piranha | finally found it (Reply)

ammonite falls
third try was the charm. and what a beautiful waterfall it is. that's the highest in our area, 24m (79ft). i had to take the picture in three sections and then piece them together. maybe next time i remember to lock the exposure when i do that, but in the meantime photoshop is my friend. map and trip report are here. well, more of a "how to get there" to help people find it. for the rest i'll only say "oy. 'twas steep".

ok, maybe i'll say a little more. because i am proud of myself. especially because of the steepness. i only wimped out at the very end -- to get to the bottom of the falls one has to go down a muddy slope of approximately 60° -- there are knotted ropes, but they looked flimsy to me, and anyway, who knows how long they've been there and how much weight they can take. i wasn't gonna do that without somebody else there in case something happens -- it's not exactly a busy spot. but for the rest of the steepnesses i did damn well, i didn't give up even though i had to walk backwards on all fours several times.

i continue to have fun with my GPS toy. it's making it much easier to find my way around than just a compass. i like making loops -- yeah, it was nice to finally find the falls, but i didn't want to walk back out the same way i came. so i picked another path and kept checking that it would get me in the generally right direction. unfortunately, while it did that, i ended up in an area with active logging and couldn't go through there to return to the truck. i had to walk way back down into civilization, and then back up around. which is why the trip ended up to be 10 km instead of 5.

now that i know exactly where the falls are, i'll be able to come at them from the other side, which is more fun to walk because it has a gazillion little paths used by mountain bikers. also want to do it from andres road and the quarry on a weekend; that's probably the fastest (because least steep) way in, but can't do it during the week because the quarry doesn't like trespassers.