TAMANANABANANA
We left very early from Rossland to drive back to California. We take it in two days. The first day is about 500 miles to Bend, Oregon where we stay the night and drive the rest on the next day. I left a bit earlier than usual this time (much to the chagrin of my family), because I wanted to stop at Tamanawas Falls by Mt Hood along the way. This side jaunt adds 50 miles to our trip. It was worth it. But it was crazy.
It was overcast all day until we arrived at the trailhead in the afternoon. That’s when the sun came out. Ugh. Hopefully the falls would be in shade by the time we got to it. It is an easy two mile hike to the waterfall. Now when I say easy you should know by now that means difficult. My wife figured that out long ago. Nonetheless I managed to talk my entire family into coming along on the hike. Tara really did not want to come at first. I convinced her it would just be a leisurely family hike to the waterfall. Well it should have been that. It would have been that. Except for one thing I had not considered: ice! The trail was all iced over, making an easy hike into a very difficult and potentially very dangerous hike.
When we came to one spot where the trail started to go uphill on an icy slope, Tara had enough. She does not do ice and her boots have zero traction. The kids decided they wanted to continue on with me. That would have been ok if it did not get any worse. But it did get worse. Nonetheless we trooped on. In hindsight if I had realized how bad it was going to be I surely would not have taken the kids. Going up was not too horrendous but as it got worse my stress level raised exponentially. I had to keep both kids completely safe as well as myself. We went slowly. There were no deathly dropoffs except one and we stayed clear of it. Finally we reached the waterfall. It is a magnificent 100 ft high waterfall in a picturesque snow filled canyon. I did not bring my measuring sticks so I could not determine the exact height of the falls. I also photographed the falls from far back. There was a lot more treacherous ice to negotiate in order to continue any closer and my stress level was already at maximum. I didn’t think I could get right up close anyway so I decided to stay safely back and photograph from a distance.
The hike back was worse. Going downhill on ice is much more dangerous. We were very careful, going very slowly, sometimes sliding on our bums down the path. I would go first then Nekoda and Jadon would come down and I would catch them. I only fell one time and I took Nekoda down with me. Unfortunately that one time was enough to wrench my back out again. Argh. To top it off it was on an easy section, after we had gotten down all the difficult stuff. Jadon fell eight times he said, and again it was all on the easier sections. He was not happy by the end but both kids were real troopers and did awesome on this hike. We had a lot of fun.
There were quite a lot of other hikers out on the trail. Even though it seems the trail is out a long way from anywhere, it is a popular one. Most people turned back because of the ice and did not go all the way to the waterfall. However on our way back down we saw one family coming up the trail. They were coming up a particularly icy section. They had two kids, one boy about Nekoda’s age (8), and one little girl who was much younger. She was wearing rubber boots with no traction, and I could tell she had been crying. The father was not doing anything to help her up the icy section. (I was holding Nekoda’s hand the entire time to make sure she did not fall, especially on the icy parts). I told the mom it gets much more icy and dangerous up ahead. She ignored me completely. It was already getting quite late, and would be getting dark soon. The kids and I made it back to the car about 30-40 minutes before sunset. I knew exactly what I was doing on this hike and I knew my kids capabilities and I knew they were safe on this hike and I knew the time and I knew that we would be back well before dark. However, these people had no clue. If they continued to the waterfall as it seemed they were going to do, they would be certainly hiking back in the dark down an extremely icy trail and completely unprepared for the terrain. They (and especially the little girl) should not have been out there. It is just very stupid. Ok, end rant. Enjoy the photo.