fairy falls

Last Saturday, my friend D. and I did a hike in the shadow of the big mountain, the one you can see from the city. I hiked to this waterfall once before, with S. and N., back when they had to ask me if seven miles was going to be okay, and I wasn't sure. (I was fine that time, even back then when I was new to hiking, and now seven miles is just a nice afternoon hike.)

I had just made the gluten free decision that morning, so I snarfed some rice/beans/roasted peppers concoction at the trailhead, and we started off. 

Half a mile down the trail, I realized that I'd left my iPhone in the car. Not just in the car, but I'd left it right between the two front seats, where it was 1. visible to anyone passing (and this trailhead comes with a warning of car break-ins) and 2. in direct sunlight (and this was a 95+ degree day). 

We turned around. And sure enough, there in the very hot direct sunlight was my roasting phone. 

I put it in my backpack, and off we went, again, over the same ground. 

We took the longer way to the falls, because it promised to be prettier, and it was very pretty. We strode through woods. We meandered along creeks. We passed under a high cliff of white rock.

The waterfall was as fairy-ish as I remembered, all silvery sparkles down a rock wall. We sat in the cool shade with snacks (the only ones I could eat were nuts, so I ate a lot of almonds and walnuts). A woman took a picture of us in front of the falls, but she knelt down to get the whole falls in, and we looked like chipmunks from that angle. (I did, at least. I will not speak for D.)

As always, I forgot to drink enough water, and by the time we got back to the city and went on a quest for cold drinkables (it took four stops before we found a coffee place open on a Saturday night), I could feel the dehydration kicking in. Someday I will learn to drink enough water, but that day is clearly not now.