El Niño is coming! Super El Niño is coming! Monster El Niño is coming! The sky is falling! The sky is falling! Actually El Niño is already here! Just ask Hawaii.
The governor has already declared a state of emergency. Let’s see, how much rain has fallen so far. Oh yeah, zero. How stupid do you have to be? Lest I remind you of 2016 when we had the last super El Niño. The hype for rain that summer was just as bad as it is this year. Perhaps even more so because we were in a horrendous drought. But how much rain did we get that winter? Ah yeah, not very much at all. And we are already in a state of emergency with not a drop of rain yet? My point is, we should not be so sure about what will happen in the future. Don’t believe the hype. Nonetheless, I do have some hope that this El Niño is more like 1983 or 1998 and not like 2016. I think we will probably get above average rain but not the monster deluge that everyone is saying we will get. Also, I think it will be a slow start and it won’t start raining until mid November. Tell me I’m wrong (I hope I am).
I was planning to go backpacking this weekend with Journey. However, I did not think it through very clearly. We had to go to the Bay Area on Friday night to see my daughter’s senior dance solo. We would not get back home until midnight, and now I have to get up very early for a long drive out to the place where we were going to hike? That is not going to happen. I was so tired I could not even drive home from the Bay Area. My wife had to drive. I canceled the backpacking trip and decided to just go on a day hike with Journey.
I thought we would return to Sly Park Falls. Something very easy and close to home. I heard there may be fall color there but there wasn’t much. In fact it seemed almost past peak color, which makes no sense seeing as it is not even October yet.
Journey and I have been to this one before. Last time, it was her first or second hike off leash. She did great that time but now she is an expert. She is such an awesome dog.
Somehow I took a wrong turn on the way there even though I was pretty sure we went that way the last time. We ended up having to go off trail to get back to the main track. Journey is good off trail as well even though she does not like it so much. We made it to the waterfall and crossed the creek to get up close to it. The water was a bit cold and I’m sure Journey did not like that part. There is also a new log spanning the top of the waterfall which was not there last time. Interesting. I am glad it is not an unsightly log. We spent some time at the waterfall and then made the hike back up the hill to the car. It was a lovely morning in Eldorado National Forest.
