STONED
So I had a great old big epic hike planned this past weekend, but I slept like crap, the animals kept me awake most of the night, and my back started hurting again that night for no particular reason at all. I decided to sleep in a bit longer and do a much easier hike: Stony Creek.
The rain had stopped and the sun was trying to come out. This was unexpected. I expected more rain. As I drove up the road, I drove past a sign saying “Road Closed”. I couldn’t figure out why that sign was there anyway. The road is paved and not gated, it might make sense if the road was not paved. Anyway I figured it must be fine to continue on the road as it must be there because of snow, but the snow had all melted now, so therefore it was perfectly acceptable to keep driving, and besides, many other cars had already gone up the road in previous days. I made it almost all the way to the trailhead before I hit a big old snow patch. I parked along the side of the road and hiked.
It was 4 miles one way, but mostly easy going, not much elevation gain/loss on this hike. At the high point of the hike, I came along quite a bit of snow to trudge through, but fortunately it was hard packed and I did not sink in. Continuing on, I soon lost the snow as I started to descend into the canyon. After four miles of hiking I was close to the creek, I just had to get off the road and go straight down. This part was a bit hair raising.
The ground was thoroughly saturated, and not to mention I was hiking through the fire area, so all this made it very dicey to descend the steep hill. The ground was incredibly slick. I slipped once. I slipped twice. I slipped a third time right into a big huge hole. I could have easily broke my leg in that hole, but thankfully there was no damage. After that, I was a lot more careful. Indeed, I took one step at a time, making sure each foothold was secure. It was getting much steeper as I got closer to the creek and waterfall now. I certainly would not want to slip right off a cliff. It wasn’t cliffy actually, but it was steep for sure. I still could have had quite a big spill if I slipped, but I was done with slipping. I made it down to the falls.
I thought this waterfall was incredibly pretty, a 60 ft. high waterfall in two tiers. It was hard to see the upper tier, but the lower tier was pretty just by itself. The sun was really trying to come out now, but never quite made it, and I was able to take some nice shots of the falls before hiking back up the mountain. Then the rain started up again.
I picked up a lot of trash on the hike back up. I couldn’t believe the amount of beer cans I found, some of which were clearly burned in the fire a couple years ago, but some other ones were much newer. So annoying. I also found something very strange. Someone had left their weed in a container that was shaped like a moose, or a pig, or a pig-moose. I have seen a lot of stuff and trash left on the trails, but this is a first. People don’t usually just throw out their pot on the side of the road.
I got back to the car, and started driving home. I came back to that ‘road closed’ sign (remember that?), and there I saw a ranger driving up the road. Clearly he must have seen that I was on the wrong side of that sign, and I wondered if he was going to stop me, but he did not. I wonder, though, if I had finished my hike about an hour or so later, if he would have ticketed my car for parking in the forbidden zone. He clearly was very ticket happy today, that is for sure. Why would I say such a thing? Well, I drove back down the hill and wanted to check out Bassi Falls, to see if the road was open yet. It was not open, which I do not understand, because their website says it is open now. But there were some cars parked along the road, one of which was parked right in front of the gate. And guess what? He had a ticket from the ranger in his window. Poor guy shouldn’t have parked in front of the gate, I guess, even though there were no signs and it was obvious no one would be opening said gate. I’m just glad I got off the mountain before he got to my car. Heh heh. And what if he had searched my car and saw that weed? Oh my oh my. LOL.