Borestone Mountain (Elliottsville)

Matty and I hiked Borestone Mountain today.  The 1,600 acres Audubon preserve includes an amazing forest, three beautiful ponds and of course Borestone Mountain itself.  

We started on the Base Trail, hiking 1.1 miles to the visitor center.  From there, we explored the Peregrine Trail, a 0.5 mile trail that leads out to a sheer cliff overlooking the three ponds.  We hiked back down the trail and then headed up the Summit Trail to the West Peak of Borestone.  The trail starts out flat, tracing the shoreline of Sunrise Pond, until it starts to climb steeply.  The last section of trail before the summit is extremely steep and requires some rock scrambling and climbing over metal rungs.  The view from the summit was amazing and well worth the effort.  We descended back down the Summit Trail and then descended the rest of the way along the service road. 

Overall we hiked 4.6 miles with significant elevation gain.  Here is a map of our hike.  While not crowded, there were quite a few people on the summit trail.