DEVIL'S BRIDGE

Yesterday, we decided to do a hike.  We were going to get up early and go and get back in time to do something else in the afternoon.  My friend, Sammye, had told me to take the trail hike on Doe Mountain.  She said the view from the top was fantastic.  Mr. W had looked it up and printed off a map.  Of course, he couldn't just let it go at that hike.  No, he found another hike to do that went to Devil's Bridge.  In his defense, every single hike we had checked into has been way off in the distance they say it is.  One hike had said it was 2 miles to a very scenic pool.  When reading reviews of doing the hike, everyone was saying that it was 4 miles, not 2 and most people were not happy about that.  But back to our hike.  So, the information he read and printed off about Devil's Bridge said it was a little over 3/4 mile hike to it from the trailhead and 3/4 mile hike back.  OK, I'm good with 1.5 mile hike. 

The plan was to hike to Devil's Bridge in the morning, pack our lunch and eat at a picnic area, hike Doe's Mountain trail, and drive a scenic loop in the area.  I figured we would be back by 2:00ish.  We left at 7:30 a.m. 

We arrive at the overflow parking lot for the Devil's Bridge hike.  There was a road that you could try to drive to the trailhead but it clearly said high clearance/4-wheel drive vehicles were the only thing recommended.  Even though we have a truck, it is not 4-wheel drive and I'm not sure I would want to take my vehicle on this road even if it was 4-wheel drive.  So, we park in the overflow parking lot.  Now, Mr. W isn't sure if we start hiking down the bad road or down a trail at the other end of the parking lot.  I see a sign on the trail at the other end of the parking lot that says Devil's Bridge and so we take off.  Have I ever mentioned that I hate hiking?  I have tried to build a "like" for it because Mr. W loves to hike and always wants me to go with him. But deep down, in my true inner being, I HATE hiking.  I just wanted you to know.

Mr. W as we are starting out.

Some pretty scenery along the hiking trail

We start out on this trail and it 8:20.  We walk and walk and walk and keep walking.  We finally reach where the bad road and this trail come together.  We are still no where near the trailhead for Devil's Bridge.  So, we keep going down the bad road and we walk and walk and walk some more.  Finally, we reach the trailhead.  At this point, we had walked well over 3/4 of a mile that I believe we are walking on this hike.  Now, once we reached this point, we have 3/4 mile to walk and it is straight up.  Oh boy.  Yay.  I can hardly contain my excitement.

Once we reach the trailhead.

So, up we go.  Have I mentioned lately that I hate hiking?  According to the information on this hike, once you get close to the top, you can either continue to the top and go to Devil's Bridge or there is a trail that veers left and it will take you to an arch in the mountains that you can stand under, look up, and see the sky.  You can walk out on Devil's Bridge but the information says that it is not for faint of heart.  It is narrow and you should use good judgment when walking on it because it is a long fall down.  I have a fear of heights.  Walking on Devil's Bridge sounds just like something I would want to do, right?  I'll stick to the trail leading to the arch.  Mr. W can walk out on the bridge.  Of course, by the time we finally reach the top,  I'm about ready to trip him while he is on the bridge! 

Once he gets off the bridge, we walk the trail to the arch.

There is a rock area that sticks out from the mountain and people were walking out on the area to take pictures and to have their picture taken.  I don't know what came over me, (I think it was the lack of oxygen from hiking so far and in a higher altitude), but I decided to walk out on the rock and have Mr. W take my picture from under the arch.

Can you see me?

Needless to say, this really tested my fear of heights.  I tried to watch my feet as I walked out so I wouldn't trip on a rock or uneven surface.  Once I reached this spot, I tried to look straight at Mr. W or straight out.  I wasn't about to look down.  On a side note, I did have a dream last night that I walked out on this rock, tripped, and started falling.  I woke up with a start, was gasping for air, and had to sit up and turn over just so I knew that it really wasn't happening and so I wouldn't go right back to sleep and start dreaming it again.

OK, now we have to start the trek back to the truck.  This time, we decided to stay on the bad road the entire time.  Mr. W kept saying, I think the end is just around the corner or a little ways down this road or I think this is the last road that we have to walk up.  You know what I think of that don't you?

We got back to the truck at 11:30.  My feet felt like they were on fire. My legs felt like rubber.  I had put a few band-aids on spots I knew would get blisters easily, but I had blisters on places that had never had blisters before.  This 1.5 mile hike had taken 3 hours.  I wasn't going anywhere else but back to the trailer. Did I mention that I hate hiking?

It was mostly a quiet ride back to the trailer.  At one point, Mr. W said, "All I can say is they do a really poor job of explaining these hikes and estimating the length of the hike."  That's an understatement if I ever heard one, but he is definitely correct. When I got back, I started looking on the internet to see if I could find something that told us exactly how far we had really gone.  According to reviews on Yelp, we actually walked somewhere between 5 and 6 miles. Oh boy. Yay. I can hardly contain my excitement.

I will go on other hikes eventually.  But I will only do hikes that are 2 miles or less (preferably less) and Mr. W will have to promise me that he knows that it will be what it says it will be.  Have I mentioned lately that I hate hiking?