Buzzards Rock - Butt Buster!

After not being able to hike this past weekend, Hubs and I were anxious to get our legs moving on the trail (the pups were pretty restless, too). Since we were going to have to go after work, we decided to go over to Patapsco State Park. As beautiful as Cascade Falls Trail is, I've hiked it several times and I wanted something new. Doing a bit of searching online I came up with Buzzards Rock Trail! It seemed perfect: a short trail that we could do after work, with just enough difficulty to get our blood pumping!

After a chaotic morning (trying to get ready for work and get my dogs out the door with me..... I need more coffee, please!), the thought of hitting the trail made my day much easier. It's amazing how in such a short amount of time hiking has become such a stress reliever for me. Even the summer heat couldn't keep me off the trail today! After work, while waiting for Hubs to get home, I convinced my sister, Littlest Cloudy, to come on the trail with us!

As you can see, Sprocket was ready to hit the trail! He's an impatient little bugger sometimes!

So off we started on our short mid-week hike. Patapsco is where I fell in love with hiking, and this trail proved to be just as wonderful! It started off going downhill towards the river and overtop of the train tracks (the tracks head through a tunnel built into the mountain side). We caught our first great view from on top of this tunnel!

My camera couldn't do the scene justice. I love looking at the lush tree tops. I'm standing on the edge of a small cliff where this picture was taken. There were some rocks that abruptly stopped and the drop was about 50 feet. Hubs said that it is often used by rappellers for practice. Pretty cool, huh? Maybe I've found a new thing.. "My Journey from Sanity to Rappelling." No? Yeah, I didn't think so!

While I was caught up in the beauty of the sight, my uber creative sister suggested I take this picture:

Sprocket photobombed us...

We continued on our way and met up with our friend, Number One, and the four of us joined together to hike the rest of the trail. 

After losing our way for a bit (you'd think I'd have learned my lesson on Gunpowder South), we found the trail again and looked up ahead to see what awaited us. Holy cow. What a hill! As our mouths were hanging open, a lady with her two dogs passed us and said "Yeah! It's a butt buster". No kidding.. I was so focused on actually making it up the hill in one piece, that I didn't get a good picture of the climb, but you can kind of see it from this one:

Getting up to the top was worth it. For one, my legs felt great! Have I mentioned how hiking has done wonders for my cellulite?? I am dead serious about that. It was also cool to make it to the top, because there was a cool rock/cliff that you could see the dam from.

You can just see it off in the distance (I was taking pictures with my cell, sorry for the bad quality). The coolest part though, was realizing we had just climbed up that high! We had been walking even with the dam below. My best guess is it was about a 400 ft climb! Butt buster, indeed!

That was part of the rock/cliff.

From the cliff.

So after we ogled the pretty view, we kept on walking (uphill!!) and didn't see much except trail. It was a great hike though, and if it wasn't for the Maryland humidity it would have been perfect. As the trail continued back up hill, I realized we'd be getting close to our car soon. Its amazing how much I've come to love long hikes, and so as we came to the clearing where the parking lot was I was feeling bummed it was over so quickly. But something people refer to as "Trail Magic" was working, and we came across this:

The sun was just starting to set over the gorgeous field. I particularly love the last picture!

I will never cease to be amazed at the treasures we have in our "back yard". I grew up right around the corner from this part of Patapsco Sate Park and never realized how lucky I was! And since I persuaded my sister to come along on this hike I've officially converted my first fellow High Heels Lover to hiking boots! I have to say that I'm rather proud of myself *muahaha*! Watch out, my friends -- I'm coming for you next!

I've got a great trip planned for this weekend! I'm so excited to share it with you when we get back! Did you notice the new button on the left side of my page? I got an EveryTrail account and I can now track our trails with GPS to show you how we went! You can see Buzzards Rock Trail here!

Have you taken the first step to hiking? I'd love to hear about it if you have! 

Thank you so much for visiting My Journey from High Heels to Hiking Boots! I'd love to hear from you in the comments section! You can also follow me by email at the top of the left hand navigation bar by simply entering your email address. Happy Trails!