It was my 26th wedding anniversary today. Happy Anniversary Tara. I love you. Wish you were here. You may wonder why I was out backpacking on my anniversary instead of being at home. Well, it is not my fault! I initially planned to do this trip a week earlier but both my wife and daughter wanted (needed) me home that week, so this week was my only other option. Probably just as well because it was raining the previous week.
My pinky toe was much better today. The NERO rest day really did the trick. It took 2.5 hours to hike down to the waterfall. I thought it would be much less, more like 1.5 hours or 2 at the most. It was extremely difficult. Lots of brush. One class 3 maneuver. I really wondered if it was worth the effort or if I’d even make it.
I descended down the final approach ridge. I could see the waterfall. I thought WOW. This is going to be absolutely amazing. Thank you, God. Oh wait. Maybe not. I was on the wrong ridge. I could only see the top half of the waterfall from here. Doh! It was still an incredible spot and I took some photos but I really should try to get to the bottom of this thing, I thought. More steep scrambling. More thick brush. I was running out of time. Finally, I made it to the bottom. The sun was almost hitting the top of the waterfall. I made it just in time. Piute Creek Falls is absolutely incredible, about 220 ft. high. There was a lot of mist at the bottom making it difficult to find a spot to photograph it. I am almost completely certain that no one has ever been down here before. It is just too hard. But man oh man is it ever awesome. This easily made my entire trip worthwhile.
Time to go back up the mountain. I finally got back to the trail at 11AM. I rested and ate my lunch. I still had another 1000 ft. to climb out of Pleasant Valley and then a descent of 3500 ft. to Pate Valley. I made it down to Pate Valley at 5PM. The Tuolumne River was now very full, quite a bit more than 4 four days prior. It was almost overflowing its banks, and indeed it was overflowing onto part of the trail. I literally had to wade through a fast flowing little creek to reach my campsite. This was going to be a big concern for tomorrow. I saw a rattlesnake right on the trail. Thankfully he let me go by. There were also mosquitoes down here as it is a much lower elevation but there was a bit of a breeze which kept them away. Thank you God for that. Time for bed. Tomorrow would be a big day. Day 6 of Yosemite backpacking trip complete.
