I recently found out about some waterfalls near my house (within 30 miles), so I decided to find some new places to take pictures. I figured I could see various waterfalls in different weekends over time.
The first place I wanted to try was Beale Falls, which is just outside Beale AFB, in a place called the Spenceville Wildlife Refuge. I left my house at 9:30am and drove up to the place. When I got there, the entrance to the hike was blocked by some park rangers, who said the whole refuge was to be closed from 3-29-03 to 4-6-03. My guess is due to the situation in Iraq, the AFB was doing maneuvers.
Fine, so I decided on the second destination: Feather Falls. I drove the 20 miles back into town, and the 40 miles to the trailhead for the falls. I arrived at noon and started the hike in haste. The first sign I saw said to leave 4 to 5 hours round-trip to the falls and back. This is an important thing to remember.
An hour into the hike I decided to eat my lunch, so I did. A short time later, I crossed a small 30-foot waterfall that ran underneath a footbridge. This, I found out later, is called Frey Creek Falls.
I finally arrived at the lookout for Feather Falls at 3:30pm. I ran into another photographer there who had an Elan 7E, but he didn't seem too interested in talking. He told me he had been up to the falls quite a few times and really enjoyed it up there.
This shot was 1/60 @ f/11, Fuji 100 film. I'm thinking of perhaps using this for my Unit 3 90-degree lighting assignment.
Now for the fun part... when I got to the lookout, the first thing I did was take off my shoes, and when I did, I realized I had a nice dime-sized blister on the pinky-toe of my left foot! No, I didn't bring any band-aids, so I realized I'd have to hike back with the blister. Not the end of the world, I suppose.
At 4:30pm I started back with the idea that hey, it'll take the same amount of time to get back as it did to hike in, right? RIGHT???
Wrong. As I walked back, the toe was slowing me down. I also noticed that as I would walk downhill, my right knee would ratchet, and my entire leg felt like a wobbly cane. This also slowed me down.
6pm... 7pm... hey look, it's getting darker, this is interesting. 7:30pm... 7:45pm... Oh look, there's a marker that tells me I have a mile to go, at least I THINK that's what it says. Yeah, that's what it says, I can see it now that I'm up close, hah, it's so dark... SAYYY where did the trail go? My, it's so dark I can't see the trail! Did I mention I didn't bring a FLASHLIGHT?!?!?!
Out came the cell phone, and on came its light. Not much help. So I walked a bit farther... "HELLO?!?! If anyone can hear this, I'm stuck on the trail without a flashlight!!!"
.8pm... 8:30pm... how am I possibly going to find my way out of this nice, dark forest without light? Light, hmm, do I have any light... hey, what about THE CAMERA FLASH!!!
So off I went in search of the trailhead, using the phone to light my feet so I wouldn't trip, and the flash every time it would recharge to give me my bearings as to the direction of the trail. When I finally got to the end of the trail, I didn't realize it, because there were no lights anywhere there. I vaguely saw a building in the distance, which I thought might be the bathrooms. Suddenly, I noticed I was on asphalt once again, and realized I was in the parking lot.
I found my car and took off at 9pm. I was finally within cell phone range to call my wife at 9:30pm.
So that was my Saturday. How was yours?
