CRAZY BRUSH
It has been two years since I have been up on Ice House Rd. That year, I spent a lot of time up on Ice House, doing a lot of exploring. I love that area. Last year, I went up there zero times, however. Why? I think mostly because of the bad winter we had that year, there was not much in the way of waterfalls. Well what about this year, bonehead? We had an even worse winter. Why would you go up there this year? Hummm, I don’t know. I just felt like it. Maybe because it has been too long, and I missed being up there, exploring. The waterfalls *are* flowing up there right now. But they are past peak for sure, and they will not be flowing very much longer. Gotta get to ’em while you can, is what I say.
There is a lot of manzanita brush up on Ice House Rd. That is one thing I didn’t miss last year, but I was sure in the thick of it on this day. I was looking for a new waterfall on the South Fork Rubicon River, just below Loon Lake. It is only about a mile off the road, and from the looks of my maps, it did not look like it would be very difficult to get down to it. I could see the brush on Google Earth, but it looked open enough to be feasible to hike. Humm, well it was definitely crazy brush. Thick brush. Leg scratching brush. Man eating brush. Okay, okay, it was not really all that bad. I found a path through the stuff after all. I almost didn’t make it though. Actually I almost made it all the way to the waterfall and then had to turn back. I could see the waterfall below me. In between me and it was a mound of that crazy brush. And this part was the thickest yet and there was no path through it either. And the sun was coming. I thought I had only minutes to get down to it before the sun got there. I could not see how I going to make it through this brush. I backtracked a bit, and went over to the right, where it looked slightly easier. I still had to mangle my way through the thickest of the stuff, though. Finally I broke through. I was almost down to the river, but the last part was a steep dropoff. I got out my rope and climbed down this last section. Safe. I still had plenty of time too, before the sun got down onto the waterfall.
The river was flowing quite strongly as you can see. This will not last for long. The snow is pretty much all melted now. I was also a bit disappointed in the waterfall size. I was expecting a bigger waterfall and more of a vertical waterfall. Nonetheless, this one is certainly a very nice cascade, 37 ft. high. I kinda doubt I will ever be back here again, though. Just a bit too difficult for such a small waterfall. Despite the brush though, it really was a fantastic hike. I loved being back on Ice House, out in the wilderness alone, and exploring new places. It is my kind of thing.