April 6, 07
warm, clear
afternoon hike to Feather Falls
Leave trailhead about 12:30, later than I wanted -
Deidre and I hit the trail, looking for the "old trail" and "new trail" I read about in a Sac Bee article - maybe half a mile along, the trail branches, marked "3.3 mi" to the left, "4.5 mi" to the right - we know the 3.3 is shorter but harder, a good way to go in - crosses Frey Creek & follows it for some time -
Frey Creek where trail crosses
Farther along Frey Creek - Dee is glad to look before sitting, so as not to sit on a 3" long slug!
Away from the creek, along the trail a way, we can see Bald Rock - but it's not particularly good for a photo.
Leaning tree along "old" trail
finally the old trail meets the new trail - .5 miles to the falls.
nearing the falls
Coming up the trail to the falls, I like a spot & start to shoot it - but someone starts coming down, and someone else, and someone else - at long last I get the shot.
At an overlook just before the falls, we get a view of the middle fork of the Feather River, a very familiar-seeming view, then we come around to glimpses of the falls & it finally dawns on me: my photographer friend Connie Saint has been here this past year and has taken these shots, I've seen them on gallery walls when we showed together - so my shots will be different.
First a view looking away from the falls,
Feather Falls
then a different shot of the falls,
then film that begins to self destruct, too many people on the viewing platform, too hot in the direct sun, a second pack of film that trashes itself, dogs barking, I even get confused & fog the mio film -
ridge along falls
I take some shots with slide film & the mio & decide that it's time for us to head back.
Away from barking dogs, hot sun & other people, Dee & I get a chance to sit and relax, I finally get the film pack problem fixed and use my next to last piece of black & white - saving the last in case something spectacular comes up.
Dee takes a mio photo - then a slide of the same.
Heading back we take the longer, newer trail, with the knowledge that it will be easier for our return trip, which we need.
Along the way we see many little blue belly lizards, one great big alligator lizard, hear plenty of birds, see a few - then I come around a bend in the trail and nearly step on a three-foot-long garter snake - I let out a little shriek of surprise, startling Deidre and the snake. I get a shot of him on slide film before he compeletely runs away.
Plenty of bugs, too - big black butterflies that love red wild flowers, a gnat that flies into my eye, mosquitos that pester Dee but not me.
Several kinds of wildflowers blooming, as well as dogwood trees.
We can tell it's getting later but don't check the time til we get back. It's 5:30 p.m and we've come nearly ten miles total.
