Little Devil Stairs - September 15, 2012

Reported by Pete Fink

On a beautiful Saturday morning that you could tell was going to be perfect, 10 of us organized our gear and entrance passes, drove out to the bottom of the Little Devil Stairs
trail on Rt. 614 and prepared to abuse ourselves on the 1500 foot climb up and out of the gorge. Arriving at the trailhead prepared to pay (administratively) we saw that the two year old, new style, weather and vandal proof fee collection box had been transformed into a rather small trash container.

After a short somewhat level warm up stretch with a couple of dry stream crossings the trail turned rocky and headed steeply up. John Brandt, Brad Young and Liz Lyons went out ahead and were barely seen again except for John who was drawn to the barest trickle of water for a sponge bath. It must have invigorated him. When the rest of the group arrived at the top he was reclining against the trail marker enjoying a Chinese takeout lunch. We don’t know if he brought it with him or he had it delivered.

We all continued down the Pole Bridge Cutoff to the Piney Branch Trail intersection where the rest of us had lunch. We then proceeded down the Piney Branch Trail, a long, gentle downhill with two dry stream crossings which seemed like a fair reward for the earlier climb.

Turning onto the Hull School Trail we began a steep climb up to the Bolen Cemetery and the Keyser Fire Road. We all took a break and investigated the cemetery where there is a tablet with a poem lamenting the taking of the settler’s land for the park.

After that it was downhill again to the cars to head out for our après hike rewards. Debra Fisher, Marian Styles and Briana Taylor stopped for ice cream in Sperryville while the rest of us; Eileen Seaman, John Brandt, Brad Young, Liz Lyons, Ken Moss and Pete and Bev Fink continued to the Timberwood for beer and nachos.