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Big Basin Redwoods - Silver Cascade Waterfall Climb Did this hike on 3/13/2010, was amazing. Pictures to come later.
Hiking Journal - Big Basin - 2/13/10 and 2/15/10 Sorry for the lack of pictures in this journal; due to the rain on Saturday we decided to forgo the camera pack and enjoy relatively unladen shoulders. Liquid developed some fairly nasty blisters on this hike (damn you, steel toe boots!) so we opted to go packless again on Monday to save some weight. Hopefully we will have new pictures from next weeks' hike ;) On Saturday we considered doing Shadowbrook backward, however in the end decided to follow last week's path instead. It was wet and muddy; Slippery Rock lived up to it's name as being quite slippery. The falls poured strongly from all the rain we've been getting. In a vain attempt to find the old trail (vs. the new bridge that has been built) we walked up and down paved camp roads for just over a mile. That's what the odd Y-shaped path is at the south-east end of the trail ;) This camp is actually open and there were a handful of campers setup with tents. Why anyone would want to camp in mud is beyond me, but whatever. Monday's hike was much more interesting. Once we reached Slippery Rock (we took a short break to hike down to the falls again, of course) we went up instead of across. Yes, that's right--the path goes up the slippery face of the rock. Some parts receive enough sun to dry off and there's a nice bed of moss on either side of the rock. As you can see by the GPS trail we hugged the left-hand side of the rock as closely as possible. We stopped near the top to get a nice view of the valley. Sadly a couple of other groups started climbing the rock, which completely dashed our plans to smoke a relaxing bowl up there. Past the rock is a bit more of a climb. The trail then passes over an old escape road and starts winding down the other side of the mountain. This was probably my favorite part of the hike. I'm slightly acrophobic (and the trail a wee bit on the goat-insane narrow side) but the views were absolutely stunning. The trail winded around the peak; directly to the left was a steep drop (500 feet at least?) to the base. The redwoods are so massive they grow from that base, to the trail level, and past it into the sky. It's dizzying to follow one from its roots to its tip--especially when you're standing on a narrow mound of dirt serving as the path. Sadly this part of the journey ended entirely too quick. We came to a road and a bridge--the turnaround point. It wasn't that late at this point, however, and neither of us felt too tired. After a brief consideration, we decided to tackle Meteor Trail. This trail--a 600 foot climb from its base--is fairly exhausting. It's a little over a mile of uphill with few flat stretches for rest. As with most mountains, it gets steeper the closer you get to the peak. The creek runs along the right-hand side as you climb and is accented with frequent small waterfalls. The trail climbs away from the creek near the end and eventually comes to a road. It's unfortunate we hadn't researched the area enough in advance (we thought we'd just turn back at the bridge) and thus were not aware Ocean View Summit was so near to the road we stopped at. We weren't sure what, if anything, we were supposed to be looking for up there. Instead we toked a bowl on the peak and started the return trek.
Hiking Journal - Big Basin - 1/31/2010 This was a much nicer day than last time. The sun had a difficult time penetrating the redwood cover (leaving considerable moisture on the ground despite having no rain for 48 hours) but it wasn't too cold. I may miss snow, but I do enjoy being able to hike in January. The full gallery (complete with full-sized images!) can be found below: http://photos.nick.johnson.name/view...ods/Jan312010/ We took the Shadowbrook trail this time, ~5 miles round-trip. The first half of the trail sadly follows the paved road to a fairly nice campground (closed in Winter) at the base of Sempervirens Falls. I dislike following roads. The trail itself was nice enough. A bit bland, but not bad. Note that we didn't hike on the road. Unseen in these pictures is an actual trail around 20ft away from the road itself. While the road takes a nice even climb through the mountain, the trail yo-yo's in elevation above and below it. We considered shifting to hike on the road instead but decided we'd prefer the better workout of the trail ;) In any case, the road was nearly always visible, which irked me.   The waterfall itself was quite nice. The water is fairly muddy at its base due to how shallow it was. I wish we could have approached the base itself (or squeezed in behind it!)--alas there were tons of "access restricted" signs everywhere and we didn't feel like angering the rangers that day.  
Hiking Journal - Big Basin - 1/23/2010 It's been raining pretty much non-stop in the Bay Area, which really sucks as we've been somewhat antsy to try out LiQUiD's new camera/laptop backpack. We're willing to suffer the rain--just not so willing to ask our electronics to do the same. Saturday was the only day (for over a week on either side of it) that had any significant period of dryness. The morning was raining, but the afternoon looked clear. Thus a short hike was decided upon as we didn't want to be out much past sunset. Just in case, I loaded my iPod with both Dvorak's and Mozart's requiem. If I'm going to be stuck in the wilderness at night I'm damned well going to listen to the right music. The road to Big Basin is incredibly fun to drive. Most of it is one-lane with a turn every twenty feet or so. It's a slow but fun drive over the mountain, worth it even if you don't intend to camp or hike. We didn't get started until around 2:30 so didn't have much day left. A forest rains long after the sky clears. The trees were covered with water, dripping slowly onto us. Water poured down the trails in ad-hoc streams. At times we second-guessed the trail, not sure if it was just temporarily a stream or if we'd missed a turn somewhere. I carried Liquid's tripod in my pack. The tripod is too tall so sticks out like a pole. The wind over the past week knocked over several trees, creating hazards. I'm fairly certain I resembled a giant lobster crab-walking under these, trying (but failing) to keep the tripod from catching overhead branches. As trite as it sounds, I listened to Dvorak's New World Symphony as we hiked. My ears were sore when it finished so didn't bother with an encore. Besides, the streams and falling water were pleasant enough as they were. In the end we opted not to even use the tripod--the ground was too muddy. The sky was also urgently pushing us for time. We really didn't want to be out much past sunset and were making slower progress than desired. Turns out swapping lenses whilst protecting them from the raining trees is a time-consuming process ;) A forest grows dark long before sunset. The ground will be cast in shadow while the sky glows vibrantly. This worked to our disadvantage as, without the tripod, it's difficult to hold the camera steady enough to facilitate a slow shutter. Many of the nicer shots blurred due to this. We stopped for a snack around 4:20 on a fire road and took the opportunity to refresh our buzz (weed and hiking go together wonderfully, I should add.) In addition to the camera, lenses, laptop, tripod, flashlights, snacks and other miscellaneous gadgets we carry a pair of fold-up chairs. Like the tripod these are too tall to fit in a backpack. They can be slung over the shoulder or carried by hand, however. These chairs are a slight extra burden to carry, however more than pay off when you set them up. The comfort of being able to stop wherever you like and sit in comfort is beyond my ability to properly express. We turned back shortly after this (well, diverted to a trail leading back to park HQ rather) due to the setting sun. I think we took some of the best pictures during this time. It started to rain again, although the same canopy that had been dripping on us all morning now protected us from the onslaught. Indeed, it was only slightly more wet with this light rain than it was without. The rain clouds floating through the towering redwoods provided some amazing views. Sadly, the increased moisture also prevented Liquid from switching to a better lens. It was growing dark, anyway. Well, darker--the trail had been in deep shadow since we finished our snack. We hiked down a different stream we hiked up. The flashlights helped, but this was still the longest 0.9 miles of the trek. The darkness increased the difficulty of distinguishing trail from creek, making for a fairly slow descent. Still a very fun, if short, afternoon. Hopefully Liquid can get some more pictures posted soon. We're anxious for the weather to clear to try out the new photo equipment properly. Alas, rain seems to be the perpetual forecast. Fucking rain.
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