Lesson learned: print the fucking map, even if you've been there before.

This past weekend, cedarfoxy and I went on an overnight hike on a popular trail off I-84 at exit 41. We'd done this trail once before, when we were training for the West Coast Trail. This time I made some different choices in planning, and we're both very pleased with the result!

Instead of leaving Saturday after cedarfoxy is off work (and then hiking in the hottest part of the day, and ending too warm to sleep at sleep-time), we stayed home Saturday and got our start Sunday morning. Even with utterly failing to have packed the day before as we planned, we still hit the road in time to reach the trailhead by 10am. Since it was only one night out instead of planned for eight, our packs were quite a bit lighter than they'd been for the WCT. We hiked up the creek with comfortable rest breaks to have a snack and take off our shoes. We soaked our feet in the temperate water at 4 1/2 Mile Bridge and refilled our drinking water. My Snickers bar was, as cedarfoxy predicted, utterly melted, so I didn't eat it at that point.

A few other hikers also paused to get relief from the heat by playing in the water, and we confirmed with them what we'd been debating for the last two miles: how much farther to the Wy'East Campsite. We were excited to learn it was less than a mile farther up the trail, and it was still only 2pm or so. We put our shoes and packs back on and trekked up to the campsite we intended to sleep at.

Being the first ones there, we had our pick of locations, so we pitched our tent and had an early dinner. Then, since it was hot and we wanted to top off the water supply and we hadn't brought any dice or cards, we decided to take our day packs and go find Wy'East Falls. "Wouldn't it be funny if this little riffle was 'the falls'?" is probably going to become my hiking joke. Going uphill, I said that as we crossed a creek and continued searching. When we gave up and turned back and paused at that creek again, I looked upstream and Oh Shit, THOSE are the falls!

"I bet we can get there," said cedarfoxy.

They were right. We bushwhacked our way up the creekbed, ducking around and through willow trees, clambering over logs, and jumping from rock to rock, until we reached the basin at the foot of a waterfall. We clearly weren't the first humans to go past the point where others had left toilet paper (seriously, people, a zippy bag ISN'T HEAVY! Pack the TP out!), because logs had been arranged into seats, and rocks had been piled artfully. We shucked our clothes (except the water sandals) and had a nice scrub (sans soap), after which I put my rashguard back on because sunburns are not a good time. cedarfoxy climbed carefully up on the mossy rocks where the water fell and found that it wasn't nearly as slippery as they expected. After pausing to photograph a snake sunning itself near the pool, I tested nature's shower. As I stood in the gentle drizzle of the boundary of the fall, finding it to be quite pleasant, the wind shifted. Suddenly I was pelted by buckets, and I couldn't see to move my feet safely for the water running in my eyes, and apparently I made quite the face; cedarfoxy bemoaned the fact that their camera had not been at the ready. We tried to recreate the experience, but ....

After enough play time, we re-garbed and descended to the trail and went back to the creek access close to camp in order to gather water to filter (because why carry three liters of water farther than you have to). We settled in, played a little I Spy, cedarfoxy journaled while I played on my phone, and had mashed potatoes for evening snack. Other hikers arrived to share our camp site just as the first mosquitos appeared, and we went to bed to avoid getting bitten as that was easier than putting on bug spray.

In the morning, we had a leisurely breaking of camp and hit the trail just shy of 7:30am. Downhill turns out to require fewer rest breaks than uphill. Even though we deliberately paused for viewpoints (so as to not lose the day to head-down-gotta-get-home attitude), we still made it to the car by 11am.

It would have been nice if the rest of the day hadn't been so busy (two grocery stores and a doctor appointment on top of unpacking and cleaning gear), but it still felt like week-end.

Also learned: don't forget the Tums. Or the dice. Or a book, if the hike is short.