Cooper Canyon Falls

It was a little cooler this week. I even thought about leaving my Sahara pants as pants instead of shorts .. for about 5 seconds.

The hike to Cooper canyon falls begins out of Buckthorn campground on Highway 2. Since the campground is still closed for the season, it is best to park at the campground exit. Here you will walk about .9 miles through the campground to the trailhead. There are plenty of signs now, all new, thanks to the recent renovation.

Trailhead also has a parking area if you are able to drive in.

From the trailhead, the hike is only 1.4 miles one way. It is all downhill and very little shade. There is the sound of rushing water almost the entire time, which I LOVE. If you go early in the season, like I did both years, be prepared to get your footsies wet. The trail has water crossing it in a few spots, and there are 2 creek crossings (including the one in the campground) and an additional one at the bottom of the falls. I wore my Brooks Cascadias and did fine, but I think this trail calls for a more sturdy shoe. Between the mud and rocks, I was sorta sorry I didn't have my Asolos.

Once you pass the first split - continue to your right (South East). At this point, it's only about .2 miles to the actual falls. You can see them to your left just below you. There is no sign, however, for the actual trail down to the falls. The trail is makeshift, steep with some mud. The last 15-20 feet is best navigated using the rope.

The first time I took this hike, I passed the falls and came to another creek crossing. At that point I knew I had gone too far, (you cans see the symbol for falls on the map, but it is not labeled, at least on my Tom Harrison map of the area).

If you have trekking poles, you can leave them near the rope. Also, with our dogs - we put Penelope in my pack and Teyla we let off leash. Fiance held her back until I got down, and I pointed the way she needed to go and she made it down no problem. She also does not like water too much, so we again held her until one of crossed the creek (at the bottom of the falls) and she then navigated to us. It was funny to see her try to climb the rock where we sat! "More paw, less claw". Well, she made it up but she had to find a way around the back of the rock.

Teyla was once again cordial to all the people on the trail and the doods down at the falls. They left about 10 minutes after we got there and we had the rest of the time to ourselves. I gave the Fiance a photography lesson on his new camera.

Sorry folks, all of my pics are from my android.

See the trail on Runkeeper here (including the walk through the campground)

Falls with pool (view from our rock)

Teyla, away from the water

Penelope on my lap on the rock (Cascadia's in the background)

Devil's Chair

I am a week overdue posting this

A week ago, fiance & I (and dogs in tow) took a drive to Devil's Punchbowl to take the Devil's Chair hike.

The week before, I was skiing. On this day, it was over 80 degrees. Crazy weather in So Cal. Devil's Punchbowl in the upper desert so it was brutally warm, especially for me. And Teyla.

The first mile of the hike is on a service road and there's not a tree in site. After that, it swings around to a northern slope, providing some lower pines and a little bit of shade. There's also a creek crossing at about 1.3 miles, in which Teyla relished the fresh water. I wet my sunshade hat - knowing it'd be dry in less than 15 minutes. In retrospect, I should have brought my cool tie.

The dogs did very well except Teyla was extremely hot. Her and I have similar tolerances to heat. We watered her often, and took a break just after reaching the chair itself, on some make-shift benches in the shade. Both dogs had water, apples and Kirkland dog treats. We ate apples and Detour bars.

The trail wasn't too busy which was nice. When we reached the chair, we were alone.

After the break, Teyla seemed revived. Penelope only made it two more miles. I put her in the pack for the last two miles.
Eight round trip, but not too much of an altitude change in that mileage. I'd call it a moderate hike, only because of the distance.

See it here on Runkeeper (except Fiance forgot to take it off pause for a while, so it shows less than 8 miles)

View of the Desert from trail

Turn of the trail after mile 1 marker (You can actually continue straight all the way to Vincent Gap - 11 miles)

Walking out to Devil's Chair - fiance and Teyla

Winter(?) Wanderings

GORGEOUS SKI TODAY!

Luck would have it that I had to be up early on a Saturday to work for a few hours. I prepared my ski gear and lit out as soon as our "meeting" was over.

The only way to get a decent Nordic ski around here is to beat the snow players to the trails.

I went up to Table Mountain and took the fire road. It was awesome - not a soul in sight. I let Teyla run and tire herself out in the deep drifts of snow.

Breaking snow is a bitch, though. The entire time, I think of the ski back! I know the downhill parts will be sooo fun and the uphill parts won't be nearly as tough. And in fact, it was all I dreamed it would be. Until about a quarter mile back I met two ladies who were snow shoeing. Teyla actually played with their dogs for a moment, and was unusually cordial. We exchanged quick hellos and nice weathers, and then I realized they had killed my tracks. UGH!

So my "fun" ski back was short lived. The next mile I spent trying to find tracks within snow shoe tracks, then Teyla walking behind me stepping on my skis, and having some issues with snow sticking to the tail of the ski. The last issue - well I am taking them to REI this weekend to get them tuned. They are supposedly "wax" free nordic skis, but that's crap LOL. With Teyla, if I kick up my skis for a while she backs off enough (but that's not easy to do in Cross country skis.)

The other issue - with all the STUPID warnings they put on products, they ought to put a notice about NOT STEPPING IN SKI TRACKS. I was always told it was "trail etiquette" not to snow shoe in ski tracks; I always abide by that, whether I have skis or shoes. For some reason, I would think people with that kind of gear would ALSO be aware of such etiquette.

In all fairness, it wasn't too debilitating, just took a lot of the fun out of my straight spots and downhill sprints.

In Sequoia, I broke snow for several miles and I swear the exact same thing happened. Two ladies in snow shoes hosed up my tracks. However - that particular time it caused me to take much longer to get back, and I arrived *just* before dark.

The wonderful thing about breaking snow is the calorie burn!!

Here's the way back, on runkeeper

Here some pics