Eight years ago, I did this with a one-year-old on my back, but those days are in the rearview mirror. Having worked an eight-hour shift and arriving at 3:30, I felt pretty good about my adventure. It was a nice stress relief road walk in the Marckworth Forest with some views on Stickerbush Hill and a side trip to Swans Mill Pond on the way back.

One of my favorite hiking book quotes is about Swans Mill Pond; 'Paul Bunyan's great-grandson's cousin operated a mill here.' I wonder if that little nugget was supplied by the cousin's next door neighbor's daughter's boyfriend?

Remember the good ol' days, when you wanted to get rid of a car, you just tied a brick to the gas pedal and shot it off a cliff?  Well, me neither - but apparently, it's been going on here for some time.

I was exploring at the base of the Elwell Wall (for no particular reason) and came across an old pickup. Then a refrigerator. Then a car, followed by a motorcycle - in all, at least a dozen vehicles and four motorcycles. Lots of tires and other junk, and tons and tons of bottles and cans. They would crackle underneath the leaves as I stumbled around. A legit dump.

At the top of the Wall, one of the spur roads ends at the edge of a 100' cliff. Folks have been dumping things off there for a long time. Rusty relics are strewn through the trees for 100 yards down at the bottom. The older ones (from the 50s,60s) are the farthest down as there were no trees then to stop them - or maybe they were just heavier?  Special mention to the little red Ford Festiva that somehow rolled down that far. Thank God I didn't find any skeletons in any of them!

Anyway, my plan of bushwhacking the base of the Wall got sidetracked again. This one is going straight on to the "Stupid Idea" list.

Getting there - The WTA direction to turn onto Kelly Road can be slightly confusing because technically the road is Stillwater Hill Road, which is what the sign says, that quickly turns into Kelly Road. I guess if we had had our eyes out for the store, we wouldn't have missed the turn, whoops. The road getting there is in pretty good condition for a logging road. No issues in our Camry.

Trail conditions -- Great place to hike for fall colors in solitude. We ended up doing round trip 3 miles. Our pup led the way up one pretty steep hill. I had a baby in a carrier and it was doable slowly. No mud, just gravel and dirt on these old forest roads. 

Lots of wildlife! We saw several snakes and even a few salamanders just chilling on the trail. Also spotted a frog to the side of the trail. Also saw some not-so-wildlife ... there were a few femur and knee cap(?) bones in front of the gate before the trail officially starts ... very fitting for Halloween approaching. We thought maybe they were deer bones?

We were the first ones parked when we started our hike around 11 am. When we returned around 1.5 hr later, there were 2 other cars parked but we never saw anyone else on the trails. (One car had run over one of the bones!) As we ate some snacks/fed baby in the car, we saw numerous cars drive by with bike racks, and a few bikers. Seems like a popular spot to bike further down. 

Took a wander around Swan's Mill Pond with no expectations.  It was actually very beautiful!  Tons of fall colors and I had it all to myself on this rainy morning.  Two old abandoned cars along this trail were interesting to look at but also increased the spooky factor (tis the season).  The loop around the pond and back up to the gate where WTA directions takes you is about 2.5 miles and 250 ft of elevation.