It was a cold night. I had all my clothes on but I was warm and I slept well. I had a leisurely breakfast, packed up, and climbed back up the mountain.
It was a 1300 ft. climb and I was tired when I got back up to the top of the ridge. My back was starting to hurt as well. What should I do now? The waterfalls I had initially planned to see were impossible to reach with the Gamboa trail obliterated. I thought about going down the Middle Fork Devils Canyon but that just seemed far too difficult. A 2000 ft. descent off trail and no idea if I could even make it down there. If I got stuck I would be in severe trouble. Did I say my back was hurting? I decided to go back down the Coast Ridge trail to Vicente Flat.
The water sources I passed on the day before were now completely dry. I was counting on filling up my water before I got down to Vicente. No dice on that. I should have enough, however.
The Vicente trail is a fairly popular one. It should be in good shape. Right? NOPE. Ventana Wilderness strikes again. The trail was very overgrown with a lot of tree blowdowns. There was one spot where I literally had to take off my pack and crawl on my belly under the brush, dragging my pack along with me. I was so tired of this crap. If there was anything more as bad as this I was going to turn around and go home. Thankfully there was not anything else like that and eventually I made it down to the Vicente Creek confluence. There was a nice camping spot here so I decided to stay here instead of going down to the official camp which was another half mile further. I was tired and it was getting late.
Somehow I managed to get a poison oak rash and I had not even gone up to the waterfall yet. I have no idea how. I had not seen any poison oak at all in the last couple days of hiking. There was a little bit on the trail down to Vicente but I was certain I had not touched it. Apparently I must have because when I woke up in the morning I had a bad rash. I knew there was a lot of oak going up to Vicente Falls and I was prepared for that but I was mad at myself that I already had a rash before I even started that hike.
There is no trail to Vicente Falls. It is about a half mile upstream and you just walk straight up the creek and along the side of the creek (in the poison oak). It is not too difficult and it is fun. Except for a couple parts where (yet again) there were some big tree blowdowns in the canyon from the Dolan Fire. This made the hike almost impassable but not quite. I was able to continue past them and made it up to the waterfall.
Vicente Falls is a magnificent and stunning 191 ft. cascade. It is definitely worth seeing and enduring the poison oak. Especially at high flows. I took my time and enjoyed the views although there was only one composition for taking photos. Everything else was covered in too much mist. That is all right. As I was enjoying the waterfall a squirrel came up close to me. We did not see each other and scared the crap out of each other when we did. He took off running down the hill and across the creek and up the other side to get away from me. Ha ha.
I returned to camp and ate my breakfast before packing up and going home. I only saw two other groups of backpackers all weekend, both going up the trail from Vicente camp this morning. One of them were a couple of girls with a dog. I love my Journey and I want to take her backpacking but I have to say that Ventana Wilderness is no place for dogs. It is just far too difficult. Too brushy. Too hot. Poison oak. Scarce water. This dog seemed to be doing all right but what about the ticks! There is no way this dog got home with less than 20 ticks on him, I guarantee it.
I got back to the car at about 1:30PM and drove home, stopping for well deserved pizza along the way. It was a wild weekend in Ventana Wilderness.
