DARKNESS ON THE EDGE OF TOWN
No early morning hiking this past weekend. My daughter had a skating event which I had to go to. But afterwards … I wanted to drive up Foresthill Rd as far as I could go. Where would I end up? (besides in the ditch or off a cliff).
Well … the results are in … I know you all want to know … I made it just past Beacroft, not quite to Ford Pt. There was surprisingly not all that much snow up there, I was expecting a lot more and not be able to drive even that far. In a week or two you could probably drive up to and past Ford Pt, but for now there was a big snow patch. I parked there and got ready to hike, and as I was doing so, a couple separate cars came up and continued to drive through the first snow patch. Both of them very nearly got stuck. I was certain I was going to need to help push them out of their stupidity. Both of them made it through, however, then realized they had to turn around anyway because there was a second much more substantial snow patch immediately following. I left them to their amusements, and climbed up the steep hill through the snow to Ford Pt and to infinity and beyond.
From my car it would be a 6.5 mile hike ONE WAY. The elevation would be substantial, a lot of up and down hiking, up 500 ft., down 500 ft., up 300 ft., down 300 ft., up 12,000 ft., down 12,000 ft., you get the picture. All in all, it would be about 2600 ft. in total. I would not be getting back to the car before dark. I know physically I can do a 13 mile hike, but mentally not so much. I kept telling myself to turn back, I do not really want to do this, no keep going to the next junction, it’s not far, no this is utterly ridiculous, I will be attacked by mountain lions when I return in the dark. Well, my inner motivator won out and I kept going … onwards and upwards.
There was not a lot of snow, as I said, but there were many snow patches along the way, and a few of them were over 3 ft. deep, which I had to walk through. Without snowshoes. Fortunately, the snow was packed enough that I did not sink in. Otherwise, I might still be buried out there somewhere. I found an odd little bike beside the road at one point, against a tree, and beside it what seemed like a makeshift campsite, mostly just a tarp strewn over a bunch of camp items. Basically, just garbage left there, and far too much to pick up on my way back. It had obviously been there a while. But it made me wonder what happened to the biker? It was just a small little one gear bike but it seemed perfectly good. Why leave it there? Most likely he was eaten by a bear while he was sleeping there because he did not secure his food properly. That’s my working theory.
I arrived down at the bottom of the canyon a little after 5PM. I was expecting a waterfall twice as big, but I found just a small 26 ft. high falls. That is a heckuva long hike for such a small waterfall. Up to this point the hike was fairly easy, but the last section down to the creek was very cliffy and very brushy. I could not find a way down to the bottom. I searched around frantically, I had no time to waste now, and finally found a view of the upper most portion of the falls (20 ft.), from a rock which had steep dropoffs all around, but I got out to it carefully, setup my tripod, took my photos, then got the heck out of there.
As I said, I had no time to waste. It was now 5:40PM. I did not want to leave any later than this to hike back. I was tired but I booted it back up the mountain, only stopping for a couple short breaks along the way. The final 500 ft. climb back up to Ford Pt was in the dark, but I saw no critters, and I got back to the car at 8:10PM, about 30 minutes after dark.
This was the longest hike of the season so far, and I forgot one important thing about these hikes. It takes two days for me to recover from them. Getting to sleep that night was difficult because of my achy bones, and I had to get up early in the morning to play drums at church. Not just one service but two services. I was dead tired. There was no way I could stay awake for the second service. Fortunately, I was saved by my son’s Sunday school teacher. She always (or often) brings donuts for the kids, and had some extras today. Whew, that was the only thing that got me through that second service. Nonetheless, when I got back home I was beat and took a long nap in the afternoon. Sweet, however I was still tired at work on Monday, and next weekend I need to do it all over again. Ha!