SKIING
Last weekend I went back the ski hill at Big Mosquito Falls. This time I took my old skis along so I could ski down the steep mountain on those slick, slippery fallen leaves, instead of sliding down the mountain on my rear end. I even did a couple triple gainers off the cliffs. Really, I am just kidding. I did not take my skis. Though, I think it would have been a good idea. There was snow near the top, at 4000 ft. elevation, and far more than I expected to see there. It’s probably good that I did not go on that other hike I had planned at the higher elevation. I probably would not have been able to get there.
The snow disappeared quickly as I hiked down the mountain. My plan was *not* to go back to this waterfall. My plan was to try to get to the waterfall below this one. I really really thought I would be able to do it. From the ridge at the upper falls, the big descent begins, but at the beginning it is not bad at all. As I approached the area of the lower falls, however, it became very cliffy very quickly. I could glimpse the falls through the trees and it looked like a good one, but there was no way down to the bottom and there was no place to get a view. Believe me, I tried. I scrambled around the cliffs for a good hour looking for a way down. Usually, I can find a way. But not this time. Nothing doing. No way down.
Bummed, I returned to the top and decided to go down to the upper falls. I did not want to at first, but I remembered there was one vantage point that I did not take a photo from the previous week I was here. I really should have taken a photo from there the last time, but for some reason I did not. When I got down there, I suddenly remembered why. It was a dangerous spot! There was a big unknown hole beside a tree on the edge of a steep dropoff, and I would be sitting in poison oak to setup the photo. Humph, well I was not deterred enough, after all I came all this way down to take a photo from this spot, so I treaded past the big hole, into the oak and took a couple photos from the cliff edge. Then back up the mountain and back to my car and home.