DAY 2. FROZEN
I woke. It was two hours before sunrise. The wind had picked up enormously. It was not shaking my tent much, but it still kept me awake for those two hours. At sunrise, I got up, I packed up camp, and ate my breakfast. It would be another fairly long hike to my next destination, Llewellyn Falls. I have not been to this falls before. It is one you could do as a day hike if you wanted, but it is way off the beaten path from civilization, and that is why I had not been out to it yet. Plus it is not particularly big. A long way to go for a small waterfall. But as I was in the area seeing Carson Falls, a second night spent at Llewellyn Falls was a good plan.
I left camp at about 8AM. I hiked through Bear Alley. I saw no bears. Bummer.
I hiked all the way back on the same trail to Silver King Creek … along the East Carson River, crossing the East Carson River, past Soda Springs Ranger station, up the massive 1000 ft. hill from the river, and back to the junction of the trail to Llewellyn Falls at Silver King Creek. Silver King Creek had more flow than the East Carson River. This is strange. I could rock hop across the river, but nothing doing at this creek. I had to wade across. The water was up to my shins, and it was FREEZING cold. The creek seemed more like spring than autumn. From there I still have 4 miles up the valley. It is an enormously long valley. It seemed to never end, and it took quite a long time to hike that 4 miles (it was probably more like 8 miles – well, it seemed like that anyway). It was also very flat. Surely no waterfalls could live here. Finally I arrived at the end of the flat never ending valley, turned the corner, and climbed up the short hill. I was now close to the waterfall. A trail sign indicated an off shoot path over to the waterfall. I sure hoped there would be a campsite there. I was even more concerned there would not be any here (more so than at Carson). No need to worry. There were a few nice ones at the top of the falls, and an easy way to get down to the creek for water.
In the evening, I went down to the waterfall. It is not particularly impressive, only about 25 ft. high and that is including the upper cascades. Still, it is nice to visit once. I had to cross the creek to photograph the waterfall, which was difficult because the creek was flowing rather swift below the falls. To see all the tiers, I had to climb up the cliff on the other side. This was not bad. Crossing the creek was much trickier.
So I made it to the two waterfalls that I wanted to in Carson Iceberg Wilderness. Success. I just had a short hike the next day back to the trailhead. Except …
DAY 3.
I was FROZEN solid in the night. Cue the song. Well, maybe I was not frozen solid, but my water shoes were certainly frozen solid. I was FREEZING solid. The temperature was surely 10 degrees colder than the first night. I screwed up. I only checked the weather forecast at Carson Falls beforehand. I figured Llewellyn would be about the same. It is slightly higher in elevation but only 10 miles away. It surely could not be more than a couple degrees colder. Wrong. I guessed it was around 35-37 degrees the second night, and I did not pack enough warm clothes because I figured it would not be that cold. The first night at Carson, I was toasty, but the second night at Llewellyn not so much. I had all my clothes on me and in my 17 degree bag, but I was still cold. If I had just checked the weather forecast properly, I am sure I would have brought more clothes and would have been very fine. In the morning I awoke at sunrise, got up and packed. It was tough to do this because of the temperature. I should have just stayed in my sleeping bag another hour or so but I could not sleep anymore anyway. Mostly it was just my hands that were so cold. I did not bring my gloves. Lesson learned. Once the sun came out though, I warmed up very quickly. It was a good hike back to my car, and a wonderful 3 days in the Carson Iceberg Wilderness.