Leon Turnbull Photography

Ventana Wilderness hikers are a different breed of human. They are immune to poison oak. Horrendous amounts of ticks and crazy bush whacking do not bother them. You have to respect that. Any of these three things and I would turn back. I am not worthy. But I keep going back to Ventana. There are many waterfalls there I still have not seen. I encountered all three of these nasties this time and I did not turn back. I probably should have, though.

I initially planned to do this trip a couple weeks back but I postponed it due to weather. That was smart because the rivers would have been twice as high two weeks ago. As it was they were barely crossable. The problem, however, was that I put my back out the weekend before my trip. I don’t know how. It has been fine for six months and then all of a sudden it goes out. By the time my trip was to start the back was still not healed but I was not going to delay my trip again. It was probably not a smart decision. Ventana or bust.

My planned hike was going to be a very difficult one. Most of it would be off trail with tons of elevation gain and loss, and plenty of difficult bush whacking. Also the road was closed about 4 miles before the trailhead due to a wash out. I parked beside the road and walked the 4 miles in to the trailhead, then continued on my planned route. The first part was on trail but I quickly realized this would not work. My back was starting to really hurt and I still had 2000 ft. of elevation to climb. All this before I even reached the off trail section. I knew I would not be able to make it so I decided to turn back. There was an easier hike I could go on instead which would be (mostly) all on trail. I think this was a smart choice although I really had hoped to do the harder hike this year. It was not to be.

This waterfall was found by a certain Ventana Wilderness expert and the location he gave was a mile or so down river from the trail (ie. off trail). HOWEVER … as I hiked down the trail to the river I passed by a waterfall. It looked exactly like the photo I had seen of this so called off trail waterfall. I was 95% sure it was the same waterfall. I took a photo (shown here). The location was not anywhere even close to the marked spot. Nonetheless, I decided to go down river anyway and check out the other location. At first it was not too bad. I had to cross the river 3 or 4 times. The water was up to my knees or thighs but it was easily crossable. I was about a quarter mile away when all of a sudden the route became extremely difficult. I should have turned around (because of my back), but I tried to press on anyway. Soon afterwards I came to a spot where I definitely could not continue. There is no way anyone could have gotten by this section. Could they? I retreated and found a spot to camp by the river. There was a turtle bathing on the rocks in the sun. I also saw plenty of lizards and newts. My back was not happy from that excursion. I set up camp, ate my dinner, and went to bed.

I will rename this waterfall Lost Valley Falls. It is 20 ft. high exactly. It is on an unnamed creek. The next day I would continue my trek, supposedly an easy hike on an easy trail to another beautiful waterfall. Yeah right, this is Ventana Wilderness. Nothing is easy. Stay tuned …