Sixteen TrailBlazers and 2 canines headed up the Pig Trail on a gray, cool morning to explore the Marinoni Scenic area under the leadership of three Valleys. At Turner Bend several people bought sandwiches, and the store gave a free baggie of meat to Judy and Dick for Zach. Yours Truly briefly considered entertaining the owners with a couple of cute arf-arfs and a winsome smile to see if she could do some mooching of her own! 

At the trailhead some backpackers were still in their sleeping bags and surely enjoyed hearing a bunch of rowdies getting organized and taking the group pic. The first leg was all up hill with Judith leading the charge, so it didn’t take long for our trekkers to start shedding their layers. Tiny little wildflowers were trying to bloom, but it is still early. After a while we came to that neat passage through a boulder field and enjoyed the rocky view from the top. After a while Ed took over leadership duties, but he soon had to play second banana to Tina who was in HER “element” – a little pun! 

There was some water in the creek, and we saw several falls with just a little water, but we were pleased to see any at all considering the lack of rain. In the canyon there were several massive bluffs and interesting rock formations. We ate lunch along the creek where we met up with three not-so-friendly men on horseback. Horses are not allowed on this trail. They had several unleashed dogs running helter-skelter and made no attempt to call them back even though we were a large group with 2 dogs of our own. We also found two friendly dogs on the trail that were either dumped or lost. One had a collar with a phone number so hopefully the owner will fetch him when contacted. 

We had an enjoyable hike with plenty of time to look around this beautiful area.