This year we wanted to try it again and we were determined to succeed. This trail is 13 miles (we added an additional mile looking at an overlook... making the total 14 miles.) It's over boulders, up ravines, down ravines, under huge rock overhangs, and even behind a waterfall. It is a crazy trail. So while 14 miles is a lot- the trail itself is about triple that in difficulty. The trail is an end to end trail. There is no turning back. Once you start, just just keep plugging away until you reach the other side.
We started at 7am and didn't get off the trail until 6:30pm. That is just over 11 hours of straight walking. We. Did. Not. Stop. Not even for lunch. We were rushing against daylight and we were booking it. (Truth be told, most of us could have finished earlier but one lady had a hard time and was slower than the others. We would walk for a ways then wait on her, over and over. We didn't want to leave her alone on the trail.)
The trail is gorgeous though. I mean, really, really pretty. We started at Foster Falls (pictured above) and worked our way to the Grundy Trailhead (most people do it the opposite way. We actually found this way to be a tad easier. There was more going "down" where the other way would be a lot more going "up.")
You always have to wonder about things that give you a warning.......
The fall colors were out in all their glory! Pictures never do nature any justice.
This is another thing that's hard to tell in a picture. But we were walking around this nice, normal trail when I saw a sign that pointed down and the word "Trail" on it. Well, the direction of the "trail" was straight down. Straight. down. The middle of the photo is only a landing area. You cannot even tell the bottom from this photo. We looked at each other, took a potty break then took a deep breath and started down.
This is the very bottom of the picture I talked about above. This was the easy part because I was actually able to take a picture. A hiking stick is a must for this trail!
All smiles though.
Throughout this entire trail we'd look at a pile of rocks and notice "that" was the trail. Oh man. I still can't believe we survived.
Yep, another "trail."
There were many waterfalls throughout which was a pleasant surprise. I didn't take pictures of them all.
We came upon a random staircase. What in the world?? It's actually going over barbed wire. We have no idea why the barbed wire is there. It is not private property.
Someone created this rock seat. We called it the Stone Throne. It was random and appreciated!
This is when I realized we were going to have to walk behind this waterfall. It actually wasn't bad and we hardly got wet.
Time to go back up!
I have no idea, but I thought my face was funny.
We became the bandana crew.
I only took pictures during the first 8 miles. After that it it became a race against the sun. Because of all the boulders you can't go very fast so I concentrated on not hurting myself. Luckily enough- we all came away unharmed!! Which was such a blessing because this is a trail where one could get hurt easily.
We finished! It was pitch dark. We broke out our headlamps about 40 minutes before this picture was taken. It is NOT fun to walk around a treacherous trail in the pitch dark. Thank goodness for headlamps! We were soooo glad to be done. We accomplished it, but man oh man, was it hard! 14 miles done! ELEVEN hours of straight walking. Phew!
It was a gorgeous trail. Really, the prettiest I've ever seen. But wow, it was also thus far the hardest. :)
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