Dave’s Place / Metamusing

First, for those who just want to look at the pictures, check out the photo gallery. All in all it was a great trip. There were a couple of minor bummers and one major one which I’ll get to at the end, but they didn’t take away from a great trip, the best part of which had to be the camping spot perched on a cliff’s edge at least a couple hundred feet above the largest waterfall I found, nestled in a pine forest. It was awesome.

This was bushwhack hiking - mostly on unmarked, almost, or completely nonexistent trails used mostly by seasonal fisherman. It was obvious I was the first person this season to make my way back into the woods by the state of the fire pits and the complete lack of tracks. I’d tried this hike once before with Andrew but we made the mistake of following the trails and ended up far from our goal, causing us to abandon our goal. This time I found my way though I still stumbled about a bit. Next time I’ll know better to stay up along the ridgeline instead of making my way up and down it in a continual hope that it would remain a stable trail at the base of it. Some positional information for folks interested in making this hike:

 +43° 22.658′, -74° 28.531′ site
+43° 22.641′, -74° 26.375′ trailhead
+43° 21.756′, -74° 23.938′ car

The river is chock full of rapids and there are a lot of great campsites nestled right on or above the rapids. This is relatively remote stuff on unmarked trails so if you’re interested in a private camping experience this offers you a pretty good shot. I did not see another human being the whole time I was back in the area for 2 days.

Although the miles as the crow flies was only about 10 miles round trip, on foot it was quite a bit more than that, partly because of how much doubling back I had to do to find my way and partly because of all the ridgelines along the river as you head west on it. I suspect that when the water is low this hike would be a lot easier because you could just stick the riverbank. With all the rapids and Soolin’s constant desire to hop in, even when there was a path along the river I stayed somewhat back to keep her out of the water. Even so there were several times when she hopped in and scared me.

The two minor bummers - first, my nike aquasocks were lost after coming untied from my pack, which made me have to cross a frigid rocky bottomed creek barefoot - ouch! Second, Soolin chewed through the straps on her brand new and expensive doggy backpack. I cursed her roundly.

There was also a major bummer - I miscalculated how cold it would be and literally got hypothermia. I was so wracked by uncontrollable shivering that I abandoned my tent, pulled all the clothing I had on, and curled myself in a fetal position around Soolin on the ground with her doggy blankey under us. This was actually a lot warmer than the tent, but still I was freezing and spent a very uncomfortable night out under the stars with my breath pluming above my head. Lesson learned there.

Anyway check out the gallery. I figure I will go back in another couple of years to make my way even further west past the ridgeline because I think there is at least one more waterfall back in there, plus that campsite perched on a cliff above the falls was just spectacular.