Thanksgiving Day. I was on my way up north to visit family and I had Journey with me. The plan was to get in a morning hike before Thanksgiving dinner. To the waterfall with 100 names: Fairy Falls, Shingle Falls, Dry Creek Falls, Beale Falls. We arrived at the trailhead 30 minutes late. It was Journey’s fault but she is so cute, I cannot be mad at her. However, we had to run down the trail to make up time. No time to smell the flowers. I promised her she could smell them all on the way back when we could take it slow (and she did).
We got to the upper Falls in time. I took some photos. It was not flowing too great but it was all right. When I was here with my previous dog, Kaya, many years ago, we tried to get down to the bottom at the upper waterfall. Kaya could not do it. Kaya was a master at steep rock scrambling, so I knew if she could not do it, there is no way Journey could do it and I did not even try. However, Kaya was able to get down to the bottom of the lower Falls. I hoped Journey would be able to, however, it was much steeper than I expected. She did not want to and I did not want to force her. There was another path down to the bottom, however, and Journey was able to get down this way even though it was quite steep as well. Excellent job, Journey! The problem was that you cannot see the waterfall from this location, but I could see it if I scrambled up on the rocks. So that is what I did. Again, I left Journey safely, and she could see me the entire time. She waited in perfect patience for me as I took photos of the lower falls. She was very awesome.
We took our time hiking back. She smelled all the flowers. And all the dog poop as well. We saw one other guy with his dog and then a huge group of people. We made it in time for Thanksgiving dinner. It was a great morning at Fairy Falls.
I realized that most of the hikes on my list now are very difficult ones. I have done pretty much all the easy ones. All that is left are ones with cliffs, steep rocky terrain, river crossings, etc. to negotiate. Our new puppy Journey cannot do these types of hikes.
Yet I want to take Journey on many hikes to waterfalls in the future (or even without waterfalls). So I have started making a second list now. Hikes that I have done before which I know are easy enough for her to do. I will be revisiting waterfalls that I have seen before once or maybe multiple times. At the same time (not exactly the same time – ha ha) I will also be continuing the hikes by myself which are more difficult. Ch-ch-changes are in the air for me.
First on the list: American Canyon Creek Falls. I chose this one first very intentionally as I will explain shortly. It is a fairly easy hike down the trail until you get to the waterfall. There are ticks and poison oak, but in November, there is none of that. Good thing I chose November for this one, otherwise she would have picked up a bunch of the little beasts (although she still did manage to get a couple of them on her – ugh). Of course the creek is also low in November and it has not rained much yet, but I figured it would still be all right.
The first new thing I learned about Journey: She doesn’t care about horse poop or bear poop, only dog poop. There was plenty of all three on the trail and she completely ignored the first two. The second thing is this: she is quite scared of going down steep rocky terrain. Of course she has not ever done this before and hopefully she will get a lot better with it. The last part down to the creek is quite steep and she would not go down. She would also not let me carry her. She did manage to get down one steep part but then could not get back up afterwards so I had to lift her back up. Anyway there is no way she could get down to the creek level. This is what I suspected would happen and this is the big reason why I came here. I wanted to see how she would do, while waiting for me to take my photos. I tied her up in a safe spot and then went down to the creek, crossed it, and took photos. She could see me the entire time and she sat down and waited for me with perfect patience! She was absolutely very awesome. I was proud of her. I took my photos quickly and went back up to her.
You will notice that there is now a big new rock embedded in the middle of the waterfall. Well this is a big change. Ugh. This definitely has ruined the prior character that this waterfall once had but it creates a new character for it. Is it better or worse? Well I definitely liked the old character much better, but I admit it is still interesting and I think at higher flows it will even be more interesting.
We hiked back up the trail to the car and went home. I don’t even think Journey was very tired. She wanted to play fetch with mom as soon as we got back home (after she ate her hamburger, of course).
When my wife asked me how my toe was earlier in the week I said it was very good and about 95% healed. I think it was the next day, all of a sudden I was having a very bad day. It was not 95%. It was more like 75%. Not good. I did not bang it or anything so why is it hurting so much again? And I had a very tough hike planned for the weekend.
Well by the time the weekend came around it was feeling better so the hike was back on as planned. Except the weather forecasters messed me up. It was not supposed to start raining until 10AM. All the forecasts I checked said it would start 10AM at the earliest, but it was already raining when I woke up in the morning. And it had already rained during the night. Oh come on people. You cannot even get the forecast right when it is just a few hours in advance??
This forecasting error turned out to be a bigger problem than I anticipated. The problem was that the rocks were extremely slippery and dangerous. I made it down to the river. My plan had been to attempt to walk down the river to the waterfall. I did not know if it would work or not, however, I didn’t even make it a quarter mile downstream. It was just too dangerous. I had to retreat back up the mountain. If it had not rained (as it was supposed to) then I am sure I could have made it a lot further. I will return again.
Back at the car it was still cloudy. I decided to go on an easy hike to North Fork Falls, which I have done many times before. For my toe’s sake I went the easy way (from the campground). This meant I had to cross the river at the waterfall. Not a problem except for those very slippery rocks. I made it over safely and to the waterfall overlook. It was a gloomy day in Tahoe National Forest.
After photographing the lower Falls, I continued up the trail. I had only wanted to photograph waterfalls that had fall color, but I ended up photographing all of them anyway. Of course I knew the big waterfall would not have any fall color. The last section up to the big waterfall is very rocky, so I had to be extra careful because of my broken pinky toe. I made it up to the bottom of the falls and took photos. I did not go up on the steep and dangerous part to get a closer view of the waterfall. That probably would not have been a good idea. After photographing, I relaxed, had a snack, and then slowly walked back down the trail to the car. Taking my time, and enjoying the views. There were many people, as I mentioned earlier.
All in all, my toe was very good on the hike. It was a little bit achy, but there was no pain. I initially had thought about doing a second hike in the afternoon, but decided against it. I am sure I could’ve done it, but I thought I would just go home and relax for the rest of the weekend instead. After getting totally ripped off buying gas in Bridgeport, I arrived home in the afternoon, just in time to watch the hockey game. It was a glorious day in Lundy Canyon.
So … I really wanted to go hiking this weekend. It would be my only chance this year to see fall colors. My pinky toe was broken. My wife said I was dumb to go. It is a risky business. She was right of course. But it only hurts if I put my shoe on or if I stub it against something. Ummm, well I have to wear shoes when I am hiking, right? Huh. In all seriousness though, it was a thousand times better by the time the weekend came around. It was not really hurting anymore, even with shoes on. I decided to go to Lundy Canyon.
My primary objective for this hike was to photograph waterfalls with fall colors. I have been to Lundy Canyon before in October. (more than once). It is my favorite place to see waterfalls with Fall colors. This year, because of the big winter we had, I figured the creek would be flowing much better than normal. Indeed I saw a photo from a week prior and it looked pretty awesome. I was excited.
I got up at 2:30AM. Thankfully I was able to get quite a bit of sleep. Made my coffee. Made the long drive out to the Eastern Sierra. I arrived at the trailhead in the dark. Whenever I have been to Lundy Canyon before in October, I have gotten there before sunrise. And there has always been someone else that arrived there before me. Today was no exception. Who else would be so crazy to hike in the dark besides the Madman? Well, it is a very popular trail in the Fall. On the way back down from the falls I counted 25 groups of people on the trail. There are not 25 parking places so I don’t know where all these people parked their vehicles. Anyhow I’m not sure where the couple that arrived before me went. I did not see them on the trail. I guess they went to photograph the beaver pond. Speaking of which, there is now no more beaver pond at the waterfall. Someone destroyed all the beaver’s hard work. Poor little beavers.
I did not have to wait long for the light at the waterfall viewpoint. I took some photos. The colors were gorgeous. I also wanted photos from the base of the waterfall with Fall color as well and this time I was able to get that too. Already I had four good photos and I had only just started my hike. I was very happy. I could almost go home. Ha ha. The creek flow was noticeably lower than just one week ago. (from the photo I saw). I was a bit disappointed to see that but it was still more than I have ever seen it before in October. I was last here in 2012 (a drought year) and before that in 2009 (bad year) and 2005 (I think a good year – there was just a little more flow this year than in 2005). The colors were also better this year. Definitely a big win.
I’m sure you want to know all about how my toe was on the hike but I think I will save that for Part 2 … Sorry. ha ha.
