When I told Josie Lynne that we were going to go to our favorite February waterfall, and she knew this would be her first time there, she was very excited. She had surely heard the stories from Nova Leigh. When we arrived, the roar from those frozen falls was deafening and surprised us all, but Josie's face showed it the best!
If you have been following along, you will remember that in February 2021, Nova and I faced one of our would-be abductors on this very trail. Then in February 2022 we came back to recreate that day in order to end the PTSD that was plaguing me. I had not intended to make this an annual pilgrimage, but nonetheless, here we were. Nova and I just had to bring the Wolf here on the same week and in the same month as the previous 2 years. It was not even a choice, the truck came here on auto-pilot.
Interestingly, of the 3 years in a row we have come here, this year had the least amount of snow. But the ice was far greater than I could even have imagined! This is a 3-tiered waterfall that drops a total of 335 feet. I always say it would be crawling with humans if it was easier to get to. I have visited this falls in every season, but winter is surely my favorite because it separates the men from the boys. The normally easy trail becomes encased in snow and ice and you have to start the hike an extra round-trip of 5 miles from the normal trailhead due to accessibility in winter. The trail meanders through beautiful forests and along a river in a ravine, with 2 bridge crossings. The true challenge in winter comes from the drifting snow banks that steeply coat the trails and are covered in thick ice. The trail suddenly becomes like a slip and slide straight into the icy river at the bottom of the ravine. Unless the snow is very soft, you can't make it without crampons on your boots. But take a look at this and tell me it is not worth it!
There was every kind of ice formation I could imagine around the falls....huge, long icicles, popcorn and cauliflower like ice, smooth ice balls, vast sheets of ice that was inches to feet thick, ice shelves that looked like they could collapse at any time. It was painfully beautiful. The thundering falls sounded like a freight train and I felt like I wouldn't hear a bomb go off behind me they were so loud. The power of that water rushing forth and slamming into the pool beneath us was fearsome. Falling into that hole would surely be a fast death.
Realizing we were standing on sheets of ice over this pool, I think we all took a step backwards. The spray from the falls blew out a hundred feet all around and was coating everything, including us, in the ice. It was the perfect place to break out our thermos and eat lunch!
Josie was even more excited to eat than she was to hear the falls! When we hike, she surely is a Wolf with an appetite. After eating our hot soup and dog food, we stayed at the falls for almost an hour, just reveling in the power, beauty and serenity of the place. No other human made it to the falls this day. I took hundreds of photos and even a video to try to capture the force and sounds of the falls. My challenge was of course to be mindful of our thermo-regulation. We ended up hiking 5.5 miles to get here, so I knew we had the same mileage to get back out. But the way out would be all downhill or flat. There would not be a good way to warm up while descending. In the process of getting here, I had sweat through my lowest 4 base layers and I could already feel them starting to freeze. The hair flowing beneath my stocking cap had turned to icy dreadlocks. My outer layer was becoming coated in ice spray from the falls and was instantly frozen. It was as if I had developed a hard candy coating on my outside...just like a giant M&M! The hike out would also be slow due to the ice above the river, so there was no option to trail run to warm up. I pushed it to the end of the line in my timing, but eventually had to reluctantly leave. Say goodbye girls.
My one solace in leaving this place, was that I was looking forward to trying some new training for the Wolf's iditarod dog mushing dreams. After last week's somewhat successful trials with the Ski Skates, I felt that we needed some better training wheels to practice. So I got a pair of short skis.....not as short as the ski skates.....and not as long as regular skis. They seemed like the perfect in-between training tool to help us be amazing ski skaters. I had been carrying them on my back all day and looked forward to getting back to the flatter sections of trail away from the icy river to try them out on. I had learned my lesson last week and I did NOT wax these guys for their maiden voyage!
I think that Josie was extra excited on the hike out because she knew these skis would be coming off the kit soon. The challenge is that she then wanted to start pulling early, while we were still negotiating steep ice cliffs above the frozen river. Over and over again I pulled back on her harness and told her "No Pull!" But she was not listening. It was immensely important that I stuck each boot step to sink my crampon's spikes into the ice. Without getting good purchase into that ice, we would all slide into the river. Before I can pick up one boot, I have to make sure the other is well seated. There were some terrifying steps where literally the only thing holding me to the earth were my spikes. But with Josie pulling so hard, she would drag me forward before I got my spikes fully embedded in the ice. Finally in a moment of desperation and fear, I went all out biblical on her and just like Jesus said to Peter, I yelled at her to "Get behind me Satan!" For about the next 10 minutes, she calmly and quietly walked in single file behind me, allowing us to get through a tough icy section. "Okay, okay, Josie", I finally relented, "You can lead again." She was so excited to get back to some powder and off the ice so she could bury her face down into the snow. Her world was one giant snow cone this day!
As usual, Nova was being the perfect hiking angel and not giving me any trouble at all. She was careful to navigate the ice knowing that she did not want to end up in the icy river of death. Have I mentioned that my little beauty is always perfect?
When we returned to what would be the normal summer time parking area for this hike, and knew we were only 2.5 miles from the truck, I pulled the mini skis off my back. Surprisingly, the outhouse here was unlocked, so after using those facilities, I strapped the skis to my boots. Unlike last week, when Josie looked at my feet strapped into the skis, she did not hesitate at all. She took off like a bullet. It was very clear that she was never going to let me pass her again! She had learned that lesson the hard way last week on Mt. Adams, and was very determined to not repeat it.
Before I even knew what was occurring, I shockingly saw my boots and skis up in the air above me. After hearing a horrific sound, and feeling a crushing pain, I realized I was flat on my back. The sound was like that of 1000 bones breaking and all the wind from inside my lungs violently being expelled at the same time. If it wasn't all so shocking, it truly would have been impressive. However I could not move. Not one muscle. Not one cell. I couldn't even blink. I laid there staring hard at the darkening blue sky above, willing myself to not allow the blackness of unconsciousness to take over. If you read my March 2022 chapter, you will remember that I have already knocked myself out on the trail once, and I did not want a repeat of that today. After what felt like hours, but was probably only 5 minutes, my mouth uttered one weak sentence out-loud. "My brainstem hurts." I croaked. The wolf came over to stand on my chest and lick my face in assistance.
After a few more minutes, I took a photo to commemorate how well skiing was going today. Slowly rolling to my feet and wondering how many things I crushed in my pack with my landing, I took stock of myself. Of course I hurt in a wide variety of locations, but shockingly nothing seemed truly broken. The momentum from my fall had hurled my landing to mostly be up high on my shoulders against my pack. But my unsupported head had snapped back over the top of my pack like a melon on a rubber band. My neck and spine seemed to be in the most pain. After a few minutes of standing there to recover my pride, I knew that this was going to go down one way. The skis could not defeat me. "Let's try it again ladies" I said quietly.
Seconds later I landed on my right butt cheek with an intense thud. I could feel the bruise starting as I stood to my feet once again. Josie looked at me and I looked at her. Nova was hiding behind me willing it to all be over soon. She surely knew how this was going to end. "Okay, Josie" I said, "Third time is the charm". With great haste, she took off again. I kept my feet staggered apart, remembering that this was the trick with balancing on the ski skates while having a wolf pull me. I could not hold my right arm up in the air like the bull riding trick last week, since this time I had decided to bring a single trekking pole for balance. I regretted this as it didn't seem to help me at all. THWAP!! I was going down again....but this time I twisted to land on my left hip trying to spare my previously broken tailbone and currently bruising right bottom cheek. I had forgotten that my left hip is my bad one in this split section decision. I came up off the ground cursing. I mean really cursing. I surely made Ant Middleton or any seasoned Sailor quite proud as the words tumbled out of my mouth concurrently with my hands ripping the skis off my boots. Thank God there were no humans around to hear this. "That is it Josie" I said. "Your dreams of being an Iditarod Wolf are over. We are going back to just hiking and snowshoeing from now on! I just can't do this!" But then she gave me the look. The please Mama look.
In that moment, I knew that this wolf was going to be the death of me. "Fine" I told her. "I think I have one more idea of what we can try next. But you have to let me recover from this one." I knew I was battered and bruised. I couldn't take a deep breath without my back and ribs hurting and the headache was already barrelling down on me. My neck was unbelievably painful and I knew it was only going to get worse. I worked to ignore the pain and general feelings of ailing. As I went to strap the skis back on my kit for the final 2 miles out, I checked to see if my sunglasses were in my pack fearing their demise from when I flattened the rucksack with my body. The first thing I pulled out made me exclaim out-loud, "Oh, good, I only crushed my croutons!" I paused. Then I paused some more, staring at what was in my hand. I did not have croutons with me. For some reason, my brain was telling me that my crampons were called croutons. Apparently I fell harder than I even thought I did. After the giggling finally stopped, I decided that we better hike out extra fast. If I was going to have a brain bleed out here, I was darn well going to do it in the truck so the girls could have shelter for the night at least.
The girls watched me closely as we played a new game for those final miles. I hastily started to self examine my brain as we walked. I quizzed myself on our names, the day, month and year.... I tested myself every way that I could think of. I tested my vision, I touched my nose....it was the best and weirdest exam I had ever given myself. Surely this is one of the challenges of solo hiking I suppose. You might actually be having a real problem and not be able to recognize it. But when we got back to the truck, I did at least remember to take my temperature. For those of you following along in my game of "How low can my core temp go?", I logged in at 90.5 degrees at the end of this hike. "That is my best score yet!!" I exclaimed happily! But then when I got in my truck to drive home, I reached for the 4wd shifter to the left of my steering wheel. Let me be clear when I say that I have never driven a vehicle where this is on the left. It is always to the right of the wheel. Well this is going to be a fun drive home I thought! I, of course, had no way to call anyone for help. Even if I did believe in phones, I knew that I was not about to call my husband and tell him that I had probably given myself yet again another concussion while hiking. I could just suck it up and find my big girl panties. So that is exactly what I did while planning next week's adventure to keep myself awake; slowly sipping hot cocoa for the long drive home. The girls were sound asleep in the seat behind me as usual. They at least trusted me to get us all home safely!
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