Day 5 – March 14, 2019 (Thursday)
Today was hopefully our only brush with death. We got up early with the goal of being at the
Upper Fall trail head around 8 am. This was to be a 7.2 mile hike and we were
mentally and physically ready.
The first
hike is to Columbia Rock and it’s about a 1 mile up the trail. So far so good (but yes incredibly
steep). It had taken about 1 hour to get
to this point so we got water, oranges and pictures and kept going.
The next .5
miles were not as steep to even downhill then the trail forked. We stayed to the left but just ahead the
trail appeared to disappear in the snow and ice. A NPS trail walker said there’d been an
avalanche a few days before and that he thought the rest of the trail was
closed. We were disheartened as this is
the same thing that had happened yesterday.
We walked back down to the fork in the path and took the right trail to
the most beautiful overlook of the falls imaginable. There are actually three falls but as far as
I know the middle one cannot be seen from the road. While there was a guard rail, it was a
straight drop down and Grant made a comment about being scared.
Ryan was very determined to take another look at this
snow-packed trail so she went back up there and determined that it was actually
a switch back and that we could keep going.
We dropped down to the lower part of the trail and began crossing the
snow and ice that way, with our shoe grips on.
It was very scary because we were walking along a very narrow flat edge
and one slip and we would have fallen a very long way. When we finally got across, Grant was almost
in tears – he just put his foot down and said he wasn’t going any farther. Nick went ahead (uncharacteristically) and
Ryan went with him and Grant and I stayed put.
At one point they each called back to us that it looked good
up beyond and Grant just said no one. (Oh, I forgot to mention that we saw what
we think was a baby bobcat.) Nick and
Ryan went on and Grant and I stayed put for a bit then he wanted to go back but
he was terrified about crossing back over the ice and snow. I called Ryan and told her that we were
turning around but I was only able to leave her a message.
Then we started back – maybe 30 feet is all. As we started
Grant pretty much freaked out and said he couldn’t do it. We were gripping into the ice and our hands
were freezing so we were trying to figure out how to get our gloves out of our
packs without falling off the side of the cliff. Grant just refused to go back the way we came
and he found a path up (to what have been the original way across before Ryan
realized it was a switchback. He was
almost hyperventilating so we had to sit and take some deep breaths and I took
his backpack for him. I stayed behind
him and pushed him up and at one point he slipped back down into me. He finally made it across (strangely there
were people all around at this point so it must not have looked nearly as scary
as it felt because everyone was so calm).
The part where I gave him a boost, I had a lot of trouble getting up
myself with both packs. Then Ryan called in tears and all she said was, “Get
off the ice! We’re turning around.” I literally found a finger-sized ice hole and
got up. We walked around the corner and
gave each other a big hug. And then we
waited. I tried to act like I wasn’t
nervous but I was. We waited a little
bit longer and I finally walked back around the corner and saw both of them,
Ryan first. I gave her a big hug right
as she said, “Dad fell.” Nick was
fighting back tears too. He was missing
one of his crampons and he had no water bottle.
They apparently went out a little further and Nick slipped
and slide straight down about 30-40 feet.
He was able to reach out and grab a tree to his side and held onto the
tree to keep from sliding right off the side of the canyon. He was able to get back up only to slide
again, this time directly into the tree.
He broke off a giant branch from the tree and used it as a hiking pole
to finally make it back up for good.
After lots of hugs, we very quietly walked back to Columbia
Rock and ate out “summit meal” of pepperoni/cream cheese/Ritz sandwiches. Then we walked back to the car. 4 hours round trip, one of which was spent
going about 30 feet.
Whew. Time to get a picture of the national park sign...
With much of the day left, we drove into Hetch Hetchy and
saw the O’Shaughnessy damn. This area of
the park closed at 5 pm and it was already 2:30 so we decided to come back
tomorrow morning for a beautiful, and flat, and warmer hike to see some
waterfalls.
We got back to the room around 3 and sat in the hot tub and
played pool. We ate back in our room
again and just took it easy. Nick and
Grant went back down to play pool after the kids ate 3-4 s’mores each, and they
just got back talking about a nice family they met from Houston. Apparently they were saying that this was
their 9th park and Grant, (per Nick) with a huge smile on his face,
told the lady, “This is our 34th.”
The pros of the day: Our family feels more bonded and grateful and Ryan believes in the god
she prayed to to help her dad make it back up.
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