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?

I can't play guitar anymore!!! GRRRR...

Ok, I'll explain. There's a Choir Tribute Album in the works, produced by fans on the Internet. I committed myself to doing one of the songs, Sad Face, from the Chase the Kangaroo album.

Of course, I haven't gotten to even a rehearsal stage yet, I'm still arranging and planning.

So anyway, I picked up my friend Ryan's classical guitar the other day, and even with the nylon strings, I couldn't stand to play, it hurt so badly! After a month and a half of testing my blood from the fingertips, it hurts to play.

Now I know why B.B. King likes the kind you test from your arm so much.

Back around 1982 sometime, there was an up and coming South African musician named Trevor Rabin. He was shopping around a solo album to various record companies, and Atlantic Records (ATCO for short) was interested, but they weren't interested. Three songs in particular, they said were not "hit" material (we'll get to that later).

At the same time, Trevor's management said there were two sets of people who were interested in putting together a band, completely separate from the solo project. One was Jack Bruce formerly of Cream. The other was Chris Squire and Alan White, formerly of Yes. He was interested in working with the Yes guys, who were just coming off a failed project with Jimmy Page, called XYZ (appropriately, Ex-Yes/Zeppelin).

At any rate, the band they formed was called Cinema, and they started working with another ex-Yes member, Tony Kaye. Shortly thereafter, yet another ex-Yes member, Jon Anderson, rolled into town to hang out with the guys, and loved the material. On a whim, Jon sang on one of the tracks, and Yes of the 80s was born.

Many of the tracks that Trevor Rabin was working on in 1982 became the basis of the biggest selling album Yes ever had, 90125. The three tracks I mentioned earlier were the three hits from that album: City of Love, Hold On, and the only #1 hit Yes ever had, Owner of a Lonely Heart.

So the big question is, why am I telling you this?

The original demos that Trevor Rabin was working on back in 1982 are being released next week as a CD called 90124. So far it's not being released in the US, but this should be an exciting CD.

Trevor did an interview with Notes From the Edge recently in regards to the project. Here's hoping it'll be really good!

So I put up a blog and what did I do? Refused to find time for entries for almost two weeks.

1. The tivo was successfully upgraded, although with one drive instead of two. Those jumper settings finally got the best of me and I said forget it. It does, however, now have a 120GB drive instead of a 40, so I can record something like 135 hours in basic mode, 41 hours in best. I leave it at best. Now all I need to do is find time to watch the 8 Sliders episodes that keep adding up.

2. So this week I've eaten more salad than I have in the past year. The upside, though, is that I like salad, which goes a long, long way. I met with a dietitian, who gave me portion sizes, and joined Weight Watchers again, which helps a bit on the support side. Then there's Body Express, which helps on the exercise front, although I must admit, I haven't been going often enough. I saw the doctor yesterday, who told me that my blood levels have been really good, and doesn't want me to come back for another MONTH. He gave me prescriptions for the blood pressure medication and the diabetes medication, but said that if I keep going the way I'm going, he'll take me off the diabetes meds! This is a Good Thing(TM).

That's it for now. I just wish I had more time, but don't we all.