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!