Today we finished hiking upstream searching for somewhere to cross and fish at the upper pool. We got really lucky and found a fallen tree to cross over on so we never had to use our water shoes or get wet. The fishing wasn't very good though. Bert caught a fish on the first cast but the fish's skill in aerobatics got it free from the hook.
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| The upper pool. 3 years and I finally got to visit it. I prefer the lower pool... |
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| One of the bigger falls |
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| The noisy falls just out of sight from the pool |
Near the upper pool we came across a very well set up camp. They had rock benches made, a good fire pit with many grates, a stick to hang their pot of water from, and a full size shovel. At first I was really freaked out because I didn't want to run into other campers that might be thinking they were all alone and getting myself accidentally shot (crazy things happen in the woods).
Once we looked in the fire-pit though we could tell no one had been there in a long time. Turns out, they hadn't been there in many years and they didn't take any care in preserving any of their equipment, just shoved it on the dirt, next to the rock. To be honest, I was surprised they even took their tents down. They had good quality equipment and they left it all just to rot. Camping chairs (and a camping chair turned potty), fishing pole (no reels), sleeping bags, The North Face tent, food, water shoes, mining pans... the list goes on and everything was just left to rot. They didn't even have the decency to burn their trash. It's hard to go to a place as beautiful as Hell's hole and see people who've come there before you and trashed. We have no respect for our land anymore.
With the way it was left we didn't feel bad about swiping one of the (many) camping chairs and the smaller hatchet. Nobody is coming back for this stuff and chances are it will be us who cleans this campsite on another visit.
Always one to look for the best places to hang my hammock I found the perfect location. Two trees on either side of the stream at the base of the waterfall. Sadly for me, I couldn't quite reach that second tree so I had to settle for a nearby location. Beautiful, and peaceful sounding, but boy howdy is it chilly having all the water blow on you as you try to lounge. We stopped just long enough to take some pictures then pulled the hammack down and headed back to camp.
Heading back to camp we only had 2 fish but Cliff is never one to fail us (or our tastbuds) he managed to catch the biggest fish of the trip off the waterfall next to our camp. Three large fish for dinner!
We decided that it was our last night before hiking out (the weather was starting to look very threatening) so we feasted on our remaining food (and marshmallows) and did our end of trip cleansing fire. Of course, the sugar high from the marshmallows just started the wackiness. I started sacrificing marshmallows into the fire just to watch them explode and that started a marshmallow spitting contest. How far (or high) can you spit it? After all the marshmallows were gone Cliff went into productive mode and he broke down all our wood and stacked it even though we only needed enough for a fire for the morning.
I was so tired on the hike in I knew I needed sleep to hike out so I went to bed early and the boys stayed up playing cards. When it started raining they didn't run into the tent and hide, they made a makeshift fort (they hid under a tarp) and finished their game.
Unfortunately, it never stopped sprinkling. It did however, turn to total downpour and those clouds just opened up and dumped rain on us. I'm very thankful for Cliff's expertise because earlier in the night (when Cliff said he didn't think it would storm, just sprinkle a little) he decided that it was better to be safe than sorry and he tied our tent rainfly down (bad things could of happened without it) and dug a trench around the tent so we didn't end up a soggy mess. Needless to say, it was a VERY good thing he prepped the camp so well.
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