A flat part of Devil's Hole Trail, rare!
The were some large switchbacks for a while followed by a small portion of the trail that was flat (pictured above). Along the way the normal grassy green hills turned into wooded areas, back to open areas which was nice because I love changing scenery. The trail became very steep after the flat section so I stopped taking pictures to no fall over. My toes were hurting from the steepness, weight of my pack and my toddler so I went extremely slow. I hiked so slowly that I was about 20 minutes behind my husband.
We always wait for each other at a trail marker so I knew we would meet up again, but during those 20 minutes alone I figured about why Las Trampas is a wilderness! Turkeys gobbled all around me, deer tracks could be seen all over the trail, furry "poop" was all over the trails...evidence of coyotes. I even heard coyotes nearby hiking down Devil's Hole Trail but didn't realize it until hours later. I heard some hooting/howling and thought to myself that the pit bull pack and their owners where nearby but they never should up. Also I had a sensation that some animal was nearby I just assumed it was the pit bulls, I guess it was my inner cave woman in me!
Jesse was waiting for me at the bottom of Devil's Hole Trail and my David was awake from taking a nap on Jesse's head/shoulders. Poor Jesse, his shoulders hurt for the next couple of days! My legs were very shaky when I reached the bottom from coming down a steep hill. I wasn't tired but my legs were so shaky, so I had some snacks, water and some Gatorade. Devil's Hole was loud! More turkeys gobbled all around us, the babbling creek and there was even a crazy loud bird fight near by!
Sophia woke up but was still very sleepy and stayed in my carrier. Coming down Devil's Hole, we saw the trail that we had to take back up that seem terribly steep, so they whole way down I was mentally preparing myself for the 1.26 mile of hike up on Sycamore Trail. Jesse said, "You saw the trail?" I nodded and we just looked at each other like we have on many trails knowing that we were going to get our butts kicked.
Sycamore Trail started flat and then crossed a creek. There was lots of poison oak around the trail so David was still being carried since he loves to touch everything. We got to a portion of the trail that I wish I had a machete because the bushes were so overgrown. Once again the landscape changed again and it almost looked "desert-ish", short bushes and lots of sage or what at least smelled like sage. At some point we saw that we were not going on the trail we saw from Devil's Hole Trail but an even STEEPER one. The one we saw looked flat compared to Sycamore Trail! The trail had pieces of wood nailed into the trail for steps....
My son was so energetic at this point that he was crawling up the rocky trail and yelled, "Look mommy, I'm hiking, I'm rock climbing!!" I'm glad he was so energetic because that allowed my husband to carry Sophia. She wanted to hike but the trail was to steep for my 18 month old. My son hiked/climbed the entire Sycamore trail, I was very impressed with my three year old hiking skills!