are I believe(L-R), Dugway, Swart, Hamilton, Speculator, with Pillsbury and Blue Ridge off in the distance.

Late afternoon light made for a beautiful vista.  A light breeze only added to the enjoyment.

After enjoying the west views, I continued over to the south side of the south summit, where the woods were wide open.

Arriving at the next viewpoint, a steep, open drop to the south.

From this vantage point, Pine Hill rises above another large wetland.

 Fantastic views SW.

After enjoying the great views, I continued up over the south summit and then dropped down to a small notch between it and the true summit.  A large band of cliffs stood impressively above the notch, but was easily bypassed.

The true, nondescript 2129 foot summit on Cattle Mountain.  Not much to see there.

A few yards away from the summit was a small peek a boo viewpoint to the east.  This view would be greatly improved in leaf off season.

Bushwhacked back down off the steep west side of the summit area, eventually making my way back towards the herd path I came in on.  Before heading all the way back, I made a small side trip to the edge of the wetland at the foot of Cattle Mountain to take a look. 

Got back to the car feeling great.  A short, sweet bushwhack with great views.  Hard to beat that for a half day hike.  3.5 miles RT with about 850 feet elevation gain.