Lake Serene Hike

Well I have been itching to go back to Lake Serene after I went there two years ago on a JConnect hike that Audrey described as moderate. Ha! Moderate, it was anything but moderate, but what awaited me at the base of Mt Index would leave an impression on me that has had me wanting to go back ever since.

At the base of Mt Index is Lake Serene, a beautiful lake with waterfalls cascading into it and snow-covered talus with the rising spires of Mt Index. At the outlet of Lake Serene, Bridal Veil Falls is born, falling 1328 ft in 4 big drops.

I didn't go for the waterfalls (so not me!); even though Bridal Veil Falls is one of the best falls in the state, I went for the lake and its peaks and the views from the top at 2,500 feet.

I started my hike at 2 PM (late like usual) after trying to find parking at the full parking lot. It seemed like everyone wanted to try reaching Lake Serene on a sunny Sunday. On top of that the lake has been unreachable except for the crazy few who dared to hike through the steep snowfield above. As I went up I must have passes 3 dozen people on their way down. I also go passed by a few who treated the trail as if it was a workout track. I guess to each it own, but I like to enjoy the scenery and nature. On top of that I wanted to conserve energy being that this was the first serious hike with a strenuous elevation gain since my summit to Teanaway Butte back in March. When I got to the trail junction for Bridal Veil Falls I passed it (me pass up a waterfall!?), my goal was the lake plus it was too bright to take pictures with the sun beating right on the falls. I passed the bridge over Bridal Veil Creek and took a peak at the great falls and decided I would take pictures on the way back along with the falls adjacent to the bridge that people confuse with Bridal Veil Falls. After 1.2 miles the trail started to steepen and up I went in what seems like an endless number of switchbacks and staircases. It felt like it would never end. Finally I saw hope when I saw snow and with that I got a warning from a couple. They told me when I hit the snow to turn back, the snow bridges over the streams were sketchy and scary and when you made it passed that there was a steep snowfield that ended in a cliff that you had to go up. They were disappointed that they were so close, but were too scared. Immediately my heart started racing. I may love flying, but I'm scared of heights.

Well I slowly made it pass those icy slippery snow bridges not looking down and then up that scary snowfield and then there it was! A glimpse of the lake! Within a few hundred feet it went from no snow to me standing on over 10 ft of snow. I walked about a hundred feet and I was standing on the edge of beautiful Lake Serene with the 3 peaks of Mount Index looming over me.


First view of Lake Serene

Walked over to the frozen lake and ate my lunch and saw one of the stupidest things ever. There were a lot of dogs up there, in which the owners smartly put the leash on their dogs, but there were a few without one. In two separate instances a dog went right on to the frozen lake and the moment I saw that I knew that meant trouble! The owners called their dogs to come back and just as they got the the edge of the lake were the ice is the thinnest, the dogs broke through the ice and went into the frozen lake. Lucky the dogs pull themselves out, but they should have never been unleashed. It made me angry. The dogs don't know better, but the owners should!

I must have stayed there at least an hour and a half. I saw people come and go and I just stayed to take it all in. The lake just reminds me of something I would see in a fantasy movie like Lord of the Rings.


Mount Index looming over frozen Lake Serene

Finally it just got to cold from the cool breeze and snow and I had to put on my jacket. Then went off and took more pictures of the scenery


Monte Cristo Mountain range with Sunset Falls at the bottom of the picture


Me in front of Lake Serene

When I left I was the last one out of the the lake and I had barely made it to that scary snowfield and two adults showed up. Then three teens showed up with their dog. It was too scary to scramble down the snowfield so I sat on my butt and sled down the snow. My goodness that was scary. Once you started sliding it was hard to stop. I made it down to the snow trail and slowly made my way to the snow bridges. Once I got passed that I made my way down passing a waterfall that seems to disappear but if you are alert you realize that it is the same waterfall that people get confuse with Bridal Veil Falls near the bridge adjacent to the real Bridal Veil Falls


Upper Falls

Lower Falls

I took pictures of the lower falls free of people and then made my way over to the bridge of the creek and took a peak at the real Bridal Veil Falls.


Lower Bridal Veil Falls

From there I made my way out and encountered two crazy guys who were going on a night hike up to the lake who asked me how was the snow up there. As I made my way out I took a glimpse back and there was Mount Index bathed in the golden orange color from the sunset.


North Peak of Mt. Index Glowing in the Sunset

When I got to my car there were 4 cars left and it was dark. Was I tired, but it was worth it! I will definitely be back!

When it was over I had hiked 7.2 miles and hiked up 2,000 ft to an elevation of 2,500 ft with Mt index looming 2,857 ft over me and a beautiful lake.

Escape the Heat Weekend

I was not about to get stuck in Seattle under a nasty heat wave last weekend. I decided the time had come for my first backpacking trip... ever! Now I have gone car camping and that is fun and all, but I have been wanting to get away from the crowds and go camping in the backcountry so I can reach those waterfalls that you can't regularly reach on a day hike. Now I love snow and all of you who now me know how crazy I get when snow is falling in the city, but I am tired and sick of this snow. I originally had plans to make my first backpacking to Snoqualmie and Nordrum Lakes in the Taylor River Valley adjacent to the Middle Fork Snoqualmie River, but those plans fell through and all you have to do is look out your windows toward the Cascades and see that the white stuff is still there... even though we had a nasty weekend of heat!

So after calling countless of Ranger stations to see if the trails were free of snow and getting the same response from all of them

"No"

I decided to go to the Boulder River Wilderness. The Ranger told me there was no campsite there but I knew better, every time I go hiking in there I always come across backpackers so I figured that Ranger must not get out much and actually take a walk down the trails they are suppose to be knowledgeable of.

Saturday morning before my alarm went off to wake me up and head out to pick up my friend Vaihbav, that nasty sun woke me up with it's nasty light rays broiling me in my bed. It was 7 a.m. for goodness sakes! Got up, took a shower and made sure I had all my gear ready and off I went!

When we got to the trailhead there must have been at least 3 dozen cars parked there! First thing that raced through my head was "oh no, what if they are all backpackers!!!!!!", as a group of three walked away from their car with their backpacking gear. Once I saw that I did the unthinkable, I actually walked past the waterfalls and made a beeline for the campsite while poor Vaihbav wanted to stop and look at them! That is so not me!

Finally the heat caught up with me and I had to take a breather and gulp down water. So we stopped at Unnamed Show Falls which was about 3 miles in from our final destination of 4.7 miles. I have to say that I didn't even recognize the waterfall from what it looked like last week with all that snow melt coming down the creek!



Finally after 4.7 miles we got to the campsite! The bad is what had been beat by 3 other pairs and the backpackers we saw at the trailhead. Well, we started looking for a place to pitch our tents and we found a spot where there was a tent already pitched up, but there was enough room for a couple more tents so we asked two guys that were sitting by the tent if i was OK with them if we pitched our tents by them and they just said "go head"!


They left and about 20 minutes later this young couple no older than 20 yrs old showed up all confused and then it hit us, that was their tent! We apologized and they just told us no worries, it's fine. Well it wasn't fine for me! I wanted to have my tent a few feet from the river just like theirs so I started scouting the area and I found a sweet spot! A small site with the river as my front door!




I had the breeze of the cool raging mad Boulder River coming straight into my tent. The sound of the rushing river was so soothing I started napping off, as it turned out that was all the sleep I was going to get on this trip!


As the sun started to set it was time to start fire and make dinner, well it turned out the wood we collected was so damp we couldn't get a fire started. Then the other campers came over (the ones we saw at the trailhead) and mentioned to us how they couldn't get a fire started either. We all looked around and noticed the two couples couldn't get a fire started either and we all started to laugh. It then hit me and thanks to my busy TV schedule I remembered that Bear Gylls from Man Vs. Wild had an episode where he mentioned to remove the bark from a tree and that should be good enough to start a fire. It worked and Vaihbav and I joined the other 3 and we all sat around the fire. While everyone was trying to get their stoves to work I grabbed my Jetboil stove and just pressed the starter and was boiling water in less than a minute while the rest couldn't get their stoves working. At the end I ended up boiling everyone's water till finally they got their stoves to work! It was great and we all had smores and they even shared with us whiskey!


Now here is when the trip actually turned so serious that we had to tell one of the couples that was camping (the ones I had originally set my tent by) that we weren't bear bait. After they finished cooking and eating, they proceeded to hang their food, they walked over to a tree and threw their food over a branch like they are suppose to- the problem? They hanged their food 30 feet from my tent and about 50 ft from the other campers' tents!!! As I saw them I was laughing in disbelief at what they were doing. Finally one of the guys got up and told them that we valued our lives and we didn't have any plans to turn our campsite into a Bear's playground. Their respond? "We can't find a tree". They couldn't find a tree!!! Wake up kids, you are in the forest surrounded by trees!!! They are everywhere!!!! Thank goodness I had moved my tent to a new location, Vaihbav on the other hand was 15 ft from their tent since he decided to not move his tent. When we finished eating we and the other 3 proceed to throw our food over tree branches like you are supposed to... 100 yards away from our tents and everybody else's tents too!


By 9:30 p.m. they were all falling asleep and the full moon was out giving us plenty of light. We said good night to each other and we went to our tents... well almost everybody, I stayed up and watched the river and the stars while taking all the sounds of nature. I then took a picture of my tent with my lantern on.




Then I started counting the hours left till sunrise, ugh!!! I was so relax yet I couldn't sleep! At 23:00 I went in my tent and I ended up just laying there. Around 1:00am I gave up and went out my tent and just sat on the river bank. At 2:30 I went back to my tent. Then at around 5 I told my self this is silly and I went back out. At 6 went back in and stayed there till about 7:30 when I proceeded to get out and cook breakfast and make myself scrambled eggs with bacon bits!





At around 10:00 a.m. Vaihbav came out of his tent and half and hour later we were all packed up and said goodbye to our nice neighbors and we all headed out leaving the to couples





As we headed out we stopped at Feature Show Falls. That waterfall had what I thought was the most water I had ever seeing go over its 180 foot drop, but that was last week! Was I not even ready for how much water was going over those falls that morning! The pictures do no justice to those falls. It was amazing!



About 2 miles from the trailhead I finally caved in to the heat, I finally turned my convertible pants into shorts and I didn't care if I blinded anybody with my floodlight white legs, I figured the river was reflecting enough sun rays that it was blinding people who went by me anyways! Vaihbav looked at me and said "Yikes!" Well by the end I was thinking my legs got enough light for a tan so that my legs matched my arms, but that was wishful thinking, not only did I not get my legs tan, I ended getting my arms and face sunburned! Oops, that's what I get by sitting next to the river and backpaking in the sun with no sunscreen. Oh well, I'll make sure I don't repeat the same mistake again this Memorial Day weekend when I head out with a few friends to backpack to Shi Shi Beach at Olympic National Park on the Pacific Coast!


Now if the snow only melts a bit more so I can head deep into the Alpine Lakes Wilderness!

Boulder River Wilderness Area

I been really bad with this blog lately and I know a few of you want to know what I'm up to so it's time I started posting more. I promise I'll post more frequently!

Well after reading that the snow was deep after Otter Falls on the Taylor River Trail, I decided to go back once it was in much better condition and I could make it all the way to Big Creek Falls. My goal on the Taylor River Trail is to backpack all the way to Nordrum Lake and camp out by the lake and its waterfall. For now it is off limits seeing how there is 3 ft of snow at the lower elevation, I'm sure Nordrum Lake must have over 7 ft of snow.

So I decided to go to the Boulder River Wilderness Area after seeing how much water was flowing out of Feature Show Falls on some pictures from my hiking group NWHikers on some trip reports. Those pictures were not going to prepare me for how much water was really flowing through the river and its creeks!


The road up to the trail head was in pretty good condition, just a few potholes here and there. When I got to the trail head parking lot around 1 pm, there must have been at least a dozen cars park there. Every time I tell myself to get out early if I want to make it to a popular trail so I can beat the parking, but since I didn't leave till after 11:30 am, well finding parking was my consequence.

Got out and started hiking. I went passed the roar of Boulder Falls below the trail and decided I would leave that fall for last along with Feature Show Falls. I think I've gotten so good at telling the difference between a river gushing through its canyon to a river going over a waterfall. When I heard the river go from a "rushing" noise to a thunderous noise I knew if I looked carefully I should see the elusive Boulder Falls and have an idea of where to descend from the trail on my bushwhack down to the river bank. For the first time I was able to see glimpses of Boulder Falls through the trees.



The first one I got to was the tall small fall just before Feature Show Falls. It runs all year long even when it gets down to a trickle. I'm surprised that the Boulder River Trail is noted for its waterfalls on almost every hiking guide I have looked at, yet, only two falls have an official name. So I decided it was time to change that. So, I have named it "Mini Show Falls". I sat there and then I was joined by a French guy and his little kid and we chatted for a while. When I finished my picture taking I decided to press on to reach my goal of the campground 4miles away at the end of the trail.



It then started to hail lightly and I decided to come back to Feature Show Falls on the way back, adjacent to it though is another waterfall, this one is on the Boulder River itself and I'm just surprised how this obvious waterfall has no name! The river drops about 10-15 feet through these boulders it gets squeezed through on it's way down. So I named it "Boulder Squeeze Falls".






Then I went after the last known waterfall before Ditney Creek Falls which is hidden right after the campground past the end of the trail. This waterfall basically marks the midway point on the trail and every time I have been to this waterfall even late in the summer, this fall has a nice amount of water going over it and shows up on you guessed it... hiking guide books. Well time to name it: Unnamed Show Falls.


Now this is supposed to be the last known waterfall on the trail, but if you look at any topo map you'll notice there is another creek that empties right into the Boulder River and it has the same topography as the other two "Show" Falls. So I told myself to go find it and forget about making it to Ditney Falls and come back when I went backpacking. Now I came across some young hikers and asked them if there were any other waterfalls up the river and they said "nope, this is the last one". Well I decided to go with my gut and as I approached the creek where my map said it would be I notice water splashing off the side of the wall around the corner but there was barely a view. Then I got to a spot where it seemed the falls would be. I followed the sound of falling water and I went for it going into the bushes and at the river bank there it was! A waterfall! I decided to name it Hidden Show Falls. It drops about 80 feet or so and then if you look through the trees you see there are more falls. I'm going to guess it is about 160 ft.




I then decided to turn around and made my way back to Feature Show Falls to take some pics. It was around 5:30pm and I know once my camera starts snapping pictures I loose sense of time and I wanted to make it down to Boulder Falls on my way back to the car. Feature Show Falls is about 180 ft tall and it has a very distinct upside down "Y" shape as it comes down. It is very beautiful and I have never seeing it with so much and I guess someone decided that was the main feature and the name stuck.




Well by then it was 6:30 and I had to get to Boulder Falls and my goal was to be out of French Creek Road and SR-530 before it was dark and on to I-5. Last week my ABS came to life when I came within 10 ft of hitting a deer on U.S. 2 and on the way here I came across another deer running across the highway about 100 ft in front of me and I didn't have plans to hit a deer I couldn't see in the darkness on the way back home.

Well I finally heard Boulder Falls. Where the river went from a rushing noise to a thunderous noise I knew I was right above the falls. I then found a boot path and made my way down going over downed trees and my favorite plant in the world- Devil's Club (yeah right)!


As I was taking pictures I then noticed across the river there was some red markers. I'm guessing there must be a road there or some sort of path that doesn't show up on maps. Just found it weird for there to be markers there. Now I'm wondering if there is a way to get over to the other side down the river and make my way down to Half-Mile Falls, it does make you wonder especially since on the way up to the trail head you see some roads that spur of the main road.

It is not the tallest fall, but all the moss covered boulders and the gorge make this a very pretty waterfall. I could have sat there for a long time but by then it was 7:40 pm and there as still light out and it was time to get back to the trail and back to my car.


Made it back to my car by 7:50pm and was on I-5 by 8:20. If there is one thing I have to say I love about spring/summer (no, it isn't the heat or sun) it is that the sun sets down later as the season wears on.

Now why did I named all the other falls with "Show" in their name? Well if Feature Show Falls is the main feature, then the other ones are the previews and after-shows along the river, hehehe!

This is definitely my most favorite trail in the Cascades. Yeah there are more impressive waterfalls on other trails, but here all the greenery and the sound and sight of the Boulder River really makes me feel like I'm one with nature. No noise from cars or people, just nature. With Mt. Ditney covered completely in snow along with the surrounding peaks this river is going to be gushing for a long time this year. I didn't make it to the end of the trail at the campground, but I will be back later this month if not at the end of the week to get a backpacking trip under my belt for this season. Hopefully I can find someone to go with, otherwise I'm going at it solo!

On Top of the World!

OK, well not literally on top of the world, I didn't summit Mt Everest, but it sure felt like it after my first mountain summit. I went on a hike with some friends from NWHikers.net, Dane and Fran. We threw some choices out and we settled on Teanaway Butte out towards Cle Elum in Eastern Washington. Now a "butte" means a large hill and that is what I was expecting, it turned out Teanaway Butte was really a mountain that was the tallest at 4770 feet in the Teanaway Mountain Range located in the Wenatchee National Forest.

When we got to the trail head, we were greeted by snowmobiles. All I have to say is those things don't belong in a National Forest or Park, they are noisy and you can smell the gasoline they are burning pretty bad. We walked in the snow to the Jungle Creek Trail head at 2192 feet and headed towards Liars Prairie and snowshoed for about 4 miles climbing about 400 feet. most of it was towards the end. Once we got there we headed southeast and into the woods. I had no idea what we were getting into, Dane just told me we haven't gotten to the hard part yet! Was he right!

As we approached we started going up the false summit. Just when you think you have reached the top, surprise! There is more to climb! Here we had to hike, or should I say climb 2100 ft in about a mile. We were literally going straight up. Your leg muscles start to burn, your knees want to give up, your body tells you to stop, but you keep going. Off goes the jacket, then the fleece, then your gloves, and you basically stop there unless you want to hike nude and have the snow sunburn you. You grab snow to cool down take a breather and up you go. The false summit is one little mean sucker, you think you are just about to get to the summit and look up to see there is more to go. As we went up Fran and I had to catch are breaths as Dane pulled away (he was the youngest of the three of us at 22 yrs old, Fran and I were both 10 years older than him). When we got to the top there was Dane soaking in the sun. We were finally at the summit!







All I can say is it feels great! There is nowhere to go higher, you feel like you are at the top of the world. You can see for miles and miles. We could Mt. Rainier (tallest mountain in Washington) towards the south and Mt. Stuart (the 6th tallest mountain and 2nd highest non-volcanic in peak in Washington) to the northeast. You can also see the Columbia River Valley to the east.



We ate lunch and looked around and found the remains of the foundation of an old fire lookout that use to sit on top of the mountain. Fran told me once you climb a mountain peak you get addicted and she is right. I plan to do a lot more in the future. Something I was surprise at was my right knee. It sure held up and it didn't hurt, but that was soon to change.



We then decided it was time to go. We started going down and I started feeling that sharp pain in my knee when I put weight on it and bended my knee to step down. So I decided to slide on my butt for about 200 feet. Then we looked at our maps and decided to look for the less steepest descend down and we decided to follow the side of the false summit down. I don't think I been on a hike were a map was the most important tool along with an altimeter to find out how high we were to find our location on the topo map. The only time I have used a map were finding our location was crucial was on that hike to Kanim Falls last year.

We finally got near the area where we had departed the trail on the way up and I was able to find our way out to the main trail. From there on it was one long hike back. We would stop for a break here and there but I knew if we stopped I would have to keep my right knee moving to keep it from stiffining and making walking impossible. We got to the car at 6:30pm and ended up using our flashlights the final 3/4 miles. It took us about 8 hours round trip and about 10 miles.

We stopped to eat in Issaquah and I basically limped out my car. Dane and Fran weren't driving so they had beers and Dane went a step furter to numb his pain by drinking a shot of whiskey straight up. When I got home it was 10:30pm, it was the end of a long day that started at 7:00am when Fran showed up in the morning. Poor Fran still had to drive up towards Northgate. Going up the stairs took me about 5 minutes since I had to go one step at a time and I couldn't bend my knee and my left hip hurt when ever I moved my leg to go up the stairs.

Today my knee and hip pain is gone, replacing it is my sore legs and my left ankle which I had a 4th degree sprain (the worst kind of sprain you can get) 2 years ago hurting. Well that means one thing, more muscle!

I can't wait for my next summit!

Fantastic Falls Finally!

I have been searching for a way to get to a waterfall named Fantastic Falls for almost 7 months. The first time I went looking for it, I gave up and instead found Crater Lake Falls coming of the northwest side of Mt. Si. It was pretty cool to find a 700 ft. waterfall without even looking for it. I also encountered a man who came out with his shotgun just because i was standing on a public street. Well I didn't go back in that area till about 2 weeks later with a friend who is a waterfall hunter as well and another hiker looking to get to the top of Kanim Falls to get some water.

Well I decided to go back last Saturday. I went up North Fork Rd and parked where I thought I would find the falls. Unfortunately a lot of topo maps are a bit outdated and the map became useless since the fork of the logging road I was on wasn't to be found. Well I went on a trek and I ended up finding Rachor Falls. Lets just say the in my hiking group NW Hikers I created stir with everyone wondering if I really did find it so easily or if I found a lower Rachor Falls that was unknown.

Well I went back again a day later to get more proof and take another crack at finding Fantastic Falls. Once again I never found it. Now on these hikes I been doing something that may send me to the loony hospital if I was doing it on the street, but for me survival comes first. What I have been doing is just singing to myself out loud. Loud enough for a bear to hear me or a mountain lion.

Now a mountain lion doesn't bug me as much. If I come across one I just act aggressive towards it and it should run away. It's the bears I'm worried about and I finally had my first indirect encounter with one. The moment I got out of my car I notice near the trail that there was freshly dug dirt. Then I noticed plants with roots and all near all these dirt mounds. Now I watch Man vs Wild religiously to learn survival techniques and the first thing that popped to my head was bear! Now I kept going, then I noticed poo, and no it wasn't a dogs either, they don't eat plants and this one had it all. Now I'm really signing out loud! Then near my photo area I notices that twigs and grasses were all flat as if someone had been laying on the ground. Well that was all I needed to know.Ii took my pics and got out. as I went out i notice fresh bark of a tree and then looked down and there in front of me were bear tracks. Now all that was missing was the bear and I had no intention of saying "hi" to Yogi Bear out in the wild. Made it to my car and in my car I had my lunch. That is the closest I have been to seeing a bear in the wild.

On Thursday I got a clue to where I might find Fantastic Falls. It turned out to be exactly where I thought it would be, except I had no idea how to find this road. Went back Friday and I found another road and took it. Well it wasn't it, but I came across what I thought were Boy Scouts, it turned out it was a husband and wife hunting for bears. Chatted with them and realized I was on the wrong road. Left the trail and went back to my car and drove looking for this road and then I found it.

Well I went on it and could hear the river roaring and raging. I knew the falls were close and from there on I let the "Force" guide me and I ended up near the falls! I had finally found them after 4 tries!! I knew there was a closer place to see them but it was getting late, so I went back today. Today I became the first person to get pictures of the falls that were basically forgotten and I "rediscovered" them. Yeah, I know I wasn't the first to see them again, but I know I'm the first to get pictures of them and submit them. Not even Washington State has a picture of them. So here it goes - pictures of a "lost" waterfall:

A Reason for Thanks this Thanksgiving

Well I thought this Thanksgiving I was going to be thankful for not ending up paralyzed after having surgery on my back when my lower disk ruptured. The chance of being paralyzed were high, but the pain was unbearable and if nothing was done, well there was a chance of paralyzes from the disk pressing on the nerve or permanent nerve damage. The first thing I did when I woke up from surgery was wiggle my toes and whew, was that a relief. Well that is one thing to be thankful for, but I have another one to add ...

I have search the Internet for years looking for clues to where my Mom's bother and his kids where for about 15 years to no avail. When I was about 7 years old my Mom and my Uncle got into some sort of fight/argument and my mom did what she seems to do best when she gets mad at someone: shut the door on them. Once she is mad at someone well good luck changing her mind. She doesn't seem to know how to put things in the past and move on, even if it means isolating herself. She can be pretty stubborn.

I asked her for the next 15 years many times about them and I would always get the same reply - "It's none of your business", "I don't want to talk about it", but for me it was my business and I was determine to find them. I had already made one mistake once when I found an aunt living in Florida in a phonebook and for the fear of making my Mom mad I never called. Four years later she made that call when she finally realize she needed help and finally we had contact with family members after 11 years.

However I still didn't know where my family closest to us, the ones I grew up with for 2 years when I went to live in Guatemala where. As far as I knew ,once my mom past away my brother and I were going to be the last of the Mohr family. So I kept up my search for them. I did everything possible even going in to Mormon Genealogy libraries to try to make a family tree and see if I could find any clues. The best that came out of that was being able to make a family tree all the way back to 1860.

Then came sites like Friendster and I would type their names in hoping to find one of them, but nothing. Then I had a break. On a site called High5.com, after putting my name in there, a cousin found me. She did what I was doing and after almost 25 years I finally made first contact! I was so excited, I figured now I will be able to find my Uncle and his kids, but that never came to be.

Well this weekend after cancelling plans to go to Vancouver, BC, I went home and to pass time started playing around on Facebook. I hadn't really didn't go on that website unless a friend added me on their friends' list. I had typed my cousins' names in that website before but never got a hit till Friday night!

I found a Stephanie Mohr, but so did I find about 20 others. I tried Jose Mohr and I found just one, but had no idea if that was him, figured maybe it was a a random person. After all I have found about 10 people on MySpace with my name and one person with my exact name except he spelled his middle name different. Then I tried my little baby cousin (well she was a baby barely 1 1/2 yrs old when I last saw her) and two Rita Mohrs showed up. One I knew immediately wasn't her but the other one I had a funny feeling about it. It even had her middle name and then I checked her friends list and the names Jose and Stephanie where there! What are the chances that those 2 names would be friends with a person whose name is very rare with the same last name? Then I checked her other friends and she had friends with her Mom's maiden name of Villalobos. I knew that had to be them 3! I just knew it.

I send them all basically the same e-mail and then tried to go to bed. I couldn't do it. I slept for maybe 2 hours and then after I woke up went straight back on my computer and there in Facebook.com were two e-mail waiting for me from Stephanie and Jose and as I read I just sat there with my eyes getting wet... I had finally found them.

I haven't told my mom yet and I'm even debating if I should tell her or not, or when to. I kind of have an idea of what she will do when I tell her, she'll probably will break down and cry. I think she'll have realize what she has been doing is very selfish. Whatever happens with my mom and I really doesn't matter because to me what matters is I have finally found my family. If I do tell her well then this will be the first time I have talked to her since May.

Now that I know where they are I'm planning of early next year of flying down to Guatemala to go see them. I can't wait to see my Uncle and my three cousins. I don't know what I'll do when I get of the plane. One thing for sure is that there will be a lot of wet eyes and long embraces.

This Thanksgiving, I truly have something to be thankful for.

Let the Crazy Hiking Begin!

Well, now that the rain is back thank goodness I'm off to hiking looking for waterfalls. After our trip to Oktoberfest was cancelled on Saturday I decided to go back to the Denny Creek Trail to go look for Snowshoe Falls.

This is a waterfall that has been able to hide from me ever since my first attempt at it. The firs attempt I only made as far a Keekwulee Falls and got stump by the snow and couldn't go further. It turns out that was a good thing. I had no idea the Avalanche level was high and when I came back again about 1 1/2 months later I realized I was on the brink of death. The snow was so deep I had no idea I as literally on top of trees on the edge of a gorge. Well on my second attempt, I made it to the top of Keekwulee Falls were Denny Creek comes out of a narrow gorge. Well there to greet me was a snow cave and I had no death plans in my future so I didn't attempt to go under it or over it. The third time I went at it around August again I was stomped by that ice cave. This time it had partially collapse and it was too dangerous to go over it. Then my fourth time back up there again the water level level was so low It wasn't even worth it.

Then came the lovely Fall rains. it's rained a good amount that when I saw on TV a live picture of Snoqualmie Falls and saw that the falls where roaring I knew the other waterfalls must be coming back to life so I went for it.

When I go to the trail head I could hear Denny Creek roaring again and I knew this was it. I went passed the Denny Creek Cascades and the water was rushing nicely and that told me Snowshoe would be OK. When I got to Keekwulee Falls any doubt that I had about the conditions of Snowshoe Falls diminished.

I entered the narrow gorge and started climbing over boulders and fording the creek My destination was only less than .8km but going over the rocks and water was slow. One thing I quickly learned was not to trust putting my feet on logs since they were too slippery. I just went for rocks. Then my old little friends showed up - Devils Club. Once again it gave me a little gift on my lower legs. As I went around the gorge I past to small gorges on the side and could only imagine what they would look like with the full force of melting snow. Then out of nowhere it appeared, Snowshoe Falls!

It was definitely worth the scrambled over rocks and fording the creek. Snowshoe Falls was not at full force but still was just beautiful. As I started taking pictures it started to drizzle making it hard to take a picture. Then it started to sprinkle and then I noticed something going on with the creek... the water level started rising. Well I wanted to spend more time in their alone with just the roar of the falls but the last thing I wanted was to get caught in a flash flood and be flushed out the gorge. So I decided it was time to go. Getting out was easy. I stopped at the top of Keekwulee Falls to have lunch and then made my way back to my car. Once I got in, the sprinkle became rain and it starting raining heavily. Good thing I left the gorge when I did!



Well it was definitely worth the wait. My next stop next week, go back to change Creek and find the upper half of Change Creek Falls which I saw from I-90 on the way back home and if I have time, go (the waterfall is ranked the 7th best in the state by my fellow waterfall hunter) to the back trail of Snow Lake to see Rock Creek Falls which are almost 1200 ft tall!