Cascade Falls - A Family Hike

Photo Credit: Sarah Maier

As I said in my last post, we had family visiting last week. Momma Cloudy and Fort Cloudy were both in from out of state. We all had a fantastic week visiting together, and ended it off with a 6 mile family hike. After many late nights and lots of extended family get-togethers, it was nice to have a day out enjoying nature with just us. We loaded up the dogs and headed off to hit the trail.

We hit up our favorite haunt, Cascade Falls and Buzzards Rock trails, and enjoyed the first signs of fall heading our way. The weather was perfect - sunny, with just a touch of cool in the air. Momma Cloudy had hiked Cascade Falls with us before, but Fort Cloudy had not. So we all enjoyed leisurely hiking in the cool weather with the dogs. We stopped often to take pictures or to enjoy a particularly nice view. We laughed, we chatted, we spent time together. That's what made this hike so special to me. I was able to spend time with my favorite people doing my favorite thing - hiking.

Too often, family gets caught up in the hectic pace of every day life and we think "Oh, I can just catch up with her later". But when does "later" really come? If your life is like mine, it never seems to. I find myself continually playing catch up with important things, or making phone calls I've been meaning to make forever. Email overflows your inbox, text messages sit unanswered, and feeling overwhelmed is normal. The reality of life is that we don't know if we'll have a later. Stop putting things off for the future. Have you been meaning to call your brother, but just never seem to have time? Stop reading this. Right now. Seriously! Go call him! Let the people in your life who are important to you know that they're important.

I say all this because I think that hiking is a great way to connect with your family. Not only are you away from the distractions of life (TV, phones, email.. yeah you get the picture), but you're working towards a common goal, which builds camaraderie. You don't even have to be a great hiker to enjoy it. There are a plethora of trails available to us in our local parks. It could be 1 mile, it could be 50 miles. The distance doesn't matter. What matters is that you step out with your family and say to them "The most important thing to me right now is to spend time with you". Well meaning words can't take the place of deliberate actions.

So, are you ready to hit the trail with your favorite people yet?

 

Photo credit: Sarah Maier

My next post is going to be about finding local trails, and what you need to take with you for a day hike. There's so many great resources available, and local parks to explore! Join me, and get outdoors!

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The High Heels Side of Life: Crab Feasts and Family

No hiking this weekend because my family is in town. But I think having our last crab feast of the season makes up for it.

Just sayin'

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Cascade Falls, Buzzards Rock, and a Sister Hike

My little sister is the coolest. She's amazingly creative, fun to be around, and one of the most beautiful people that I know - inside and out. And she loves to hike! Earlier this week, we took a sister hike over at Patapsco State Park. We decided to see if we could hike from Cascade Falls trail head on Landing Road over to Buzzards Rock trail head on Hilltop Road. It took a little coordination with cars, but it was really fun!

To see our trail guide visit my EveryTrail page.

When we hiked this it was still only a couple days after last weekend's storm. There were a few trees down along the trail. Mostly all of the smaller debris had been cleaned up. The trees were just waiting for a chain saw.

Photo Credit: Littlest Cloudy 

Photo Credit: Littlest Cloudy

Amazing how big strong trees can snap like twigs in high winds, isn't it? After we played Limbo with the trees, we crossed the stream several times until we came to the name sake of the trail: Cascade Falls.

Photo Credit: Littlest Cloudy

Stream along the trail 

Photo Credit: Littlest Cloudy

Cascade Falls

I love this little pool. It's perfect to wade in and cool off on a hot summer day, or just to cool your feet after being in your hiking boots! As you can see, Sprocket is loving it =]

When you get to the falls, you cross over the stream on the rocks to follow the trail. Be careful! The rocks can be very slippery! We had to help the puppies across because they were scared to jump across the rocks.

When you get to the second trail head, you can either continue to the left on Cascade or you can be crazy like Littlest Cloudy and I and go down towards the road and across the Swinging Bridge towards Grist Mill trail.

 Photo Credit: Littlest Cloudy

 Photo Credit: Littlest Cloudy

On the other side of the bridge you follow Grist Mill trail to the left until you come across a small tunnel with a stream running through it. Go through the tunnel (it's not scary, I promise!) and Buzzards Rock is immediately on the left. The butt buster part. YES! Tone those glutes!

Buzzards Rock has become one of my favorite short hikes. The loop is only a couple miles long, so you can loop it a couple times or you can combine it with other trails (like we did). Its a moderate to difficult hike in parts, but it works all those.. chocolate donuts.. off your butt.. I know, you would never eat those awful things. Me neither.. honest.. (Ok! So I like my donuts!)

If you're following along with our trail guide, you can see that we stopped at the parking lot on Hilltop Road. If you want to challenge yourself more, you could easily continue on Buzzards Rock until it meets Grist Mill trail where you'd take it to the left if you're having a good time, take it to the right if you want it to feel fine.. Oh sorry (I don't listen to the Spice Girls, what are you talking about?)! Take a left on Grist Mill and follow it up to the Swinging Bridge, then cross the road back to Cascade Falls which you'd take the loop on the right and eventually make it back to your car on Landing Road! Crazy, right? That would make this hike about 5 miles.

Littlest Cloudy and I were walking this trail quickly because dark was rapidly approaching, so it only took us about an hour. I can honestly say though that when I have more time I'm going back and hiking the full loop. 

On a different note, Mid-Atlantic Off Road Enthusiasts are doing some awesome work with trail clean up from the Derecho! If you have some time to help them, check out their calendar to see when you can help out! Taking care of our trails is really important, and these guys are doing a great service to all of us who enjoy them!

Stop on over and like MJTHB on Facebook!

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