Saturday, September 13, 2008
Hike to Kentucky Falls with Friends
Pat and I joined Brother Tim, Jean and Anita on this nice fall saturday for a great hike into Kentucky Falls. Our plan was to hike the 2 miles to the falls then hop on the North Fork Smith River Trail south another 6.5 miles to it’s lower trail head where we would leave one of the vehicles.
This is great time of the year to make this hike. The mornings are beginning to get cool and crisp but the afternoon is warm. The vine maple is starting to turn it’s fall colors. The large mature conifer trees are shedding their older needles making for an occasional “shower” of brown needles whenever the wind kicks up.
The volume of water coming over the falls isn’t quite as much as earlier in the year but it was impressive nonetheless.
After taking in the falls we made our way down the North Fork Smith River trail stopping for a bite to eat at a huge Douglas-fir tree that was 11 feet in diameter! I took a few minutes to replace a geocache at this location that had come up missing recently.
Shortly after getting back on the trail we came to a short section of the trail that had slipped about four feet down the hill. We carefully traversed this section without loosing anyone!!
Didn’t see a lot of wildlife unless you count the big ole’ spiders Anita kept meeting up close and personal!! Or the mosquitos! Nearing the end of the hike we did catch a glimpse of a small family of river otter crossing their little pool as we observed from a bridge.
Pat took quite a few pictures with her newfangled camera and if you want to see a slide show of the hike, click on THIS LINK.
After the hike we returned to Old Town Florence for dinner at Bay Street Grill again! Drove up to Heceta Head Lighthouse to see if Pat could get some good shots - too foggy!