horsetail falls
I didn’t realize that it was Memorial Day weekend until Friday, when coworkers started asking what I’m doing for the long weekend. I didn’t really have any plans, just the usual, try to get in some biking or hiking.
On Saturday morning I went biking on the American River Parkway. It’s nice out there this time of year. It was my first time riding with some old CalPERS (my previous workplace) friends, Jeff and Wilson, along with Jiro who I ride with pretty often. Jeff in particular is pretty fast. We were riding 18+ most of the way in a stiff wind, but I get the feeling he was going easy on me. If there were no wind we’d probably be doing 20+ the whole way. In total I think we got in just short of 40 miles, but we ate at Mizu (buffet) afterwards, so it was probably a net caloric gain for me.
I also got to go hiking with another old CalPERS friend, Mary. She organizes hikes every once in a while, mostly to waterfalls. This weekend’s hike was to Horsetail Falls in the Desolation Wilderness.
This picture was from near the beginning of the hike. You can just barely make out the waterfall in the distance.
A closer view of the waterfall.
We ended up bushwhacking to get to the base of the falls, mostly because my trail finding skills are pretty terrible. We ended up having to scramble on the rocks on the left side to get to the base of the falls. It was a bit scary since the rocks were slippery and the water was moving pretty quickly.
Our bushwhacking paid off though, since we were able to get this picture close to the base of the falls. On our way back from here, we found that we were only off of the trail by a few dozen yards, so we decided to go higher up the falls.
We made it here, which is roughly the middle cascade of the waterfall. If there were less snow up near the top I’d probably try to make it all the way to the top. Apparently you can climb over the top of the falls and drop into the heart of the Desolation Wilderness. That’s definitely something to try later on in the summer.
I’ve done a decent amount of hiking and backpacking, but the Desolation Wilderness still ranks as one of my all time favorite locations. The last time I went out there was before I had this blog, so instead here’s a link to my photo gallery from that trip. Desolation Wilderness Backpacking
The rest of the weekend I hung out with my old friend Jason who was spending the weekend in town. We realized what we already knew– Davis is kinda boring. It’s the people that make up the town. We ended up eating way too much and visiting random people in Davis and Sac.
Things I’m thankful for:
- old CalPERS friends
- the humongous assortment of semi healthy desserts at Yummy Juice Cafe– I’m hoping that a red bean dessert will help me pass all the junk food I ate this weekend…
