Day 2 of our weekend began very early! Got up at 7 and cooked some bacon! (Phyllis forgot the EGGS!) Headed down the mountain to meet our great friends Jose Gomez and Suzanne Hughes Gomez! The hardest part of a one way hike is setting up the shuttle cars! (Same problem canoing as you will see in Part 3 of this Post!) It is a one hour drive down the mountain and another back up! Then another after the hike! Well, we made it down the mountain, met Jose and Suzanne and headed back up to the top of the mountain! I had told them that our trips often turned into a little more than I first thought! (Phyllis has now banned me from saying “This should be just an easy trip” or anything close to that!) We packed up and headed out down the 7 mile trail to Emory Creek Falls leaving my car at the top and Suzanne’s car at the bottom of the mountain! About 3 quarters of a mile downhill, Phyllis turned to Suzanne and asked if she remebered to bring her car keys for the car at the bottom of the mountain! Suzanne said “I locked them in Terry’s Car!????” Well, Jose, being the amazing runner he is, dropped his pack and ran back up the mountain to get the keys! (Luckily, before he left, Phyllis said “Be sure you take Terry’s keys!”) My wife is amazing! Anyway, Jose made it up and back in a bout 15 minutes! Great time! So, we headed out again! The hike involves a drop in elevation of about 2,200 feet with a lot of plateau stretches along the way! It includes about 20 creek crossings, some a little tricky, as you will see later!I It was an amzaing hike! We passed a few hikers headed up the mountain! More power to them! Maybe if I were 20 years younger, but downhill is tough enough for me! About 5 miles down we came to the first major falls, but the trail to them (Not really a trail, but more of a slide!) was straight down! Jose and I decided to try it, while Suzanne and Phyllis rested and watched! The first 50-60 feet weren’t too bad, then it turned and really dropped! We had to hold trees to slide down! In the last 10 feet, the tree I was holding decided to let go of it’s roots! I slid through the mud until the creek stopped me at the bottom of the falls! Jose found a better tree and made it on down! As we stood with our feet in the water admiring the falls, Jose said “That’s going to be tough to go back up!” He then looked downstream and noticed a huge fallen tree going all the way back up to the trail at about a 45 degree angle! He said “I think we can climb that!” As I looked, all I saw were the limbs coming out all over the tree like torture spikes, but of course, I said sure, we can do it! He started up, and it looked, well, HARD! For a moment, I thought, I’m climbing back up the dirt, but he yelled come on, and I went! We climbed the 100 or so feet, as Phyllis and Suzanne watched from the top and made fun of us both giving instructions! It was a tough climb, but when we made it to the top and looked back own, it felt like an amazing accomplishment! At the main falls, it was mcuh esasier to view them on well used trails, then we headed on down! On about the 15th river crossing, they became a little wider and a little more difficult! On one, I crossed after Jose and turned to take a picture of Phyllis crossing! One minute she was on the rocks, and the next, she was in the water! Of course I helped her up, after I got my photo of her in the water! She suffered a contusion to the knee, which she noticed after blood started running down her leg a few minutes later! I think she was proud of her battle scar, but the squish I heard behind me said she wasn’t happy to have soaked shoes! The rest of the trip was amazing, as the rocks got bigger and bigger! We made it to the end, and of course I had one more thrill for them! I was carrying all the car keys on my belt loop, which I had removed and put in my pocket earlier! I looked down and said, “Oh no, when I fell down the hill I must have lost the keys!!!!” I even got Phyllis before I told the truth, but she’s used to it! I think Suzanne would have liked to backed the car over me! I think Jose was ready and excited about possibly running the 15 miles back up the road! Luckily, none of that was needed as I pulled out the keys and we headed back to camp! This was an incredible hike, and I think so far, the most difficult we have done in a lot of ways! But we survived and that is always a good thing! Can’t wait for the next one! Stay tuned for Day 3, which was supposed to be a rest day, but turned out to be anything but!!!
2015-09-09