The Chances

How a 250+ Pound Couch Potato Got Healthy

Sunday, March 30, 2003

This Saturday I decided to go hiking to a waterfall. I succeeded... well, sort of. This is the sordid tale.

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?