A good
description
of the trek is given
here. The
description/details of the trek are
pretty accurate and you can refer to that page for more details, let me
not write them down again. To start with, the trek had a nice ascent
for about first couple of miles. I had read that this was supposed to
be a moderate hike, but looking at the continuous ascent wondered if I
had lost my touch with hiking. But to my surprise that was the only
uphill portion of the entire loop. The Matt Davis trail initially goes
through think forest cover (contrary to what I had assumed) and with
numerous small streams flowing along the trial. The soothing noise of
the flowing water doesn't let you feel tired throughout this trail.
Once out of the woods, the trail covers a nice long walk through a flat
grass section. I think I was lucky, due to the recent rains the whole
area was covered with
lush green grass and
countless species of wild
flowers. There were all kinds and shapes of flowers with varied colors
from Yellows, reds, blues, purples and many more. For the first time I
felt that it's high time I study some flora and get to know of these
beautiful flowers. Also from this flat region you get a nice view of
the Stinton beach and the vast expanse of the sea.
After that flat stretch, the trail keeps going on and off into the
woods
and back into the open again. I was skeptical that I may get bored of
hiking in the open stretches after all those wonderful hikes in Georgia
wherein one in under thick forest cover right up to last few minutes of
the peak. But to my surprise that was a different but nice experience.
I think the greenery and the flowers added to the effect. This
continued till the trail joined the coastline trail and finally ended
up at the Pantoll Ranger Station. Though I wasn't feeling hungry, just
to enjoy the hustle and bustle of the area I decided to have a snack
break. The Pantoll Ranger Station is the converging point of a lot of
other trails and hence it's pretty crowded (add to it the cyclist who
plan their stops here too). After the quick snack break, it was
time to head for the Steep Ravin trail
The
steep ravin trail is mostly consists of downhill + flat sections.
However, this too goes through forest coverage and is marked by great
waterfalls. On the Matt Davis section you would mostly find small
streams flowing around this trail has some best waterfalls with higher
volume of water. Again the gushing waters sooth you on the way down.
One feature worth noticing is their are comparatively less forest
flowers in this section of the loop, that could be due to lack of
sunlight down below. Also, on the trail you pass the famous ladder
along side a small waterfall. The steep ravin trails exits the tree
cover and gets into the open grassland section with deepsea trail. I
was
about to say that "coool ! that's going to be a nice section at the
end". The deepsea grassland expanse, was characterized by nice strong
breeze to sooth you up. But with what I was about to see next, "nice"
would be a gross understatement. Whoever first decided to have to loop
done this way (as against Steep ravin followed by Matt Davis) surely
knew the meaning of the phrase save the best for last. After a small
uphill section I reached the top of a hilltop and lo and behold, you
get a breathtaking view of the sea on your left. It's an amazing
experience that one can get only by getting there(or else I should have
been a poet or a writer to do justice to the scenic view I had). On the
left you had the vast vast expanse of the sea and on the right you
could see the mountains with their distinctive conifers. To add to it
were the sea winds blowing into you. It all felt divine. If someone
can't fall in love with nature, I don't know where else he/she would.
It was just . . . well, amazing. As you go downhill the sound of the
strong sea winds is replaced with that of the roaring sea. It was
hard to move my feet away from the amazing beauty I was looking at, but
finally I moved on and within next 5-10 mins reached the trial head for
the Matt Davis trail.
Overall, it was a hike worth the efforts. A loop that had a mixture of
everything one can expect. Forest cover, great flora, green lands,
waterfalls and then finally a breathtaking view of the sea and the
mountains. I am sure that I would hike this loop one more time, or
alteast the section of the deepsea trail to fall in love with nature
over and over again.
Total Distance: 7.3 Miles
Start: 10:00AM
End: 1:15PM
Loop
description
Photos
© Ranjit
