AMHERST, Mass. (AP) – It’s a legendary hideout for early American rebels and a magnet for hikers in western Massachusetts.

And during the fall, Mount Norwottuck is one of the most popular spots for a brisk hike that pays off with brilliant views of the Pioneer Valley.

A four-mile loop trail leads to Norwottuck’s 1,106-foot summit leaving from a visitors center off Route 116. The path passes a working stone quarry and quickly isolates you under a canopy of trees.

Despite the heavy rains that have pummelled western Massachusetts this month, the oaks, maples and birches still have enough foliage worth looking up at. And the leaves that have fallen blanket the forest floor with deep, dull reds and browns.

Following the white blazes of the Metacomet-Monadnock trail, the path begins a steady ascent up the highest peak in the Holyoke Range, crossing some downed trees that provide minor obstacles.

From the summit, the hiker’s reward is a clear view to the north. The flat farmland of Hadley and Amherst is colored with what’s left of the red, orange and gold blazes of foliage.

The rural landscape is interrupted by the brief, small city-like skyline of the University of Massachusetts campus, but your gaze easily skirts by the visual anomaly and settles on the distant rises of the Sugarloaf mountains and Mount Toby.

Looking toward the northwest, Mount Greylock – Massachusetts’ tallest mountain – rises above the state’s northernmost corner.

Outlooks from the eastern side of Norwottuck’s top accentuate the valley’s geography, offering a steep view down the mountainside and overlooking Rattlesnake Knob, the next eastern rise along the Holyoke Range.

From the exposed summit, the trail takes a fast and steep plunge back into a tunnel of golden foliage. After traveling along patches of jagged rocks, the trail slips into a narrow crevice of huge sandstone and conglomerate rock, the ledges that form the roof of the Horse Caves.

The formation, which is more like an open-front shelter topped by protruding ledges than a traditional cave, is said to have harbored Daniel Shays and his fellow farmers after they staged a 1786-87 rebellion in protest of excessive taxes and unfair laws in the new United States.

The group took over courthouses and raided the armory in Springfield before supposedly taking refuge on the side of Norwottuck.

It’s a tale so ingrained in the region’s sense of history that people rarely question its integrity. But some academics say the story makes little sense.

” I think it’s absolute blarney,” said Leo Richards, a UMass history professor who has written a book about Shays’ Rebellion. “The Shaysites controlled Amherst and never had to hide out from anybody. They weren’t going to be persecuted in this town.”

How the story got started, Richards says he has no clue.

“It’s been around forever,” he said. “I would never try to convince anybody it isn’t true because the story’s been told so many times.”

From the Horse Caves, the M-M trail soon meets up with the Robert Frost Trail. The wide and obvious footpath leads back to the visitors center along a gentle slope.

But before emerging from the woods and back in range of the noises whirring from the quarry, it’s worth taking a break to listen to the wind sweeping along the trees and squirrels and chipmunks scampering along the crunchy leaves on the forest floor.

And if all is silent, just take a few moments to breathe.

“I love coming here this time of year,” said Jennifer Forest, a 32-year-old from Belchertown who was finishing a short morning hike on Wednesday. “The woods smell so amazing. That earthy, rich, thick smell is great.”