The fall is beautiful but I , Dickens, a devoted hiking dog, am sorry to see the hiking season drawing to a close.  Bruce, Fenster and I arrived at the trailhead at the south end of the Wapack trail at 12 noon.  There was space there in the parking lot, but a very long line of cars out on Route 119.  Tons of people were taking the relatively short hike to Mt Watatic, many of these being families with children. 
     To avoid these large crowds, we took the Mid State Trail north to Mt Pratt, thereby bypassing the closer and easier Mt Watatic.  Bruce had climbed Mt Pratt twice before and it is his favorite mountain on the Wapack trail.  One time he was there he saw two swooping peregrine falcons.
     The weather was perfect for hiking:  71 degrees, sunny, with a pleasant breeze.  There were some muddy rain puddles in the trail from rains on the preceding three days, but overall, due to a dry August and September, the trails were in pretty good condition and not muddy or soggy.
     When we got to the intersection with the Wapack trail and turned left, we met a man and woman from Lowell MA who were coming down off Watatic and heading north.  They only went as far as Binney Pond and then turned back.
     At 1:15 PM we arrived at Binney Pond which had a fairly high water level.  Continuing uphill we met a few people coming down off Pratt, including two women from Massachusetts, one of whom told us, "I painted the leaves today just for you."
     We arrived at the lookout on Pratt at 1:50 PM.  This is about 70 feet below the actual summit which is 1817 feet high.  There were two men already there, about 60 years old, wearing orange jackets and caps.  After they finished eating lunch they wandered off east to look for a geo cache token, but they never did find it. 
     There is a beautiful view here down to Binney Pond to the south and then on to Mt Watatic behind that.  You can also see the Boston skyline off in the distance.  The fall colors today were very pretty.   We had lunch including one roast beef sandwich for each dog, and Bruce also gave us each a bite of his ham and cheese sandwich.  He also gave us a dish of water. 
     As we got up to leave a large group of all ages came up the trail.  They had a dog named Pax, who looked like a yellow lab with creamy colored fur and pointy ears.  Fenster wanted to stay with this happy crowd, but we persuaded him to come along further north.  Crossing over the actual summit we came to a lookout north with a good view of Mt Monadnock and Stratton Mtn in Vermont.  There was also a pretty view of a pond which could have been Island Pond.  After taking in this view, we started back at 2:39 PM.
     We had an adventure on the way down.  Right before we came to the State Line trail, a very large, fat and very spiny porcupine crossed the trail ahead of us, heading east.  Bruce rushed the two of us along the trail so that we didn't have any time to meet and socialize with this ambling personage.
     Further along on the way out we met many families with children and a few couples and others coming down off of Watatic by way of the loop north over Nutting Hill.  People petted us doggies and called us "cute" and "puppies" .  Once Bruce said, "Watch out, they are kind of muddy.  A woman replied, "So are we all after this climb." 
     But the trail was not really muddy at all.  It was just that we doggies waded in a few rain puddles which were not exactly crystal clear. 
     Near the bottom on the way down we met a collie named Prue.  We were back out at 4:47 PM.