GOOD TIMES
Had an awesome little father daughter hike with Nekoda this weekend. Though for her, she probably thought it was a big hike, not a little one.
After last weekend when I found a new waterfall but the creek was almost completely bone dry, I was a bit concerned about where to go this week. We still have not received enough rain here to get the waterfalls going yet.
American Canyon Creek Falls is one of those waterfalls that do not need a lot of water to look nice. It is very pretty even with only a little water flowing, and that makes it a great one to go to early in the waterfall season. Indeed, it is my go to waterfall in the early season, and one of my favorites of the little waterfalls in the area. It is incredibly gorgeous, tucked between the narrow rocks, and dumping into that incredible pool.
It was 37 degrees when we started the hike, just a bit on the nippy side, but we warmed up quickly as we descended the hill. The hike down was uneventful. There was a decent amount of water in American Canyon Creek, not much, but it was not dry. Hoboken Creek (which flows into the main creek) was dry, however. I have never seen that creek dry before. I was also disappointed at not seeing any newts along the trail. You always see plenty of these little guys on this trail. I hope they did not die off because of the drought. I was *not* disappointed at not seeing any ticks, however. I would be quite happy if they died off from the drought.
We got down to the falls, and crossed the creek in front of the waterfall. The rocks are very slippery and Nekoda’s boots have zero traction, so I was anxious that she not slip and fall into that big pool, but I managed to keep her from doing that. She sat down and waited patiently on the cold, wet rocks while I took my photos.
She did quite well on the hike back up the mountain. She said she almost died but not quite (I think that means it was not an overly difficult hike). We got back to the car and I could not find my keys anywhere. I always make sure to put my keys and wallet in the top pouch of my backpack. They were not there. My wallet was in my back pocket. How the heck did it get there? I could not find the keys. The car door was also unlocked! I was absolutely certain that I had locked the car before we started. What the heck is wrong with me today?!?! The keys were not in the car, though. I carefully unpacked everything from my backpack. I found them inside the rain cover that I put over my backpack, so in other words they were on the outside of my backpack, inside the rain cover. I could have lost them on the hike so easily. Whew that was lucky. Thank you God for not letting this bozo lose his keys down in that canyon.