Kamikaze Falls and Hall Creek 12/19/09

Solo and undecided about a destination, I finally found myself at the Mt. Tenerife trailhead Saturday morning at about 10:45am or so.



This was my first visit to this trail.

The weatherman kept assuring me that the weather would be 'partly cloudy'. Since there was only one cloud all day it could be considered, by some, to be "Partly Cloudy". Unfortunately, it was one BIG cloud that extended at least from Mt. Vernon to N. Bend.


After a short distance of hiking, a trio caught up with me when it was time to remove a layer or two. They continued on in front of me along the new route to Kamikaze Falls.



I was hoping to get a photo of the 'this is not a trail' sign, but apparently it's along the old route.

The new switchbacks worked well and led me past a view showing the steep incline of nearby slopes.


I was also likening the lichen along this section.




Just as the trail approached the falls, I spotted Dicey and Sadies Driver descending the old route, much to my surprise. They obviously started a lot earlier than I did, and are also a lot faster than I am. Plus, it's hard to stop on that degree of descent.

A few minutes later there were a couple others descending: JimK and Opus.

I wasn't able to get their attention (not that I tried very hard since I was only about 30% sure if I knew them or not) but was able to catch up with them later in the day.

I spent probably 30 minutes at the falls trying to take some photographs without soaking the camera. Results weren't as nice as I had hoped, but it was still an enjoyable break.

My favorite Mossy Rock:


My favorite Mossy Rock, as viewed from the only spot I could get the tripod situated... with an unreachable branch in the way:


Top part of the falls:


Bottom part of the falls:



Foliage and Falls:



While descending I almost stepped on some clean bones from a good sized animal.


Took a couple more pics in that area before returning to the car.



From here I drove out to Olallie State Park and made my way up the Hall Creek trail to the Iron Horse span... another spot that I had never been to before.



It was 'partly cloudy' here too.


Followed the zig-zag trail for a short distance (very short... 50 yards?) before venturing east for a half mile or so. Looking back, I should have gone west to visit Change Creek which is also on my to-see list (and still is).

Returned to the car without trouble and partied it up in Kirkland with some of my favorite hiking charachters from nwhikers.net for the 2010 Calendar Social.

For those of you keeping track (no one), this was Trip #100 since I started keeping track. It took 5 years to do those trips... and I enjoyed every one of them. Thanks to everyone who joined me for one or more of these outings and thanks to Tanya for being so supportive.

Happy Trails!

~E