Journey stayed home this weekend. Sad for her but there were two reasons for this: Firstly, my wife Tara is going out of country for 10 days and I wanted to Journey to spend as much time with her as possible this weekend. When Tara is gone all she does is lay down by the door all day and she is so sad. She will not fetch with me or play with me. I can take her on walks but I do have to work during the day. Also it’s going to be almost 100 degrees this week which is going to make our walks a bit too hard to do. Secondly, I knew this hike would be too hard for her. I was down here once before in winter and it was too dangerous. I vowed to return in summer. So I did.
I stopped the car about 3 miles before the trailhead because I had to use the facilities. There were mosquitoes. They were definitely mosquitoes. Ugh. It is October! Why are there mosquitoes? I did not bring any bug spray with me. It is October after all. This makes for an interesting point: at our house we have had these tiny little mosquitoes in our backyard. In October! And they are biting! I’ve never seen mosquitoes like this before. What the heck is this? Well anyway, when I got to the trailhead there were not any mosquitoes. So that’s a good thing. But there were gnats instead. They weren’t too bad on the hike to the waterfall but on the hike back they were quite annoying and I had to put on my headnet. Thank goodness I always bring my headnet with me.
The hike was a lot worse than I remembered. It was very brushy. And very difficult. Journey would’ve hated it. I finally made it down to the creek and now I had to go upstream to the waterfall. It was not easy getting upstream with all the brush. At the end you have to climb up a little waterfall. This is where I had to turn back last time in winter because it was too dangerous. Today, it was fairly easy to do. Technically, Journey could’ve probably done it if we were very careful. But all that brush. I’m glad I did not bring her.
I thought the waterfall would be better than it was, even at low flow. It was still rather pretty. Upper Cherokee Creek Falls consists of two 20 ft. cascades. Both would be great at high flows. But could I have even gotten here at higher flows? That is the question.
I climbed back out of the canyon through all that brush, back to the car, and drove home. When Journey greeted me at the door she knew I was out hiking. She gave me a sad eyes look. Why did you leave me at home, daddy? I’m sorry baby but you really would not have liked it today. It was a quick and hot day in Tahoe National Forest.
El Niño is coming! Super El Niño is coming! Monster El Niño is coming! The sky is falling! The sky is falling! Actually El Niño is already here! Just ask Hawaii.
The governor has already declared a state of emergency. Let’s see, how much rain has fallen so far. Oh yeah, zero. How stupid do you have to be? Lest I remind you of 2016 when we had the last super El Niño. The hype for rain that summer was just as bad as it is this year. Perhaps even more so because we were in a horrendous drought. But how much rain did we get that winter? Ah yeah, not very much at all. And we are already in a state of emergency with not a drop of rain yet? My point is, we should not be so sure about what will happen in the future. Don’t believe the hype. Nonetheless, I do have some hope that this El Niño is more like 1983 or 1998 and not like 2016. I think we will probably get above average rain but not the monster deluge that everyone is saying we will get. Also, I think it will be a slow start and it won’t start raining until mid November. Tell me I’m wrong (I hope I am).
I was planning to go backpacking this weekend with Journey. However, I did not think it through very clearly. We had to go to the Bay Area on Friday night to see my daughter’s senior dance solo. We would not get back home until midnight, and now I have to get up very early for a long drive out to the place where we were going to hike? That is not going to happen. I was so tired I could not even drive home from the Bay Area. My wife had to drive. I canceled the backpacking trip and decided to just go on a day hike with Journey.
I thought we would return to Sly Park Falls. Something very easy and close to home. I heard there may be fall color there but there wasn’t much. In fact it seemed almost past peak color, which makes no sense seeing as it is not even October yet.
Journey and I have been to this one before. Last time, it was her first or second hike off leash. She did great that time but now she is an expert. She is such an awesome dog.
Somehow I took a wrong turn on the way there even though I was pretty sure we went that way the last time. We ended up having to go off trail to get back to the main track. Journey is good off trail as well even though she does not like it so much. We made it to the waterfall and crossed the creek to get up close to it. The water was a bit cold and I’m sure Journey did not like that part. There is also a new log spanning the top of the waterfall which was not there last time. Interesting. I am glad it is not an unsightly log. We spent some time at the waterfall and then made the hike back up the hill to the car. It was a lovely morning in Eldorado National Forest.
It was supposed to be a cloudy day with rain later so I got everyone up early for a hike to Moyie Falls. Tara, myself, Journey, and my sister and her two dogs.
Well, actually it was kinda sunny. Not very good for photography. Sigh.
It’s an easy hike down to the river, then you cross it and it’s a short walk up to the waterfall. The river was low enough to rock hop across. Even Journey followed Tara across on the rocks but my sister slipped and ended up getting her feet very wet. It helps to have hiking poles. Last time I was here was in winter. I had to cross it on a snow bridge which was a bit freaky. It’s so much easier in late summer.
We got to the waterfall and there were some clouds blocking the morning sun so I hurried up to the base of the falls to take pics. The rest of the crew hung back at the first viewpoint. Moyie Falls is a marvelous 46 ft. drop on the Moyie River. Afterwards I crossed over to explore the cave at the waterfall. It is an old mining cave and there are even old train tracks going into it. Going to nowhere. The cave did go in a long way but there was a stream and I didn’t go in too far because I did not want to get my feet wet. We retreated back to the car and house for morning coffee. It was another lovely morning on Day 5 of the Canada road trip in the East Kootenay of British Columbia.
I’ve been wanting to do this hike for awhile. I tried in winter once before but failed. It is just 0.7 miles (1.1km for my sister) but gains 1300 ft. in elevation (396m for my sister). It is no joke. It is also not Journey friendly. So I got up early and drove out to the trailhead by myself.
There’s no parking along the road so I had to drive an extra half mile to a turnout. Not a big deal.
The trail climbs steadily for the entire hike. However, it wasn’t so steep that I was on all fours. It reminded me of the hike up to Ribbon Falls but that one was much harder.
The lower part is fairly easy and the trail is well marked with cairns. Then you come to a talus field to cross. This is the part that would be too difficult for Journey. I think she could have done it if we were careful but she definitely wouldn’t have liked it. After the talus the cairns disappeared. I was not sure which way to go so obviously I went the wrong way. Other people had certainly gone this way but I ended up on the wrong side of the creek. I crossed it and climbed up the steep bank on the other side. All of a sudden, the ground started to give way under my feet and I started sliding down and off the cliff. I caught myself just in time. It was only 20 feet so it would not have killed me but it probably would have hurt. I did end up getting a big cut on my hand as I scrambled to catch myself sliding.
I found the proper trail and continued to the waterfall view point. Maryanne Falls is 45 feet high and it is a beauty. It is bigger than I expected. It looked too difficult to get to the bottom so I did not bother but I enjoyed the view point and flew the drone a bit. Then I scurried down the mountain and back to the house to get coffee. My wife and Journey were still sleeping. It was a perfect morning on Day 4 of the Canada road trip in the East Kootenay of British Columbia.
This is Castelnau Falls, 770 ft. high. It can be seen right beside Petain Falls.
A thunderstorm rolled through in the night. It rained pretty heavily for quite awhile. We were dry but I’m not feeling too keen about the new tent: the Big Agnes Tiger Wall. I had to buy a new tent for this trip because the Durston is not big enough for two people plus a dog. This new one was put through a trial by fire (or water). The problem I have with it is that when you enter or exit the tent the wet fly flaps into the inside and water gets in. We also had this problem on the first night when it did not rain because the fly was wet with condensation. You have to be very careful which is basically impossible. The Durston is miles better in this regard.
In the morning I checked the forecast. It was going to start raining at 10am and essentially rain all day.
It was now impossible to go up to the basin and upper falls. This was a huge part of my planned itinerary but I certainly could not be up in the basin in a thunderstorm and heavy rain. I was very bummed about it but the weather just didn’t allow me to complete my goals. The weather always wins. That’s the problem when you have to make plans months ahead of time. The weather can make or break the trip. At least I made it to the lower falls.
Tara did not even make it to the lower falls. I gave her the choice. We could do a day hike to the waterfall and stay another night. Or hike out today. She decided to retreat and hike out. It was unfortunate but I think it was the best decision. In addition to the rain her sleeping pad had a leak. It was perfectly good the night before but all of a sudden it now has at least three holes in it. What the heck? She would have had a cold night.
It was gorgeous in the morning when we woke up and we had a wonderful breakfast beside the creek. Then we packed up the wet tent and then started the hike back. It started raining at 10am as scheduled. It was light at first but eventually became quite strong. I was perfectly fine with my rain jacket and waterproof gloves but Tara was hiking in a t shirt. She did not have a proper rain jacket with her. Another good reason to not stay another night.
We got back to the car at noon and started the long slow drive back on the horrible road. I swear the drive took a lot longer this time. Along the way we came across a herd of horses and mules blocking our passage on the road. Not wild but free ranging. It was rather interesting to see them. We drove back to my sister’s place in Cranbrook where we would spend the next few days. It was a cold and rainy but still very beautiful Day 3 on the Canada road trip in Elk Lakes Provincial Park.
