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!

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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 like me on Facebook and follow me by email at the top of the left hand navigation bar by simply entering your email address. Happy Trails!

McKeldin Area Derecho Damage

Friday night, we had the mother of all storms. It was a rare thunderstorm that had a huge wind system move in right before it. The winds were hurricane strength, breaking trees in the area like twigs. Then the lightening started. I've heard friends say that the sky was light as day because of all the lightening. This storm system is called a Derecho. Accuweather.com posted a story about this weekend's storm, if you'd like to read more about it.

Hubs and I came through the storm no worse for wear. We didn't lose one branch off our trees. We were lucky. Most areas were littered with downed trees and power lines. Most lost electricity. Some lost water service. The Governor declared a state of emergency, and what did Hubs and I do? Hiked, of course!

Well.. we tried to hike. Since we didn't have any problems from the storm, we didn't think to listen to the news about other areas of the state. So off we set to Patapsco State Park's McKeldin Area, where we planned to hike about 8 miles. Ever since I joined Everytrail.com I've been itching to try the McKeldin Area full day hike of about 16 miles, but we haven't had the nerve to do it. This weekend, Hubs and I were going to try half of it. At 8 miles it would be our longest hike.

What we saw when we pulled into the parking lot was destruction. Trees were down all over, power lines were haphazardly tangled in the branches.

As we continued along the trail, there were more branches and trees down, sometimes to the point that we had to weave our way through them. We knew that the park service had their hands full with many trails, so we did what we could. Any branches that we could pick up between the two of us we moved off the path.

In addition to the tree debris, the trail was very muddy and the storm water had changed the river to a sad brown.

I am absolutely astounded at the raw power of nature. This trip left me in awe of how dangerous nature can be, and how deadly it could be for an unprepared person.

As a result of the storm damage, we ended up only hiking 2 miles. Tree scrambling is not nearly as fun as rock scrambling! 

**Hubs looked at the GPS tracker and realized it cut off half way through our hike. He thinks we hiked about 6 miles total**

I would like to go back and hike this trail again (just maybe not right after a storm!), because the trail map promised some awesome sights to see along the way. I love a hike with a view! But even all the storm damage couldn't keep us from finding delight in this hike. We came across a young deer that bounded right across the trail! And this time, my camera did work!

You can see her in the middle of the picture, worrying about whether we were going to come after her.

We also crossed over train tracks (be aware that these are active tracks), and saw this beautiful tunnel.

No, I did not get close enough to take a better picture. I'm too much of a scared-y cat!

I'll leave you with a picture of these awesome geese, that are totally ballin'. They laugh in the face of danger!

There's more to come later this week so be sure to check back! Littlest Cloudy and I set off together and she's got some beautiful photos to share with you all!

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!

P.s. Ever made homemade chicken broth? I hadn't till last night cause I was so sure it would be too time consuming. Well thanks to Kelly at The Complete Guide to Imperfect Homemaking I made it for the first time - and it's awesome! Mosey on over and see for yourself =]