So the last time I went "hiking" at horsetail falls was with three other girls who wussed out after we hit the Desolation Wilderness so we turned back. This time, I went with my cousin, Robby, a fitness/wilderness man, who decided he wanted to run to the top on the waterfall.
He made it to the top of the falls in 46 minutes. Me, however, hiking by myself in a place where trails lead to nowhere and there is no apparent path to the top of the waterfall, took two and a half to three hours to make it to the top.
Apparently I took the long way. And made several wrong turns. And did A LOT of backtracking.
As much as I LOVE nature, I spent a lot of time yesterday cursing at it.
I was so lost.
But then Libby and her parents found me. She's eight years old. We discussed Robin Hood and how fourth grade is way better than third.
And we made it to the base of the falls. Which was as far as they were going. So I took off on my own again. Up the rocky cliffs. With no trail.
Awesome.
I just love defying death by myself. When no one is around to witness you plummet to your death. Real safe.
Then. I made it to a rock wall. The only way around it was a smooth rock around the edge of the rock wall with the falls tumbling below it. I started up and started to slip down, so I decided there must be another way around. There was one. Up a super steep ravine.
So I sulked for a few minutes. Called Robby (who had been at the top for quite some time by this point) and told him I was stuck. Then ran into some people with an extremely small dog who were just as perplexed as I, and we found another way around by climbing up a log. This man though, looked like a slightly older, less rugged version of Gerard Butler.
Mmhmm. Not too shabby.
By then I found Robby and he helped me up the rocky cliffs, making paths where I would have NEVER made paths.
All this to say, I felt like Tom Cruise in the opening of Mission Impossible. You know, when he's hanging off that huge rock? Except I wasn't hanging off a huge rock. But it was as close to that experience as I ever want to get. Pretty sure my mom would've been cringing the whole time if she knew what I was doing.
Like when we went the Grand Canyon as kids and my brother and I crawled off the edge onto a ledge just below and pretended like we were hanging onto the edge for our lives.
Now that I look back I realize that probably wasn't a very smart move.
But seeing my mom freak out, totally worth it.
Anyways, once we made it to the top, it was amazing. There were all these lakes that connected to each other. One of which I jumped it. Let's just say that water was a wee bit chilly. I decided to make one of the mini waterfalls into a slide. That was so much fun. The algae was super slippery so I zipped down. The only uncool part was when I sliced one of my toes on a rock. Other than that, it was a total worthwhile experience.
Sunburn and everything.
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