NOTHING NEW
It is September! Summer is almost over! The mosquitoes are pretty much done! The weather is cooler! Time to get back to hiking!
I was just joking with a friend, who went to a certain waterfall for the fourth time. I said to him, you do know there are other waterfalls in California, right? Now having just said that, where did I go hiking? Horsetail Falls of course! And how many times have I been to Horsetail Falls? I had no idea, but I was curious, so I counted them up, by looking at the dates of all my photos. This would be the 15th time I have been to Horsetail Falls! There may be a couple times when I did not take any photos, so it could be more than 15. You think I like this waterfall? The first time I went was 2003, so that is 15 times in 16 years. Not bad, not bad, but I think I had better go one more time this year to make it all even. LOL. (I think I might do it, too).
It was Labor Day weekend, the parking lot was full. It is always full in the summer on the weekend, but on a holiday weekend? I prayed for a parking spot on the drive up the hill. When I arrived, I found one and only one parking spot. God saved me that spot! Thank you Lord.
There were tons of people on the trail, as expected. My plan was to hike up to Pyramid Lake, and hopefully photograph the waterfalls up there that I have not photographed yet. It has been 7 years since I have been up to Pyramid Lake. I did not quite make it. When I arrived at the bottom of Horsetail Falls, there is that one very difficult and crazy section you need to climb up. I struggled getting up it, this time. I did not have my regular hiking boots on, and with less traction on my feet, my shoes could not get a foothold on the slick rock. Finally, I managed to wedge myself up and over. Meanwhile, a Japanese man watching from below was laughing at me the whole time. Anyway, I made it up. After this one section, there are a couple sketchy parts, but mostly it is not difficult to get to the top of Horsetail. It is easier getting back down, but not in the dark. Finding the proper route in daylight is difficult, but in the dark it could be disastrous.
Thus I arrived at Gefo Lake and it was already 6PM. This was my last ditch turning around time. I still had 30 minutes to Pyramid Lake, and I would not make it. According to my notes it should only take 3 hours to Pyramid Lake, but it had been 3.5 hours and I was still not there. Argh. Anyway, the other waterfalls were not flowing. I will have to return earlier in the spring to get those ones. I got back to the Ropi Lake Falls viewpoint, and it was just coming into shade, so I ate my dinner and photographed that waterfall, then I booted it back down as fast as I could. I arrived at the bottom of Horsetail just as it was getting dark. The rest of the hike back to the car was in darkness. (I did have a light of course). Once again, even though it was a holiday weekend, I was the last one off the mountain. It was a great Labor Day in the Desolation Wilderness.