Twenty-four TrailBlazers and one canine celebrated St. Paddy’s Day by heading up the Pig Trail with Wilson in search of adventure at the Marinoni Scenic Area. Along the way we were treated to redbuds in hues from pink to purple, fluffy white “popcorn” flowers on serviceberries, and sunny yellow forsythia. The hike was originally supposed to have been a longer one, but all is well that ends well because it turned out to be a sunny, hot, and humid day without the thunderstorms predicted by our drama queen forecasters! 

Near the trailhead we crossed the creek fairly easily by rock hopping, and then started trekking our way up several ascents until we came to the boulder field and hiked up through some crevices to continue hiking along a high ridge. We saw violets along the way as well as toothwort, fiddlehead ferns, and a little phlox. Eventually we crossed a road and then started meandering downward into the wide canyon of the Marinoni Scenic Area. The creek had some little waterfalls before we came to the cascade of falls from the ridge above. As we hugged the rocky wall next to the trail we came to the high falls and continued on downward to the creek that we crossed to reach our traditional lunch spot. We enjoyed a leisurely lunch before heading back. At the end we chucked our boots and cooled our hot tootsies in the refreshing water of the creek. 

This is a very beautiful area, a favorite of many of us, that is great to explore, enjoy, and photograph and that is exactly what we did!