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I went down the waterfall trail, rather than Trippet, as the former looked shorter and easier. Ha ha. It was until I hit the point where you have to hike in a creek swirling over large boulders interspersed with three-foot pools, and then climb up what looked like an easy scramble up a slab of knobbly rock, but was actually not, as the knobs were all smooth, wet, and slippery. I only made it up because a hiker who was already up gave me a hand.
The descent was even hairier, as you can't get an assist from either above or below. I passed down my backpack and shoes to the same helpful hiker, and only made it down on the strength of my bare toes. I expected to feel like I'd been hit by a train today - I haven't rock-climbed in years - but I'm not sore at all, so I guess I'm in better shape than I thought. Nice to know!
The waterfall is small but pretty, falling across a mossy cave and producing a small rainbow. An odd mix of succulents and ferns cling to the sheer granite cliffs surrounding it, like individual hanging gardens.
The hikers were mostly concentrated near the waterfall itself (there was a small traffic jam produced by the difficulty of the final climb) so I had my picnic elsewhere, by the shadowed banks of the creek further down, in solitude. I had the sushi hand roll special from my neighborhood market (tuna roll, spicy tuna roll, mackerel roll, eel roll), a tuna onigiri, a small cake, and two bottles of Pocari Sweat, the Japanese sports drink which advertises itself, rather disgustingly, as "the exact composition of human body fluid."
I seem to have successfully evaded the poison oak, which is amazing considering how much there was (at some points, on both sides of the very narrow path and reaching in), so it was a success all round.
The descent was even hairier, as you can't get an assist from either above or below. I passed down my backpack and shoes to the same helpful hiker, and only made it down on the strength of my bare toes. I expected to feel like I'd been hit by a train today - I haven't rock-climbed in years - but I'm not sore at all, so I guess I'm in better shape than I thought. Nice to know!
The waterfall is small but pretty, falling across a mossy cave and producing a small rainbow. An odd mix of succulents and ferns cling to the sheer granite cliffs surrounding it, like individual hanging gardens.
The hikers were mostly concentrated near the waterfall itself (there was a small traffic jam produced by the difficulty of the final climb) so I had my picnic elsewhere, by the shadowed banks of the creek further down, in solitude. I had the sushi hand roll special from my neighborhood market (tuna roll, spicy tuna roll, mackerel roll, eel roll), a tuna onigiri, a small cake, and two bottles of Pocari Sweat, the Japanese sports drink which advertises itself, rather disgustingly, as "the exact composition of human body fluid."
I seem to have successfully evaded the poison oak, which is amazing considering how much there was (at some points, on both sides of the very narrow path and reaching in), so it was a success all round.
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