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Fifteen TrailBlazers, including two newcomers, took the short, scenic drive up to Devils Den to hike the Quail Valley Trail on a warm, sunny afternoon.  Little did we know just what we were letting ourselves in for, but you will need to be patient to find out!  The trailhead is on the road before you enter the park itself and there is room for a handful of cars on the right side of the road.

 

Yours Truly was on her maiden voyage after back surgery and managed to make a showy reappearance.  Getting out of the car, she did not open the door very wide to avoid hitting another car door and somehow managed to hit her leg on the corner of the door.  It only hurt a little but suddenly her leg felt wet and she realized she was bleeding.  Several of the hikers came to her aid when Becky whipped out a first aid kit.  YT’s prognosis is good and she is expected to live!

 After crossing the road, we were at the trailhead and followed the blue blazes on the trees.  We had to hike downward toward Quail Valley and at first the trail seemed fine.  After a while, as we trekked downward, the trail seemed to have a lot of loose rocks on it.  Meanwhile we were in direct sunlight and it was quite warm.  As we continued, we came to sections where we had to pussyfoot carefully down some rocky ledges and had to watch our step.  We kept thinking that this trail seemed longer than we remembered.

 After quite a while we crossed a shallow creek and kept on trekking.  In the fullness of time we finally reached the waterfalls that were flowing, albeit not copiously.  In this area there were lots of neat, soaring rock formations to look at and explore and a nice place to rest or take a load off as we say in NY.  This was a welcome relief.

 Ah, now it was time to turn back and by this time it was downright hot and most of us were already pretty tired.  The hike back was mostly uphill and we were hot and weary, so we felt the need to stop several times for a breather and to drink water.  Somehow uphill return hikes always seem longer and harder and this was no exception.  We bravely soldiered on wondering if we would ever reach the cars.  Some of our veteran club members had done this hike a few times several years ago and we did not recall it being so long!  Of course, the heat did make it harder today.  We are proud of our newcomers, Sandra and Lena, and regret that their first hike with us turned out to be so hard.  We hate to scare off newcomers; they did a great job. We were all relieved to get back to air-conditioned cars!  It was good that the group picture was taken before we hiked and not when we came back dragging our tail feathers!

 All’s well that ends well and we did have fun socializing as we were hiking on a beautiful day.

 

 If you plan to hike with us next Saturday at Mt. Magazine, please sign up on this website.

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