This past Saturday, a group of Troy’s coworkers and I went on a hike up in Washington state. We went up to the lovely Falls Creek Falls Trail in the Gifford Pinchot National Forest to check out one of the hikes in Jared’s guidebook. I was pretty stoked about it because Troy’s coworkers go on hikes fairly regularly and this is the first time they’ve invited us. Jared has a goal of hiking most, if not all, of the hikes in his guide book, so he tries to go hiking as much as he can. I’m very happy he invited us for this one because I love hiking and spent a few weeks being very excited about the trip.
It took about 2.5-3 hours to get from Salem to the parking lot just off the trail head. The drive was nice and very relaxing with lots of trees and countryside. Normally I take pictures when we’re driving to new places, but it all looked a bit the same, so I just sat back and enjoyed the drive. We tried listening to Reading Lolita in Tehran, but it’s either that the book is boring or the reader is dull, so we both lost interest and put Troy’s favorite CD in instead.
The last three miles of the drive were dirt and rock, but it wasn’t too bad. It opened up to a nice little parking lot that can hold maybe 20 cars. There weren’t too many other people there, which was nice. The guidebook said weekends are a bit on the busy side, but I guess since it’s still been pretty chilly here that people aren’t quite in the hiking mood yet. Which is weird because it’s June and it shouldn’t be cold in June.
Anywho, we all visited the lovely (read: stinky) outhouse and headed up the trail.
We followed trail 152A and it was only a few minutes before we came across a beautiful river.
For most of the hike we were in fairly dense trees. There wasn’t a lot to take pictures of, but the trail was pretty. The greenery was just wonderful and it was so nice to be out in the trees and mountains again.
To get to the upper falls you have to hike for 1.9 miles. It took us about an hour to make the trek and we saw some beautiful scenery along the way.
Just for fun, here’s my screenshot of what the route looks like from the parking lot to the main waterfall. If you just want to do the first half of the hike, it’s not too bad. There are a few moderate inclines, but nothing too terrible.
When we got to the main waterfall we stopped for lunch and, of course, pictures.
I was really amazed at how green everything is. It’s just gorgeous. I struggled a bit with my camera and getting the settings right, so the pictures aren’t as fabulous as I would have liked, but I still think they turned out fairly nice.
John lent Troy some light filter lenses and Troy had me try them out, too. Even though I had no clue what I was doing with them, I got a really awesome shot. I think it looks magical.
After spending about 45 minutes hanging out at the waterfall, we headed back out in search of the second waterfall.
About this point Troy told us his knees were hurting a lot. He injured them years ago, so the inclines and declines are hard for him. But, of course, he had decided to just truck on through it. I’d brought some motrin in my pack, so he took one of those. I’d also brought one of the anti-inflammatories I’d gotten from my car accident, so after a bit he took one of those, too. He was limping pretty bad, poor guy.
After taking a quick break for photos and to rest Troy’s knees, we took off again. And I should mention that only about 1/3 of the group was here. Troy doesn’t like waiting around for other people, so he just kept taking off. I like to hike a bit faster than the rest of the group was going, so myself and two other guys stuck with Troy. 
I had told him we could go straight back to the parking lot of he wanted to, but he wanted to keep on truckin along, so we followed the signs to the upper waterfall. I stopped along the way a few times to find good sticks he could lean on while he walked and after a little bit one of the other guys caught up with us and yelled for Troy to stop. When Brandon had heard that Troy was in pain and having trouble walking he went back to find the other half of our group because Jared had hiking poles. Brandon got the poles from Jared and booked it to get them to Troy. This really helped Troy and we were both happy Brandon had done that.
Eventually we found a spot where the trail split. Troy leaned against a tree for a bit to rest while I took off one way and one of the other guys took off another. The trail I took ended and I found a nice little camping spot with a beautiful view of the valley.
By now we were pretty far ahead of the other group and weren’t sure if we’d followed the correct path. I voted we stay and wait for the other group, but after about 5 minutes everyone else was ready to get going again and we set off down the trail.
Eventually we found this lovely little scene. We hung out here and played around for a few minutes before getting back on the road.
This is one of the new interns at Troy’s office. I kept my camera trained on him in hope that he’d fall in the water and I could get a funny shot. (i know, i’m terrible)
But, alas, he did not fall.
After a few minutes, we journeyed on.
We hiked on for 1.18 miles further, periodically debating whether or not we were going the right way. Troy kept stopping and saying that something didn’t feel right and that he thought we needed to go back. He was worried we’d missed a branch off or that the area where I’d seen the campground was where we were supposed to go instead of this way. I assured him that there was no path that way and that it just ended at the campground. So, we journeyed on.
We trekked past a marsh and past what looked like a quarried rock hill and started back into the forest. We stopped and had a serious conversation about turning back and finding the other group, but eventually just kept heading in the direction we were going.
After 1.18 miles we came across some mountain bikers. Troy stopped them and asked how much further it was to the waterfall. The lead rider said we’d overshot it. By several miles. And then mentioned……………………….the campground.
I was mortified. There was no path over there! All there was was an open area with a fire pit, a log and a really great view of the trees below (as seen in my picture earlier).
So, Troy thanked the riders and off they went. Then he turns to me and says, “Thanks, Erin.” My only defense was that I had told him while we were over there that we should wait for the other group. Oh well. At least we got a several mile scenic detour? haha.
I have to say that our journey back down the trail was the most grueling part of the hike. Troy practically ran down the path and the rest of us were panting behind him. After about a mile I finally asked him to slow down. He was worried the pain killers would wear off while we were still on the hike since we still had an hour or so of hiking back to the cars after we got back down to the campground (which was still 2-3 miles away) and he wanted to push as hard as he could while he couldn’t feel it. Makes sense, but the rest of us could feel it and we were dying. But he slowed down and we were so happy when we rounded a corner a few minutes later and saw the rest of our group back at the little clearing.
Thankfully, the mountain bikers had told the group that we were coming back down the trail because Jared told us they’d been considering heading back to the parking lot since they had no idea where we were and had been waiting a while. But now that we were all back together we could rest a minute and then leave.
Leave? Why would we leave? Weren’t we all going to go to the other waterfall?
haha.
Kicker.
We were AT the other waterfall.
Really? This is the second waterfall? After the other one, we were a bit let down. Its pretty, don’t get me wrong, but we were expecting something like the other one. So, we were a bit disappointed. But at the same time, I was thrilled that I hadn’t missed anything at the campground. lol. Turns out there is a hidden path that leads down the ledge to overlook the upper portion of the big waterfall we’d seen and that’s what the guy had been talking about. We all found it humorous that the mountain cyclists hadn’t even considered this spot when we’d asked about a waterfall. lol.
After resting for a few minutes, having snacks and getting a few group shots, we all began the trek down the mountain. I didn’t take anymore photos until we were almost back to parking lot, but John Bernasconi took a group shot back at the campground overlook.
Image courtesy of John Bernasconi
I didn’t take any more photos until we were almost to the end. A few people joked about turning left and going back to the big waterfall, but most of us were pretty pooped by this point.
I think it took us about another 15 minutes or so after this point to get back to the cars. I was so happy to see the parking lot because my legs were so exhausted. I tripped at one point and almost couldn’t catch myself because my legs weren’t moving as quickly as I wanted them to. But I didn’t face plant, thank goodness. I just looked like a monkey having a seizure for a second. lol
Overall, the hike lasted about five and a half hours with all of our stops and detours. We started our hike at 10:49am and finished it at 4:13pm. It was a long day, but it was so much fun. I’d definitely do this hike again, but without the two and a half mile detour. The guidebook says the hike is 6.1 miles, but the group I was in ended up doing 9.69 miles and those who didn’t do the detour with us ended up doing just over 7 miles.
These are the stats for the second half of the hike. Everything we hiked to the right of the second mile was not part of the plan. But it was fun and pretty.
