Falls Creek Falls

Another hike today that included use of steel cables. This time the cables didn't take us over a river. It was a support to keep you from falling into the bottom of the falls.

The trail is steep for the beginning and the end. Looking at the trail map, it looks like over 1.5 miles we went from 1200 ft above sea level to around 1900 ft. This was listed as a moderate hike and it turned out to be one of the more difficult ones for us yet. I can't wait to try one marked as strenuous.

We didn't find any bears or bear tracks today. What we did find was a rat. Sort of.
On our way down, I heard Cari scream. This wasn't a "I kinda stumbled" scream. This was a scared scream. I turned around and saw a mushroom head rolling down the hill in front of her. It was a big mushroom, probably had an eight inch diameter.
"What's the matter?", I asked.
She explained that she thought a rat run out in front of her. Not a rat, not a bear, just a mushroom head kicked down a hill. I ended the discussion by asking her if it had bitten her.

Here's a shot from the base of the falls.
There is a trail that goes up to that upper level of the falls. We decided against taking that trail today since a large yellow jacket nest protected the start of that route.

One of the coolest things Cari found was that when she stirred the dirt in the water with her finger, it had a lot of metal flakes in it. Many of the rocks at these falls have metal in them. Today was the first time we noticed so much of it in the sand. It was like a snow globe when she would stir up some sand.

We started talking a lot more about getting a hand held GPS today. Well, I started talking more about it. It's in the name of safety! Wouldn't want to get lost out in the mountains, would we?