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.
I got up very early and hiked down the Blue Canyon trail. The trail in Blue Canyon is pretty much non-existent. It was discouraging. I had hoped it would be a good trail. It is all overgrown and on rocky terrain and is impossible to follow. Down near the middle falls the trail completely disappears in a wall of brush. There are cairns leading into the brush and then the trail just ends abruptly. Not even a semblance of one. I had wanted to explore further down the canyon but I did not want to bushwhack all the way down the canyon (and I did not have time for that either). I think it would have been just a short bushwhack but I did not know that. I crossed the creek above the middle falls and found a viewpoint of the waterfall.
Middle Blue Canyon Falls is a marvelous 67 ft. horsetail waterfall. There is a great viewpoint along the cliff edge from this side of the creek (after crossing). You would not be able to see it from the other side (trail side). It was also interesting there was a big wall of snow down here beside the creek (still from last winter) at about 9000 ft. elevation. It is October you realize.
I returned to camp and made my breakfast. This was going to be a killer tough day. I took a different route back up to the top of Mantle Pass thinking that it would be easier. It was not easier. It was actually much more difficult. I should have just gone back up the same way, but no that is not what the Madman does. The new route was still very rocky, but also much steeper. Dumb, Madman.
About 100 ft. below the pass is a little tarn. It is a very steep rocky section from the pass down to the tarn. Along the tarn is a wall of snow (still from last winter). It is very steep. Too steep to traverse for a human. I went below it. However, there were tracks along it. Bear tracks! I thought it was so strange that a bear had come up here and even traversed along this difficult snow patch. Did the bear go up over Mantle Pass? It seems too crazy.
It was 2:30pm when I finally made it back to the trail at Portal Lake. My goal was to hike as far back down the trail as possible. At 5:30pm I found a good spot along the river and called it quits for the day. I made a fire to keep the mosquitoes at bay while I ate my dinner. I do not usually make fires unless it is critically needed. It was critically needed.
My plan was to get up at 4am and hike in the dark to reach three more waterfalls first thing in the morning. I was about 4 miles from the first one.
I woke up to severe pain. I was pretty sure my pinky toe was broken. How did this happen? I am not sure. I think tightness in my boot caused it to start hurting on day one. Then the very difficult rock scrambling on the previous day and maybe I banged it extra hard against a rock or something. I was not sure and maybe it was not broken but it sure was painful. I could barely put my boot on. It was a sincere struggle to get it on. I started hiking back on the trail. I had a total of 16 miles to hike back to the car. (not even including the other 3 waterfalls). The first 3.5 miles took 3 hours. I was limping. Going very slowly. At this rate I would not be back to the car before dark. I decided I would skip the 3 waterfalls. They were all off-trail and there is no way in kingdom come that I could do anything off-trail. Not to mention that at this rate I would not even get to them before the sun was on them.
I ate my breakfast by the river. Loosened my boot. Took ibuprofen. This helped (probably both things but especially the drugs). I was now able to hike at a decent pace. Still slower than I usually hike but at least now I would get back to the car before dark. I had to go slowly on the rocky sections but thankfully the trail is good and smooth for the most part. I finished the hike at 3pm. (two hours later than I had planned – if my foot had been good). By the time I got to Pizza Factory my foot was killing me again. I limped into the restaurant. Took more ibuprofen. This helped again and I was able to drive all the way home without any pain. Drugs are good. It was a crazy 4 days in John Muir Wilderness and Kings Canyon National Park.
