Welcome to the very first adventure post of this blog. Or, as the case may be, misadventure post.
This week, I got to explore Devil's Marbleyard about 50 minutes outside of Lynchburg. It's a gorgeous location, and one heck of a hike. I don't want you to get the idea from the title that this hike was a total washout, now. It was actually mostly a ton of fun, but with a few, um, hurdles, along the way.
What is Devil's Marbleyard?
My boyfriend was in town this weekend, and he's a bit of an outdoors man, so I decided to take him on a hike I've only been on once before. And the first time, I didn't even make it halfway up.
First, I feel like I should probably explain what Devil's Marbleyard is. Put simply, it's a big pile of boulders. And these aren't just any boulders. Some of them are the size of semi trucks.
The picture to the right of me sitting on the boulders ought to give you some idea of just how massive these rocks can get. I'm a six-foot-tall person and the boulder beside me is several times my size.
But I'm getting ahead of myself, because you don't actually start at the Marbleyard.
No, you first have to walk up an entire mountain before you climb up another one made of enormous boulders.
The Hike
Honestly, in my opinion, the hike there was the harder part. See, I'm fairly severely asthmatic, and well, I don't really do hills. Climbing up things like mountains has a tendency to make my lungs decide to stop functioning. This means that, while I'm a big fan of hiking, especially in the mountains, I'm also the world's slowest hiker.
That established, let's get on with the hike summary.
First off, to get to the top you have to find Belfast Trail. This can be a bit tricky as every GPS I've used to get there has taken me to the wrong place.
There's another trailhead up a dirt road, and I'm sure it eventually goes there, but the best way to get to the top is to follow Belfast Trail (pictured on the right). If you start out on the dirt road, just keep driving. There's a pull-off right at the trailhead, and usually there are so many cars parked there that they've started parking on the side of the street.
Once you've found Belfast Trail, just make sure to stay on it, and you'll get to the top in no time. Or, at least, a lot faster than me.
The first thing you'll see on the trail is a bridge spanning a rushing creak. You should take note of this bridge because it's the last one that you're going to see.
There are three total creeks on the way up to the Marbleyard. Although it may seem impossible, it is completely possible to cross each of them without getting your feet wet.
Let me explain.
Creek 1: The first creek is fairly straightforward. Go to the edge of the path near the left side and step out onto the first big rock. Be careful, because all of the rocks are going to be a tad slippery.
It's the second or third step that's the trickiest. There's a rock that sticks out of the water more than most. BE CAREFUL. That one moves. You can stand on it, but understand that it's going to move beneath your feet once you try to step off of it.
The rest of the way is easy to see after that.
Creek 2: This one is a little harder to figure out. I'm going to admit that the first time I went through it, I just gave up and walked through the creek, soaking my shoes. Hiking the rest of the way with sopping tennis shoes was less than fun. But on the way back, my hiking buddy and I figured out how to get across dry.
For this one, scooch along the right side of the creek until you see a tree with a branch dangling across it. Walk out over the big rocks there. Once you're on the middle one, crawl under or climb over the low-hanging branch. Then, it's a short hop to the bank. Run up the little trail (watching for spider webs) and then rejoin the main one.
Creek 3: This creek is almost immediately after the second one. It's much easier, and there's a very obvious path through the middle of the creek.
Then do everything in reverse on the way back.
This is a few second of water rushing at one of the creeks... It's a lot
more relaxing in real life
I recommend bringing a partner with you on this hike. It's much easier to get across these creeks when you have a hand to hold onto to steady you as you cross.
After the creeks, just keep following the path. It's a gorgeous trail, even if you do keep having to stop so that your lungs
will quit attacking you. It starts out pretty flat and mostly sandy, but towards the end, it becomes covered in big rocks and does get pretty steep. So watch your ankles.
Know your limitations before you attempt this hike. And bring lots of water. The Boyfriend and I ran out of water at the top of the Marbleyard, and let me tell you, we were parched by the time we made it to the bottom.
I had a full CamelBak, by the way. It holds 1.5 liters of water, and I still ran out. Of course, that was partially because The Boyfriend ran out first and started drinking from mine, but the point stands:
Bring ALL the water.
Seriously, we found an abandoned water bottle on the way back down the mountain and were SOOO close to drinking what was left in it. If it hadn't smelled like chlorine, we might have actually done it.
That digression aside. The rest of the hike went mostly uneventfully for us. We stopped a lot and took in some pretty sights while waiting for my lungs to stop waging war with my insides.
Finally, we made it to the top. You'll know you're there when you hear the waterfall.
There are several little waterfalls on the way up there, but there's one big one at the end of the hike to the Marbleyard. This is a great place to find a way to stick your head under the water. Fair warning, though: it's ice cold.
I tried to crawl over to it to stick my head up under it, but it was too slippery and I didn't want to end up sliding down an icy water slide. Maybe later in the summer.
The Devil's Marbleyard
Finally, you've made it to the top. Now it's just a quick climb to the top of the big pile of boulders, right?
Wrong.
The Marbleyard is much taller than it looks from the bottom. Look at the picture on the right here. We took this picture from high up, but not actually the top.
You can't even see the bottom from where we were. There's a point when you're climbing up where you go over one hump of boulders and look up to find out that you're nowhere near the top.
Actually The Boyfriend and I didn't make it to the top either. We realized as we were climbing that we were running low on energy and, more importantly, water.
So we set a goal for ourselves of making it to the top of one really enormous boulder that was about, oh, 80% of the way to the top. I wish that I had taken a picture up the mountain from where we stopped, just so that I could show you how much more of this giant pile of boulders there was to climb.
You're not going to understand until you get there, but the Devil's Marbleyard is HUGE.
Oddly enough, though, I actually found this part of the hike much easier on the lungs than the first half. It might have been because I was so busy trying not to fall off rocks bigger than my townhouse that I forgot to have trouble breathing. But more likely it was because I had to slow down my pace on the rocks.
It's not a race to the top (regardless of what the Boy Scout troop that was climbing up with us seemed to believe. Darn them and their overly-abundant, youthful energy!). Climbing giant rocks is a slow endeavor. Unless you want to slip and fall to your death.
Personally, I recommend taking it slow.
The Hike Back
You're going to want to be careful on the way back. Bouldering takes a lot more out of your knees than regular old hiking. If at any point you start to feel your knees hurting while you're on the boulders, just turn around and call it a day.
The first time I went on this hike, I ignored the message my body was telling me, and was therefore in intense pain most of the hike back down. Trust me, you don't want to have your knees hurting that much when you're trying to climb down off of giant rocks. My knee actually collapsed out from under me once on the main trail. I was fine then, but if that had happened when I was trying to jump down to a rock in the Marbleyard, I could have been seriously hurt.
The second time, it was my ankle. I actually think the ankle pain was more to do with me crushing it under my body when I fell down the stairs a few weeks ago than it had to do with the hike. But still, it made the hike back way more painful than it needed to be.
I want to reiterate this point: This isn't an easy hike. If you want to go on an easier hike, start with Sharp Top (which I'll be covering soon). Don't get yourself hurt because you're not in good enough shape to make the hike.
Final Thoughts
That said, if you're fit enough, it's a blast. I had a ton of fun both times I went on the hike, and the view from the top is
fantastic (not as good as Sharp Top, but again, I'm going to get there later).
Like I said, I recommend bringing a hiking buddy on this hike. A significant other is even better, as this is prime hand-holding territory.
Especially across the creeks.
Check out the gallery below for more photos from the hike, including a cute little lizard and a few amazing views. Hover over the photos to read a few micro-stories that didn't make it into the full article.