Today’s adventure was a walk up to Indian River falls with a friend. We hadn’t really planned to go much past the first bridge, but the day was pleasant (overcast and in the 40s, no wind in the valley at least) and it felt good to walk, so we kept on going and before long found ourselves at the falls. Having not expecting to be gone for quite so long, we were a little short on food and drink, but didn’t have any trouble maintaining energy for the walk back.
I realized it’s probably been two and a half years since I had gone to the falls. It’s a hike I’ve intended to do with Connor and Rowan, but so far haven’t managed to do so. (Thwarted most recently by illness and recovery time over the holidays.) Rowan’s generally not very keen to go for such (long) trips, so that means I have to come up with even more motivation to get us moving. That’s motivation that all too often is in short supply for me (which is why I’ve not even gone up there on my own for so long).
I’m glad I got up there again, and it was interesting to see how familiar the trail felt to all the way up, despite my extended absence. It was also fun to reminisce about some of my prior experiences in and around the valley (going back over 20 years now).
For a change, I didn’t get very distracted by natural history sorts of questions (which definitely makes it easier to get further). The scene in the photo accompanying this post raised some questions for me (which I think I’ll post about separately). I also took a moment to look at (but not photograph) what I think had been a pile of bear scat that was now degraded to only deer hair and bone fragments. My guess is a bear had found a skinned/boned out deer and made a meal. It was interesting to see the size of the bone fragments – they seemed relatively small to me, but I didn’t investigate closely to see if there was teeth marks or anything like that.