Memorial Weekend Travels - Part 1 Concert & Sequoia

So this weekend is generally my favorite weekend of the year (hmmmm I wonder why???). Last year I went to Hawaii , this year I went to a concert and two national parks.

The concert was in Whittier, CA (Southern California) on Saturday night. The band, a cover band of sorts. The concert was a tribute to The Who and the reason why I was there was because the person who put together the cover band was the drummer, Mike Portnoy, from Dream Theater (one of the bands I sort-of follow). I am not really one who could identify specific songs by The Who (except for the really obvious ones) but I was delighted to find out that I knew most of the songs that they played that evening. I must have heard the songs a lot while growing up. The theater was very small which made the show great - every seat was a great seat at that concert.

Sunday was spent driving up to Sequoia National Park and doing a bit of hiking. I haven't been to this national park since around 1996 or so. The last time I was there was on a company trip when I worked for Wintec Industries in Fremont. When that company was still small the owners, as a perk, paid for everyone to take a bus trip from the bay area down through Sequoia Natl park with a stop at the London Bridge in Arizona on the way to Las Vegas, Nevada. It was a pretty cool trip and strangely enough the person who went with me on that company trip was my cousin Carrie. That was the first time that Carrie and I had taken a trip together where it was just the two of us. She was too young to gamble (I might have been at the time too I am not sure what month we took that trip that year) so we just ended up walking and walking and walking checking out the sights. I think we both had a blast. Anyway, that was the last time I had been up in Sequoia National Park. It was crowded this time but I expected that because of the holiday weekend. I got some good shots of the sequoia trees and big rocks and hiked to a 10 rated waterfall - Tokopah Falls.

Tokopah Falls - Rating 3.75

This waterfall is set back in Tokopah Valley. The hike up to the falls is better than when you actually get to the waterfall in my opinion. Not to say the waterfall isn't nice, but the trail goes along the Marble Fork of the Kaweah river which is quite impressive. The waterfall is 1200 ft tall and it is easy to forget that because of the grand scale of the scenery.




I have to mention to my companions that hiked with me to Wolf Creek Falls - I successfully made several stream crossings over logs and did some rockhopping without even getting a toe wet! I have included a picture of one of those log bridges to the left. I did manage to see a couple of other waterfalls in Sequoia Natl Park. One of them I can't officially count because I didn't actually stop to take a picture of it. That one is called Granite Spring and it is right on the side of the Generals Highway as you drive up to the Giant Forest area of the park. The second one that I can count is unofficially named Pinewood Falls.

Pinewood Falls - Rating 3

I came around a bend in the road and was pleasantly surprised to see this little cascade. What I like about it is that it sheets 20 ft down over granite. I immediately pulled the car over and jumped out with my camera to get a couple shots.





My day in Sequoia was great. It smelled so good there, especially in ghe Giant Forest. The Giant Forest Museum was interesting. They gave a good explanation of why the area was ideal for sequoia trees to grow. It was a bit crowded in there though. The hike on the Big Trees Trail was very enjoyable as well. I have included a couple of pics of the shots I took of Round Meadow and trees on the Big Trees Trail.













Due to the fact that I saw so much in Yosemite on Monday, I will make that its own post. Stay tuned!

Anime and Other Topics

So what do you do when you have messed your knee up so that you can't go hiking like you planned? You turn your attention to your other interests that's what :-)

I never thought I would be the type of person who would get bummed out if I couldn't exercise. Well, I have been depressed this last week because my training schedule is all messed up. It was all topped off by the fact that I wasn't able to go to Yosemite today for my test hike up the Yosemite Falls trail. WHAT A BUMMER!! The waterfalls are supposed to be running really high right now. It is all for the best though I guess. I don't want to risk a serious injury so close to the Half Dome hike. The doctor seemed to think that nothing serious was wrong with the knee - just prescribed some physical therapy and told me to keep icing and taking advil. My trainer told me to rest it also. So here I am, listening to the experts. Good thing I have a lot of stuff to keep me distracted.

Today has been dedicated to ripping CD's and watching movies/anime! So far I have seen the Da Vinci Code, a few episodes of one of my favorite Anime series - Fruits Basket, and Disney's Beauty and the Beast.

For those of you who may not know what anime is, I have included a link from wikipedia below:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anime

This is a really good explanation of what anime is all about. I have been collecting anime DVD's for quite awhile to varying degrees of dedication. The last time I updated my inventory spreadsheet (which was about a year ago I guess) I had enough anime to sit down and watch it straight 24/7 for 46 days. I think also that at that point I had watched 60% of my total inventory. Yes, yes you guys can tease me all you want about the spreadsheet. I won't deny that I am nerdy when it comes to spreadsheets and weird calculations - random facts are cool!

I have always liked all different types of animation. I was a big Disney fan when I was younger (I still like Disney stuff, but I am around a lot of Disney haters so I have to keep it really toned down). My favorite animated Disney movies are Sleeping Beauty, Beauty and the Beast, and The Little Mermaid. My first introduction to Anime was with a series called Star Blazers. I used to rush home from school so I wouldn't miss it. I would get so engrossed in the story that I would get very upset when something bad would happen (besides I had a huge crush on one of the main characters!). I was hooked. The other series that I really liked was Robotech. I didn't really get back in to anime until I started dating Louis. After watching some of the classics like Record of Lodoss War, Oh My Goddess, and Nija Scroll I was hooked again in a big way. I tend to favor stories in which I can lose myself (that is true of anime, movies, and books). Some of my favorite anime titles are as follows (list in random order):

Fushigi Yugi - beautiful artwork, travel to another world, cool martial arts, a lot of likeable characters
Crest of the Stars/Banner of the Stars - cool storyline, good lovestory
Tenchi Muyo - likeable characters and some really funny storylines
Oh My Goddess - Really beautiful artwork, great lovestory
Vampire Hunter D Bloodlust - this is perhaps the best artwork of any anime series I have seen so far. I tried to get a cel from this anime to add to my cel collection but they are very hard to get. I also like this one because I have a thing for vampires :-)
Boys Over Flowers - great soap opera and a good ending that is so rare with anime series
Fruits Basket - this is just a sweet story that makes me feel good to watch

There are more but I will go on about them at another time I am sure!

May Wanderings Thus Far

So far this May I have not done much waterfall chasing (that will be changing next weekend though! Yosemite part one, here I come.). I have been thus far working on a training schedule for my upcoming attempt at hiking to the top of Half Dome. As part of that training schedule, I hiked to the top of Mission Peak in Fremont, CA last weekend and I almost hiked to the top of Mt Diablo near Concord, CA yesterday.

Sunday 5/7/06 - Mission Peak


I lived in Fremont for most of my life but never got around to hiking to the top of Mission Peak until now, when I live accross the bay from it. I guess I always took it for granted that it was there. It fell in to that category of being too close to home so I never took advantage of what it had to offer. Well, I finally did it... I hiked the thing. I am not one to do solo hiking really but I woke up Sunday morning expecting to go on my first solo expedition. Louis completely surprised me and said that he was going with me.

We got off to a late start because I was having a hard time waking up. We were at the trailhead at 9:30 which means that it was already pretty warm. It trips me out now to go to Fremont. I lived there for 20 or so years and it is so different and so the same from what I remember. It was a lovely day. Nice and sunny. I knew that it was going to get really warm though. The trail up Mission Peak that I chose was a wide fire road with pretty much no tree coverage. It was being traveled that day like it was a freeway. I don't think I have seen quite so many people on a trail... Since my goal was the top and I am in better shape than Louis is at the moment, I went on ahead at my own pace. An hour and forty minutes, around 2k feet, and three miles later I was at the top. I have to say that it didn't really look anything like I was expecting it to, although I couldn't really tell you what I was expecting. The view was great from up there, that was expected. I wish it had been a bit clearer. The hike down was hard on the knees due to the fact that the fire road was covered with loose gravel - very slippery. It was a good hike though, I burned through 1400 calories and had plenty of water to spare. I also wasn't sore at all from the excursion.


Saturday 5/13/06 - Mt Diablo

So now I have done a solo hike. It is oddly liberating, but not a habit I want to start. I have already gotten a lot of scolding from various people for going out there by myself and I am sure I haven't heard the last of it. The goal for the day was the peak of Mt Diablo standing roughly around 3,800 feet. I didn't make it but I did manage to pull off a hike that was a little over 12 miles total with around 2,500 ft of elevation gain. My GPS receiver said that my total ascent in feet was around 6,000 feet... I am not sure if I believe that but it does take in to account all of the ups and downs that the trail has so maybe I really did go up that much.

I started out from the Mitchell Canyon gate of Mt Diablo State park. Again this trail is pretty much a fire road. That was just fine by me as there was quite a bit of mountain bike traffic and some hikers as well. It made me feel much better that there were people about and I wasn't hiking out in the boonies by myself. Cue the horror movie music... The picture to the left is from the top of Mitchell Canyon. The first two miles of the hike were pretty flat along a very pretty creek. Just like I was told, there were a lot of bird watchers along the first part of the trail. After two miles though the trail started a pretty steep climb. By mile three I was ready to turn around. I might be over training a bit right now and Friday night I had done my local training loop of 4 miles which was fine but I did it less than 12 hours before I started this hike. I was TIRED by mile three and it sucked that the trail just kept going up. I am not sure what exaclty kept me going. This sort of odd need to keep going up until I couldn't go up any more I guess. I am not sure I like that feeling. It is almost like an addiction or something. I experienced the same thing doing Mission Peak too only that hike was half as long as this one was going to be. The next two miles were spent going up and up. People on this trail were much nicer than the people on the Mission Peak trail. When you said hi, people actually returned the salutation. I even stopped to chit chat with a woman who decided to get back in to mountain biking. Boy did she pick the wrong trail to go down! I didn't envy her trek back to the parking lot, which for her was up the way she came down.

The bad thing, or the good, depending on your perspective, with hiking Mt Diablo, is that there is a road that goes to the top of it. That means that you can really cheat to get to the top. Mitchell Canyon trail basically ends up at a campground that is most of the way to the summit of the mountain. From there you can catch the Juniper trail to get to the top. My mistake is that I missed the proper section of the Juniper trail. I ended up going the way that went down and then met up with the Summit trail. It sounds like it would be the proper way to go but what it really does is take you a mile out of your way all the while loosing precious elevation that you have already gained just to dump you at the summit trail which is 1.6 miles long that goes back up. The proper Juniper trail would have just taken me up toward the summit directly. I was getting really ticked off that I was losing elevation so when I did get to the summit trail I turned around. I was really only supposed to do a 12 mile hike according to my training schedule and I was already at 6 miles with all of that left to get back to the car.

The good thing that came out of it was that I met two really nice people along that trail. They had parked at the campground and I guess were on the way to the summit but took a couple of wrong turns. They had a hard time finding the section of the Juniper trail that went up too. While we were walking they entertained me with their own Half Dome stories (one included a hiker that they had been leapfrogging with who decided he was hot and took a dip in the river sans clothing not really caring who was around). We said farewell when we returned to the campground and I started my descent down Mitchell Canyon. It was very slow going as I had somehow tweeked my knee. I had 3 miles of steep downhill followed by two more miles to get to my car - it was going to be a long walk. I made it in one piece though. Boy was it hot when I got down to my car. I was thankful for my air conditioning. The drive home took about an hour and a half that was not kind on my knee. It was quite painful having to drive a manual transmission car through bumper to bumper bridge traffic while my knee was aching. Thank goodness I included Alieve and Advil in my daypack. I burned 5,500 calories yesterday and was starving by the time I got home. The day was topped off with a BBQ beef sandwich, very good mac & cheese, and a live jazz band at one of our local San Carlos restaurants. I am really proud of myself for being able to complete that hike all by myself. What is better is that not once did I regret my decision to do that solo hike.

My plan for next Saturday, assuming my knee is better is to attempt to climb Eagle Peak in Yosemite. 12 miles, over 100 switchbacks, more than 3500 ft of elevation gain, hopefully one mega WOW view of a rockin' waterfall, and one friend crazy enough to agree to go with me (I guess when you have known a person for over 18 years they get used to your whims).

Wish me luck!

Randomness Part 2 - Photo Issue

Random shots of random stuff! I like these pictures so I figured I would give them their 15 minutes...


Washington is very pretty! (Olympic Penninsula)

Castle Rock State Park - viewing platform looking at Monterey Bay


Pt Reyes National Seashore - cool Eucalyptus tree

Very agressive birds at the top of Mt Walker (WA) - I think this bird was posing, I wasn't the only one to get the shot

Dad and I at a waterfall on the middle fork of the Smith River.

Half Dome - My goal in June

Mission Peak in Fremont, CA from the trailhead

Test shot of iris with my new camera!

Me soaking wet at the base of Wolf Creek Falls - Photo courtesy of my friend Mark

View from the trail up Mitchell Canyon while on my Mt Diablo hiking excursion

Ahhh, Maui. This was taken in Haleakala Natl Park.


These are just a few of my favorite pictures. Enjoy!

Point Reyes Department Outing - 04/27/06

Thursday was an off-site meeting for the CBC accounting department at Point Reyes National Seashore. We never did have a department Xmas get-together in December so it ended up being held in April this year. It actually works out better for us accountants anyway as we are pretty busy December - March.

There was a lot of debate on which trail to actually embark on for our outing. Just a few weeks before, there had been a recon hike to Alamere Falls. We determined that that particular trail was a bit too much for the group. We narrowed it down to two other trails and let the group as a whole decide which trail to take. We unanimously decided on the Estero Trail to Sunset Beach, a nice 7.8 mile roundtrip hike out to a beach along Drake's Estero which gave us great views.

My task was to rent a van that could hold 9 people. I ended up renting a big white 15 passenger van - Whoo Hooo! Kim was taking care of lunch - Yummy! Everyone else was to bring thier own snacks (I of course brought Cheez-Its, Red Vines, and Cappuccino Power Bars - oh yeah and I selected three bottles of wine from my collection to bring along as well).

Thursday started out great. We had the best weather we could have ever hoped for - clear and sunny but not too hot. I drove the van and picked Neelima and Tiffany up before meeting in SF with Kim's crew of Yoli, Jennifer, and Julia. Alex also met us at the meeting spot in SF. We loaded up the van with people and provisions and were off. David met us all at the trailhead.

We got to the trailhead at 9:30 right on schedule (thanks to the driver ;-P ) We divided the food in to several people's packs (mainly David's and Alex's - they are strong guys after all!) and took off down the trail. What a nice hike. The trail was pleasant most of the way. There were several boggy muddy patches that we had to navigate around/through. Some of us ended up very muddy! Things were great until we made it down to Sunset Beach. The trail sort of disappeared so we ended up doing a lot of bushwhacking and bog trudging. The problem with the bushwhacking was that there was tons of poison oak. We finally ended up making it to a nice little area where we decided to set up our lunch. David and I went a bit further down the beach to see if there was a better place to have lunch but ended up turning around so as to not disturb a sleeping baby sealion. Its momma had jumped in to the water when she heard us coming and had a watchful eye on us and her baby to see if we were going to become a threat. We didn't have the heart to disturb them, besides, lunch was calling!

Lunch was quite a feast. There was herb roasted chicken, vegetable slaw salad, couscous salad, french bread, cheddar, brie, apples, orange slices, grapes, wine, brownies and various snacks that people shared. It really hit the spot. After lunch a few of us played frisbee. It isn't that easy to play when you are throwing it in to a headwind though! I was quite a wild thrower. I even had to retrieve one of my bad launches because it landed up the hill a bit. The group also almost lost me to quicksand as I was going for a frisbee catch. It landed in the water and was on its way out to sea, I couldn't let that happen so I went in after it and after two steps in to the sand promptly sank in over my ankles. It was quite shocking actually. I had to keep going too to rescue the frisbee. I made it out okay but my carefully kept dry feet were now soaked. I am thinking I may have to start hiking in hip waders - I just cant seem to keep my feet dry!

The trip back was uneventful except for the fact that I (of course always me the troublemaker) decided to follow a different trail that happened to get me stranded on the opposite side of a very large thicket of poison oak from the rest of the group. Well I didn't back track, I just put on my sweatshirt over my arms & camelback and hoped for the best. Once out, I used one of Kim's grease cutting wipes and resigned myself to the fact that I was probably going to get a really bad case of poison oak (As the picture shows, poison oak has rounded leaves). Well I am here writing this story on Sunday night and so far, I have only a very small dot of poison oak on my wrist. Amazing really... I am however suffering from an amazingly bad sunburn - my neck is in really bad shape, blisters and all. I keep learning very valuable lessons the more hiking I do... One of the lessons this time is that I need to find a sunscreen I like and then I need to re-apply it regularly.


We all made it back to the van in once piece with the promise of the remaining brownies and started the drive back to SF. During the drive I spied a few people napping in the back of the van. We were all much quieter than on the way out anyway. It was one heck of a way to spend a workday!

April Waterfall Visits - McWay Falls 4/15/06

I spent the weekend down in the Monterey/Carmel region. The weather was tolerable on Saturday and down right bad on Sunday. That didn't stop me from wanting to see waterfalls though!

One of my favorite hotels is called the Highlands Inn in Carmel. It is a Park Hyatt hotel and basically it is like you are staying in a condo. Each unit has a fireplace, a big jaccuzi tub, a small kitchen, a deck, and some of them even have killer views of the ocean. There is also a great restaurant there called Pacific Edge (guess what, it gives great views of the Pacific ocean too!). The last time I stayed and ate there was a few years ago for my birthday. This trip I couldn't bring myself to pay $500 to stay there for one night (YIKES! - prices more than doubled since the last time) but we did eat at Pacific Edge Saturday night.

Saturday morning was spent en route to waterfalls - Salmon Creek Falls was the furthest out which is about 80 miles further down the coast from Carmel. If any of you have driven down the coast of California on Highway 1 then you know how beautiful a drive this is. Highway 1 snakes along the cliff above the ocean for miles and miles. Some of the most classic California shots are of bridges that are along this stretch of highway. Anyway, just like the Road To Hana on Maui, this road, I guess, is more fun for the driver than the passenger... It didn't help that winter has done a number on the highway and it is in bad shape.

The trailhead for Salmon Creek falls is in the middle of nowhere. It is just a little turnout on the side of the road you would never even know it was there unless you were specifically looking for it or just randomly stopped there and saw the small sign. From the trailhead you start to gain elevation along a really pretty creek. Winter was hard on this trail (along with a lot of trails that I have been on this year) with lots of downed trees to manuver around. Louis was with me up until we started to see lots of Poison Oak. Since he is extreemly allergic to it he turned around fairly early on. I kept going for a bit but ended up turning around (after, of course, I slipped and got my feet wet). The trail to the waterfall is relatively short but really in the middle of nowhere (I have a bit of a problem hiking in the middle of nowhere by myself - my mom did a good job of ingraining the "buddy system" in to my psyche - I also watch too many horror movies for my own good). Had I been wearing my GPS trainer or had I had some sort of walkie talkie or something I would have probably ended up going all the way to the waterfall. What it comes down to is: stop one - unsuccessful.

McWay Falls - Rating 3.75


Stop two was a success though. McWay Falls is a beautiful waterfall that drops off a cliff down on to the beach in a secluded little cove. There is no beach access so you can't get up close and personal to the waterfall (it makes it hard to catch the negative ions!), but the scenery is georgeous. The state park system charges a bit too much to park at Julia Pfeiffer Burns State Park (I am a big fan of paying fees but I wished that I had the state park annual pass so I didn't have to fork over $8 to spend 1/2 hour parking there) - it was a pretty crowed place too. I definitely like it a lot better when I have the waterfall to myself. Crowds can really ruin the whole experience. There was actually another waterfall in the park but I had had enough for the day so we just headed back up to Carmel to get changed for dinner instead of attempting to see any other waterfalls. I will have to go back to catch the other waterfalls that were on my list to see some other time.

Dinner was good. It was a nice place to have an anniversary dinner. The food started better than it ended (they need to work on their entres) but I had a brussel sprout salad as one of my early courses that was to die for! I ended up having one too many courses as well. I should have eliminated one of them because I ended up just a little too full. I also made sure to stay away from the wine pairing menu this time (I learned that valuable lesson last year - that was the first and probably the last time I will ever be drunk).

Easter brunch was had at the Hyatt Regency Monterey. It was a pretty nice spread with the works (although the eggs benedict was not good at all and the waffles and pancakes were rubbery - they spent all thier time on their omlete bar - which was quite impressive actually - and neglected my favorites). They even had little Easter baskets full of chocolates on each table.

The drive back home was very messy - lots of heavy rain during the trip over the pass. Once home though, I caught a rare but luxurious nap later in the afternoon. :-) Yay for naps!

My waterfall count for April = 2

April Waterfall Visits - Alamere Falls 4/9/06

It seems like April is turning out to be the month that I visit waterfalls that drop off cliffs on to beaches. The first April waterfall I visited was the 50 ft Alamere Falls. My department at work has been planning a hiking outing for a while. The hike to Alamere Falls in Point Reyes National Seashore was a research hike to see if it was an appropriate trail for that outing. It turns out that it is on the long side and it has a lot of issues (such as poison oak and stinging nettle) that are not optimal for people who have not been hiking before.

The trail directly to the top of the falls is 8.4 miles round trip. About a mile of that though is unmaintained. The hiking book that I have noted that it is often overgrown with poison oak. Yup, we saw a lot of poison oak on the sides of the trail. Yup, I got it as well. It is a good thing that I am not super allergic to it. I just got a few weepy patches of it but no major itching (thank goodness! the itching of poison oak is the worst). I actually haven't had poison oak for years. The last time I got it though when I was a little girl, I got it bad. I was almost completely pink with Calamine lotion and the itching drove me crazy. This time it just looks really bad.

Since we were on a research hike we hiked the spur trail to the top of the falls and back then we continued northwest on to the backpakers camp and back southeast down the beach to the base of the falls and back for a 7 hour trek covering 14.25 miles. I was tired!! I was proud of myself though for being able to make it even though I ended up with blisters and very sore muscles. A couple of years ago I wouldn't have. My training for my goal of hiking Half Dome in Yosemite has paid off already. I have lost 15 lbs since October and I have gained a lot of muscle! I confirmed all over again that my hiking boots are terrible for long hikes and for hikes where I gain any elevation at all. I recently purchased a book called "Fixing Your Feet" and I will be employing some of the tricks in there to try to prevent the blisters that I get.

Besides being long the hike was quite pleasant. We had pleasant weather, it only started to rain on us a couple of times, and it was not cold. There were a decent amount of people out on the trail that day enjoying the wildflowers, wildlife, and the ocean vistas.

Alamere Falls - Rating 3


I was delighted to see this waterfall from the very top and the very bottom. It is quite pretty but it doesn't have any wow factor. It would be a very nice place to have a picnic though. I would also go out of my way to see it again.








I also used my new GPS trainer during this hike. I was quite impressed with it. The neatest thing about it was that it makes a map of the readings it takes. The map that it created taking readings looked like the map in the book! The software that came with it also has a function where it will graph several things such as elevation, heart rate, pace, and grade. I am looking forward to using it more in future hikes.

Waterfalls visited in March 2006 - Part 2 of 2

Washington - Trip 2 (Sunday)

Sunday was an absolute blast and I really enjoyed myself. I was probably pretty cranky and whiney though because I only had about a half hour of real sleep (my hiking companions would know better than me if I was or not!). Saturday night (after seeing some cool waterfalls that day) I was taken to bingo for the first time. Bingo was actually pretty fun and my cousin was delighted to find out that I liked it and would go again (I have a feeling I will be going again the next time I make it up to WA). There is just something very organized and therapeutic about it that satisfies an accounting-neat-freak-numbers-nerd like me. The bingo hall I went to wasn't full of white haired old ladies either. There were a lot of younger people there. Anyway, I ended up making it back to my hotel (which was on the east side of the sound, where bingo was on the west side - long drive) pretty late and I needed to be up pretty early to start the next day-thus, not much sleep (plus I have annoying insomnia issues that plague me often).

The day was spent on the Olympic peninsula checking out waterfalls in and around Olympic National Park. I have always loved that national park ever since I first visited it many years ago (maybe as many as 18 years ago??). One of the times I was up there, my mother and I had driven up to visit family and we all piled in the van and headed up to Hurricane Ridge. It was a good time. The waterfalls my companions and I visited this trip were Madison Creek Falls, Wolf Creek Falls, Mayrmere Falls, and Sol Duc Falls. You may or may not remember from a previous post that I had visited Madison and Marymere on my February adventure to Washington. The difference is that this time there was daylight when I was there!


Madison Creek Falls - Rating 3.75


I am sure this waterfall gets passed by all of the time because if where it is located. It is right next to an entrance
station for Olympic Nat'l Park so I bet people don't expect there to be a waterfall right there. I like this 45 ft waterfall though. It looked cool by flashlight the first time I saw it, and the daylight view is even better! It was neat to get up close and personal to it as well. We even saw a little cave on the hillside next to the waterfall. Unfortunately there was no easy way to climb up to the top of the falls so no pictures from the top.


Wolf Creek Falls - Rating 4


I will always have a special place in my heart for Wolf Creek Falls - the waterfall where I fell in. First of all, you have to drive on a one-lane dirt road to get to the trailhead. Once parked, the trail is pretty nice to get down to the Elwah River that Wolf Creek flows in to so that you can see the lower portion of the falls. There are a couple of spurs to the trail where you can get some pretty good shots of the lower section of waterfall from above as well. The upper portion remained obscured by trees, but I did get a little peak at it while I was taking a picture from the middle of Wolf Creek (after I was already soaked to the skin) . When we got down to the bottom of the trail there was no real way to get across the creek so that I could get a picture of the lower falls. I thought I would be slick and use a big branch to cross the creek. Well no sooner was I proud of the fact that I didn't get my feet wet by moving the branch in to a more usable position than I ended up sitting up to my waist in very cold water totally in shock. In fact, I was in such disbelief that I actually slipped off the log and fell in that it took me a good long time to actually get up out of the creek. I ended up with quite a nice bruise from that fall on my thigh - deep purple color tender to the touch. The fall must have looked pretty comical! Oh well, after that, I wasn't that tired anymore :-) What I should of done was take the advice from one of my companions to actually take off my shoes and wade up the creek that way to see it. But, noooo, I had to try to get fancy. I am just glad that I had some extra clothes in the Explorer and that it had a good heater!

Marymere Falls - Rating 3.5


I have to say that I actually liked this one better at night. I am not sure why I wasn't in to this one as much as the other waterfalls of the day but I wasn't. The trail leading to it is really wide and well maintained. It would be a great place to take kids. The waterfall itself was nice but I just wasn't really impressed. It drops 105 feet and it received a pretty high rating in two of the sources I used to look at waterfalls (my friend's book "The Waterfall Lover's Guide to the Pacific Northwest" and the website www.waterfallsnorthwest.com) but I just didn't get the high praise. It was neat however to get really close to it and that is why I rated it so high. There are thousands of little streamlets of water that flow out of a moss wall next to it and the upper portion of the waterfall jumps off the edge of the rock ledge before it crashes on to a rock outcropping about a third of the way down. I will probably stop by to see it every time I am up in the area but it will be mostly for the pleasant all around experience, not the wow factor of the falls.

Sol Duc Falls - Rating 4


I am not sure if I would have liked this waterfall as much, had I seen it later in the season at a lower water flow or if there would have been more people around. I read that this is a pretty popular waterfall and that it can get pretty crowded. The things that made me like it so much were: all of the snow that was around (very pretty!), the mist in the tall evergreen trees, the many little streams that flowed along the trail, and there weren't a lot of people around. This was by far the most powerful waterfall of the day. You could actually feel the ground vibrate with the force of the three sections of water pounding down 35 feet in to a small rock canyon.

Dinner that night was some pretty damn good pizza off of Higway 101. The day was a long one but full of great company and great scenery. I was actually so exaughsted by the time I got back to my hotel that I collapsed in to bed and slept through the night like a rock.

My meetings the next day went well and I ended up leaving in a hurry to get a couple of my co-workers to the airport in time for them to catch their earlier-than-mine flight. It turned out though that flights to SFO were delayed and I ended up leaving earlier than they did and before my original flight was supposed to leave. I would have had a pretty long delay had I gotten there any later.

So ends my tale of Washington Trip 2!

Waterfalls visited in March 2006 - Part 1 of 2

I managed to see 9 waterfalls during the month of March - 1 local one and 8 during my second trip of the year to Washington state. It has been a very wet year this year so that has meant good news for me with my waterfall chasing!

Local Traipsing

The local waterfall that I saw was during the weekend of the 9th. We had such strange weather that weekend. It actually snowed down to sea level. I had some snow (that actually was sticking) in my front yard. I couldn't believe it... Snow! In my front yard! On Sunday, since it was nice weather (cold though), I decided to go see some of the local waterfalls that I hadn't gotten a chance to see before. The two that were on the list to hit were Pomponio and Tip Toe Falls. I haven't had a lot of luck with visiting these two waterfalls. I had been to Pomponio before last October but I didn't actually end up finding the correct location for the waterfall. This time, Pescadero Creek was running very high so I didn't make it to the base of Pomponio but I did get to see it from the top. The two waterfalls are in different parks (one in Memorial County Park the other in Portola Redwoods State Park) but Pescadero Creek runs through them both. They had all of the bridges down at Portola so I wasn't able to make it across the creek to the trail to Tip Toe. Oh well, I guess I will just have to go back to try it again.

Pomponio Falls - Rating 2


In addition to this shot, I got one from the top of this waterfall looking down as well. All in all this is a pretty little park to go walk around in, lots of nice coastal redwood trees. It is also not to far from my house. I have to say though that the little coastal waterfalls are no match for river waterfalls as far as wow factor goes.






Washington State - Trip 2 (Saturday)

I was in Washington from March 25th - 27th. I was attending a meeting at my company's Tukwila office (near Seattle), but I decided to extend my weekend up there so I could take a peak at a few more of the cool waterfalls there. I had a really busy three days that is for sure (I was up with very little sleep pretty much from Saturday at 7:30 am until Sunday around 10:30 pm - it was cool!). I flew up there Saturday morning and things didn't start out that well. My plane was 45 minutes late taking off and we had a pretty turbulent flight. The pilots tried to make up time and we only landed about 20 minutes later than we were supposed to so things were back on track. I picked up my rental car - a Ford Explorer this time - and headed to my hotel to drop my stuff off so that I could embark on the first waterfall trek of the weekend. The waterfalls that my companions and I went to on Saturday were Snoqualmie Falls, Weeks Falls, Middle Twin Falls, and Twin Falls. Up to this point during my waterfall trekking I have managed to stay mostly dry (except for waterfall spray that is!). The one exception is at Rocky Brook Falls where I took my shoes off to get to the slippery base of the fall. This weekend, however, started a trend of me ending up in the drink to one degree or another. On to the waterfall reviews:

Snoqualmie Falls - Rating 4


This waterfall is impressive. While I was there standing near it, I gave this a 3.75 rating instead of a 4. After consideration though I think it does deserve a 4. This is a pretty powerful waterfall. There are a couple of things about it though that take away from it being truly splendid. The first thing is that it is very touristy. In a sense it is nice that people can access it easily. For my money though I would rather have the waterfall all to myself (and the people I am hiking with of course). The second thing about it is that there is a power plant at the top of the falls and they have diverted water away from the drop. Other than that though, I can see why it is the most visited of the waterfalls in Washington.


Weeks Falls - Rating 3.5


With all of the waterfall visiting I have been doing lately, I have developed certain preferences for waterfalls that are part of rivers. Coastal waterfalls are nice to picnic next to but the real wow waterfalls that take my breath away are part of river systems. They just have a lot more power to them. This particular waterfall doesn't have much of the wow factor but it is a cool place to hang out. This is also where I slipped and got my feet wet, thus beginning my trend of getting a little to up close and personal with the waterfalls I visit. It would have been really cool to stand on that big log going over the river as well, but I was a bit gun shy from slipping earlier to actually get up there... Getting wet is one thing, breaking something is quite another. Contrary to some people's beliefs I am not completely crazy!! :-P This waterfall also has water being diverted from it.


Middle Twin Falls - Rating 3.75


The Twin Falls area is very enchanting. The way the water flows over the rocks just makes you want to linger for a while to take it all in. There are lots of cascades that lead up to the big drop of Twin Falls. Middle Twin Falls is just one section. There is an upper section as well but as we were a bit pressed for time, we didn't continue past the bridge.The bridge itself is very picturesque. I would like to visit this area again with more time so that I could take the trail I read about that goes closer to the bottom of Twin Falls as well as taking the trail we were on a bit further.


Twin Falls - Rating 3.75


I was wishing that I had a better camera so that I could capture the whole thing in one shot. It is really nice how the water sheets down the rock in to a deep pool. According to waterfallsnorthwest.com this waterfall is 135 feet tall. The trail to get here is very well maintained also so if any of you are in WA you should check it out. It is worth it. At some point I will definitely go back to investigate it more.


Stay tuned for part 2!

Randomness Part 1

Isn't it funny how a single song can get you thinking and remembering all kinds of stuff? That is what happened to me tonight. I stayed later than usual at work today (7:45) and I just didn't feel like talking on the phone during my drive home like I usually do (I do a lot of my chatting and catching up/keeping in touch with people on the phone on my way home as many of you know - I like to use my bluetooth handsfree device that makes me look like I am part of The Collective - I get pretty strange looks when I am walking around SF with that thing on while I am talking even though it is not an uncommon occurence in the city for people to talk to themselves).

I had the greatest hits of Heart in my cd player and one of my all time favorite songs by them "There's the Girl" was on. This started me on a whole line of thinking because it took me back in time to when I was listening to Heart a lot. Mostly it got me on this whole I-need-to-get-back-in-touch-with-certain-people track. I guess I have been trending toward that anyway lately but with family mostly.

That train of thought took me down memory lane, as I was thinking of who I have lost contact with and wondering what they are up to now. I really consider my closer friends (even if I haven't seen them in years) to be a part of my extended family anyway so I guess it is not that much of a stretch to want to touch bases. Here are a few of the things that came to mind tonight that I feel like writing about...

I recently came across an old polaroid picture of me on the way to my Jr Prom when I was up in Kelseyville for my Great Grandma's funeral. I was so surprised that my great grandma had that picture, I don't even remember giving it to her, but there is was, in the stack with a bunch of other photos (man I loved that velvet and purple dress!) This got me wondering what Jason (my date for the evening) , his brother Nick, and another friend of mine (well almost like a little brother actually), Michael, are up to now. It has been eons since I talked to Jason or Nick. I guess I know pretty much what Mike is up to lately unless he has gotten married in the last year or so. My mom's old high school friend Gerri (her son is Michael and her jerk boyfriend at the time's brother is Jason and Nick's dad) was living on a 40 acre ranch near Lodi, CA (Yep, the same Lodi in the Credence song with the lyrics "oh lord, stuck in Lodi again") for a long period of time while I was growing up. My mom and I would spend a lot of weekends out there. It was a lot of fun traipsing out in the pastures getting muddy and following the creek, catching tadpoles or just plain walking in the water getting our shoes soaked, riding horses (or getting stepped on by one, and bucked off of one in my case), feeding the cows, playing in the barn, ect. I was probably around 8 to 12 years old when they were there, they moved to Lodi again later. Mike (when he was not at his dad's) and Jason and Nick (when they weren't at their mother's and when Carl would be visiting his brother - Brian the JERK) were all partners in crime intent on torturing the sweet little girl (me, in case you missed the reference :-P). Well I don't know how sweet I was actually, I was pretty tomboy-ish and I had to prove to those guys that I wasn't a sissy. They would do everything from stealing my shoes to trying to trick me in to going in the pond with the leeches. At least they got nicer to me as the years rolled on though and I did a pretty good job of keeping in touch with them for a long time.

Anne is another person I often wonder how she is doing as well. She has a bad habit of spamming me with patriotic emails but never answering the real emails I send to her. I went to Jr High and High School with her and she graduated the same year that I did. My friend Ryan actually launched her off the front of his car one night when a bunch of friends and I were all hanging out at my house (Ryan is lucky she didn't pound him to pieces for that!). She was also part of the infamous games of follow the leader where my arm almost got ran over and Ryan was in the spotlight (it was cold out there wasn't it Ryan!!). LOL!!

I also wonder how my old best friend Becci is doing. I wonder if she has any kids yet or not. She met her husband Jeremy because I had been on the same bus as his brother, Jon, when I went to the Soviet Union in 1992. Jon came out to visit his brother (who was in the navy at the time stationed in Alameda), and made the time to visit some of the California people who shared his bus (my bus included people from California and Illinois). Well, Jon, Jeremy, Becci, another guy who was on the bus as well, Sanjay, and I, all went to dinner at Sizzler and it was history between Jeremy and Becci from there! When they got married they eloped but I was there too for moral support. I was the photographer, the maid of honor, the witness, and the person who threw them their reception (dinner in Old Sacramento). It has been a long time since I have talked to her... I would guess that one of the last times I talked to her was at my wedding reception/party.

Well, I guess that is enough randomness for now. Too much thinking is bad for sleeping. For those of you who actually read my rambling post down memory lane, thanks for listening!

Waterfalls visited in February 2006 - Part 3 of 3

This is the final post of my February waterfall visits. The last 5 were in northern California. This post is going to cover my trip to the northern coast.

NORTHERN CALIFORNIA

The original idea for this weekend was for it to be spent with my Auntie Eileen and my cousin Gina in Kings Canyon/Sequoia National Park. Unfortunately, I have recently tended to forget that it actually snows in the mountains during this time of year and as such the waterfalls that I wanted to see there were not accessible due to road closures. The trip ended up being just me and Gina going up north to visit my dad over President's Day weekend. My dad, as always, was an excellent host. Gina and I got a chance to see Dad and his buddy Randy in action on the crab boat and we were present for the feast of fresh caught crab and muscles. TASTY!! Those guys really know how to put on a feast!

We spent Sunday waterfall chasing, enjoying the redwood trees, and basking in the beautiful weather up the coast (oh yeah, we ate lunch in Oregon too!). I only got good shots of three of the five waterfalls we saw that day - the pictures are below:

Trillium Falls - Rating 3


This waterfall sits in a small section of old growth forest that had been saved from being clear cut becaue it sat right near the mill (or at least that is what we were speculating was the reason). The hike was pleasant and there was beautiful light streaming through the trees. It is well worth the little side trip that it is when you are on the way to the famous Fern Canyon. I had been up in this area with my dad in 2004 searching out other waterfalls but we didn't end up making it out to this little jewel.

Middle Fork Falls - Rating 4.25


This is another waterfall that has the wow factor. I will definitely go to this one again. It is the kind of place that I want to take people to so that they can experience it as well. I would also like to go there when it is warmer so that I can dip my toes in to that pool (I would probably freak out if I actually tried to swim there though... I really don't like being in water in places where spooky creatures hiding under big rocks can grab my leg and drown me).

Unnamed Falls - Rating 2


I had my window down while we were driving back out down the forest service road from Middle Fork falls and I actually heard this waterfall before I saw it. It is a shame that I couldn't get the whole thing in the picture, what you see here is about the bottom two thirds of it. I paid for the shots I got of this waterfall too. I still have a light scar from the nasty scratch I got on my leg while I was going down the bank.



The other two falls we saw were pretty much right accross the Smith River from one another. The first one is called Highway 199 Falls by my waterfall book and the other is unnamed but mentioned in the book also. I really wanted to get closer to the H199 fall but I was talked out of it because it was a bit too challenging to get too (I guess my dad didn't want to get wet! - Can't blame him, that water was COLD and it was moving very fast) With my streak of luck lately I would have probably fallen completely in to the Smith River anyway had we tried to get over to it. :-)

That completes my February adventures!

Waterfalls visited in February 2006 - Part 2 of 3

To recap, my February waterfall total is 15. The first post covered the six waterfalls I saw in Uvas Canyon. This post will cover:

WASHINGTON STATE, OLYMPIC PENINUSLA

While I was in Washington the weekend of the 10th, I saw 4 waterfalls - Falls View Falls, Rocky Brook Falls, Marymere Falls, and Madison Falls and climbed Mt Walker. I had a lot of fun seeing these four waterfalls and climbing Mt Walker with my three companions. It was an awesome weekend that I was sad to see end. There was a bit of a catch to the last two waterfalls that I visited during that Saturday though... I saw Marymere and Madison Falls at night so I didn't get good pictures of them, but, hiking with mainly the moon for light was pretty darn cool.


Falls View Falls - Rating 3


The first stop of the day was Falls View Falls. This waterfall was on the other side of the canyon so we were not able to get very close to it (too bad for me because the closer I can get the better!). It was a nice waterfall to take in though, the morning was really sunny and it was a great day to be outside breathing in fresh air.




Rocky Brook Falls - Rating 4.5


Rocky Brook Falls was a bit of a surprise. One minute you are walking down a pretty wide path next to a relatively flat but pretty creek, the next, you turn a corner and bam there it is! This waterfall definitely has the wow factor. It doesn't quite parylize you in wonder, but it does make you pause for a while to take it in. I have noticed (after having seen more waterfalls in WA in March) that the rocks/branches/logs around Washington waterfalls are pretty slippery. I took off my shoes to get close to the bottom of this one because it was way to slippery to go up there with my boots on.

Mt Walker, Madison Falls, & Marymere Falls

This was the order of visiting for the rest of that Saturday. Mt Walker was a 4 mile roundtrip, 2000 ft elevation gain hike on a really well maintained trail. The view from the top was quite nice as well (just watch out for the agressive birds!) Since Madison & Marymere falls were quite a drive from Mt Walker, we didn't make it in time to see them in daylight. Why waste an opportunity to see a waterfall though!!! We made the drive, so we had to make the hike. Fortunately these waterfalls were accessable via well kept trails and I am glad that I had the opportunity to see them from a different perspective. I also like to have the waterfall all to myself and it was good to see them away from the crowds.

Waterfalls visited in February 2006 - Part 1 of 3

February's waterfall total was 15.

I had two amazing trips to Washington (count = 4) and Northern California (count = 5) bookended by two hikes to Uvas Canyon (count = 6).

UVAS CANYON COUNTY PARK

I visited Uvas Canyon on the 4th and then again on the 25th. The park is a bit out of the way to get too, but once you are there and the minute you see water, it becomes almost enchanting. There are six official waterfalls, but Swanson creek, which runs through the middle of the park, has a lot of little cascades as well. My waterfall book mentioned that it was a waterfall lovers paradise and I totally agree. Between the two hikes, I was able to see all six - Uvas Falls, Granuja Falls, Black Rock Falls, Upper Falls, Basin Falls and Triple Falls. My favorite is Uvas Falls with Basin Falls running a close second. Pictures are below with my ratings (please see my previous waterfall ratings post for descriptions of what the ratings mean).

Uvas Falls - Rating=3



I will visit this waterfall again. I saw this one on my second visit to the park. Water levels were down quite a bit from the first time I was there so I would be very interested to see this waterfall when there was more water present.







Granuja Falls - Rating=2.25



I gave this one a 2.25 (instead of just 2) because there is a very pretty little bridge that you can stand on for viewing. For that reason, and because you have to pass it anywhere you go in the park, I would go out of my way to see it.







Black Rock Falls - Rating= 2.75



I liked this waterfall a lot better the first time I saw it. In fact it was one of my favorites until I saw it for a second time. It looks better with more water in it. This photo was taken the first time I viewed it.








Upper Falls - Rating=3



This waterfall is fun to be around. When there is a lot of water the pool at the base of this waterfall looks really cool. When the water level is lower it is very therapeutic to sit at the top on some of the rocks up there.








Basin Falls - Rating=3



The approach to this waterfall really adds to the experience. Also, the closer you get to it, you see that there is an actual basin like pool at the base of the main fall. It also generates more wind than any other waterfall in the park.







Triple Falls - Rating=1.25



This one was really out of the way to get to. I have to say though, I will see this waterfall at least one more time. The author of the book I mentioned above said that this was her favorite in the park so I have to give it another chance to redeem itself.







Stay tuned for parts 2 & 3!