Trip Log – Saturday, January 30, 2016
Pescadaro Creek / Jones Gulch Hike and Fording
 After a stop at safeway and a long drive oninteresting roads, we find the roadside parking. |
|
 Erika thinks it’s a bit chilly. |
|
 Maybe we will see a mountain lion, but hopefully nto! |
|
 There are no maps we can take with us so we took a picture of the sign. Good thing we did! |
|
 New trail signs and newly named trails? That could never be a problem! |
|
 We set our watches and are off on an adventure! |
|
 Bryan told us we’d have to ford rivers. This river looks intense! |
|
 Bryan fords the ‘river’ |
|
 Erika attempts to ford the ‘river’ |
|
 Erika successfully fords the ‘river’ |
|
 Erika is still cold: hat, gloves, boots, jacket and pants, scarf |
|
 This is a very nice hike with much solitude |
|
 |
|
 We have entered the redwood forest |
|
 Icky Ughy was a sluggy; slippery slimy banana slug… If you want the rest of this tune, talk to Erika, she can belt it out for you! |
|
 These trees are very tall. |
|
 This is Erika’s new house. |
|
 Look how tiny Bryan looks next to this tree stump. |
|
 Although this looks peaceful, this was a dangerous hike! As Bryan was calmly walking along the path, we heard a couple creaks then some crashes! Branches fell from the sky and started pelting the path! We survived. |
|
 Thick lush forest |
|
 This is fun!! |
|
 What is this? There is a huge river running across our trail! Yep, that’s our trail continuing on the other side of the river. |
|
 As you can see, there is no other way downstream to cross this river. And NO bridge! |
|
 No easy river crossing upstream either. Even if you could cross, the banks are quite inaccessible. |
|
 Well, what are we going to do? |
|
 Ha! We get to ford the river! |
|
 Bryan leads the way. We change into our fording shoes: Bryan wears his barefoot runners, Erika wears some crazy purple water shoes she found in a box, and Kristin wears flip-flops (does anyone thinnk this is a bad idea? FYI, it is) |
|
 Notice the water is up to Bryan’s thighs. Kristin rolled up her shorts so her clothes did not get wet. Erika and Bryan both had wet shorts for most of the remainder of the hike. |
|
 Success for Bryan! He wasn’t eaten by an alligator and he didnt get sucked down by the currents and he didn’t slip off the rocks. |
|
 Remember how cold Erika was? Well, we all thought the water would be unbearably cold, but it was a similar temperature to the frigid air so we were quite comfortable. The water was definitely warmer than Switzerland glacier water! |
|
 Erika is standing in a pile of gook. The sinking sand at the beginning of the river crossing sucked you down and you had to yank your feet at every step. After the gook, there was a series of slippery rocks that you couldn’t see unless you looked froma certain angle due to the glare on the water. Kind of a treacherous bridge through the deepest part of the river. After the rocks, you realize the rest is a peice of cake. Your legs are numb and you just enjoy the remainder of the journey. |
|
|
We even have a video of Erika’s and Kristin’s crossing. There was a huge dropoff and a seriously deep pit right and a somewhat strong current at the beginning of the river; so, even though it LOOKS like you could just walk straight across or even reach in and grab anything you drop, that is not quite the case. 🙁 |
|
 Bryan is panning for gold. |
|
 Or maybe just cleaning out his shoes |
|
 Erika puts back on her hiking shoes. Thankfully Kristin brought some extra point6 socks so Erika didn’t have to wear her own knee socks. |
|
 Notice how DEEP the beginning was. RIP flip-flop. |
|
 Well that was FUN!!! |
|
 Erika is not as cold anymore. She only needs the hat and scarf for cold weather gear. |
|
 Here’s a little clearing we encountered. |
|
 |
|
 The path is a bit soggy. |
|
 |
|
 We of course, stopped to take a few pictures. |
|
 pictures in the clearing |
|
 The side view from the trail |
|
 After the clearing, we enter… |
|
 the creepy forest of doom |
|
 We took a side trail to a scenic overlook. |
|
 Well, we never seemed to find the scenic overlook, but we think this is what was intended to be the scenic overlook. Kristin heads up to the knoll to check the views. There are none besides the surrounding trees and runs back to the side trail. |
|
 Erika heads back to the main trail. She has now removed her winter cap. |
|
 Back on the main trail, the fog rolls in and creates a mystical scene |
|
 Erika runs through the creepy forest |
|
 |
|
 Erika looks over the creepy forest and the contemplates the dangers she must encounter. |
|
 The sun glistens into the forest and highlights some webs |
|
 A web Watch the web shimmer in the sun and wave in the breeze |
|
 Another web |
|
 A spider sits on his web |
|
 A couple webs |
|
 Must be a good insect trapping area. |
|
 A group of webs |
|
 The forest around the spider webs is dense. We encounter a rainstorm, but it is not actually raining. The large ‘rain drops’ are actually just water pouring off the tree tops. |
|
 These trees are tall. This is the bottom |
|
 and the middle |
|
 and the top of the trees |
|
 Beautiful sun rays in the mist |
|
 This is Jones Gulch. This is a good stopping point for lunch. |
|
 This is the lunch log. It was a bit damp. But, some of us had damp shorts anyway. |
|
 This is the view from the lunch log. |
|
 Kristin’s sandwich. Yum! |
|
 Bryan emjoys his sandwich. |
|
 Erika likes her sandwich as long as she removes the hot peppers. |
|
 After lunch, Bryan heads across the Jones Gulch Bridge |
|
 Erika also crosses the gulch |
|
 Now where do we head? There are two trails that head straight up steep hills. We don’t want those as they are heading in the incorrect direction. |
|
 We decide to cross a fallen log and see where this path takes us. |
|
 So far so good. |
|
 What a nice view off the side of the trail. |
|
 We cross a bridge and Erika takes a cookie break |
|
 |
|
 |
|
 |
|
 |
|
 |
|
 |
|
 |
|
 |
|
 |
|
 |
|
 Bryan stands on a precarious cliff |
|
 Notice how steep the cliff is. |
|
 So, we saw waterfalls, but we didn’t dive into this river. This is the river at the base of the gulch. |
|
 This picture of a waterfall cost Bryan to lose. We were wagering who would fall on their bum first and get wet this hike. There were a few slips but no complete falls. As Bryan was standing on this slippery cliff, his shoes lost grip and he landed on his bum. Thankfully, he caught himself before sliding off the cliff into the deep gully. |
|
 The waterfall is beautiful from this distance. |
|
 |
|
 This is a great hike |
|
 Kristin escaped from prison |
|
 If we were hungry enough, we can always eat mushrooms. |
|
 Lots of little salamanders crawled along the trail. They were hard to see and we hope we didn’t squish them. |
|
 Erika eats an apple. |
|
 |
|
 More redwoods |
|
 What is this? It’s a pvc pipe! |
|
 |
|
 |
|
 |
|
 |
|
 What’s so funny? |
|
 Well, these outhouses are nothing fancy but it’s better than using a tree! |
|
 |
|
 |
|
 |
|
 Heading down the trail to check out a campsite. |
|
 This on is nice and has a river front view |
|
 Here’s an overlook |
|
 and here’s the view |
|
 Back on the trail |
|
 It’s a bit soggy |
|
 But we’re having fun! |
|
 How is Bryan going to cross the swamp? Erika and Kristin just sloshed through in their hiking shoes. |
|
 Bryan had to jump! Now his legs are wet. |
|
 And we’re off again. |
|
 Huge clump of redwoods |
|
 lots of redwoods |
|
 Erika and Bryan in the redwoods |
|
 Forest of redwoods |
|
 So, here we are just hiking along the trail and we round a bend and what do we see? |
|
 Another deep river! Good news; we get to ford a second river. |
|
 Do you see the trail on the far side of the river? It kind of looks like a trail… The river doesn’t look too scary. Just run through the deep ditch, then wade through the shallow rockbar, then rush through the final fast-moving super-deep water. And hope we don’t get swept away. |
|
 Let’s check the map to make sure this is actually the trail. Yep, it’s gotta be the trail. |
|
 Here is a closer view of the trail on the other side. |
|
 This is the river past the trail. We can’t miss the trail. Thankfully Erika saved my hat before it got swept away. First hand experience of the river crossing |
|
 Well we made it. Erika found a soaked and dirty kleenex or towel in her shoe. Kind of grody. |
|
 Changing back out of the water shoes. |
|
 This is a cool tree. |
|
 The road continues |
|
 And we continue walking |
|
 |
|
 |
|
 |
|
 River view by the bench where we ate our second lunch. The flowing river. |
|
 The final stretch! |
|
 We made it to the end of the hike and back to the car! |
|
 Our crazy faces |
looks like you guys had lots of fun
Great hike!
Looks like you all had a lot of ‘scary’ fun. Pictures are beautiful and I really enjoyed watching all of this.
Comments are closed.