Leon Turnbull Photography

It was a cold night. I had all my layers on but I slept fairly well.

Today’s hike would be about 11 miles. All on trail. Except …

The last 2 or 2.5 miles was absolutely ridiculous. The poison oak was atrocious. All over the trail. I brought a small saw with me to cut it back. I’m sure glad I brought this. It was about a half pound but worth its weight in gold. Nonetheless, even though I thought I avoided touching the stuff mostly, I still received a horrible rash for my efforts. It only takes a couple touches and you are done for. The ticks were atrocious. I probably plucked a hundred of the beasts off me. Only one small bite but man I hate those things. The trail was atrocious. Very overgrown and very difficult. There is one death defying rock slide you have to negotiate by climbing up the cliff (through poison oak of course). I honestly expected the trail to be much better and easier than it was.

These last couple miles to camp took a long time to hike. (two and a half hours). Last Chance camp is very small with only one tiny spot for a tent. It is surrounded by poison oak and to get to the creek you have to go through the oak. I was not impressed with it but there was no better place to camp and I was very tired.

In the evening I went up to the waterfall. This section was no better. Only a quarter mile away but it took a long time because it was so overgrown and difficult. Along the way I somehow lost my tripod. Argh! I retraced my steps EXACTLY and I could not find it. What the heck happened to it? The photo is hand held. It is not too bad but I was not happy about the tripod to say the least.

Last Chance Falls is 97 ft. high. It is a beautiful and magnificent drop, but I don’t think it was worth the effort to get here. Oak, ticks, overgrown trail, horrible rash, disappointing campsite, losing tripod, etc. Supposedly there is a trail to the bottom of the falls but I could not find it. It looked very steep and treacherous to get down to the bottom and I did not want to attempt it. The view from the trail would have to do.

The next day I walked all the way back to the car. It was 18 miles. A very long day but after the first climb out of the canyon it was mostly all downhill. When I got back to the campground I saw a lot of people and cars. Was the road now open? The road was NOT open. Yet people were just driving around the obvious and well signed closure. Rules don’t apply to some people, I guess. To be sure, there was no really good reason the road should have been closed – the workers had mostly fixed the washed out section (but that is no excuse for ignoring the rules). I got back to my car at about 4:30pm and made the long drive home. My back was not doing well at all but it was happy that I got to sleep in my own comfortable bed. It was a wild and vexing 3 days in Ventana Wilderness.

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