Well, I made it back from Big Basin. The trail kicked our butts. Big time. There were points where I had to keep reminding myself why it's fun to do trips like that. Pain is a funny thing. It hurt so much going though it. The hills just never seemed to stop. At times I felt that I was being crushed by my pack. Yet by the time we were in the car driving home, I was thinking to myself that it really wasn't that bad. Though when I went to get out of the car I was quickly reminded that yes, it indeed had been that bad.
The trail was about 5.25 miles each way (we took the Skyline-to-the-Sea/Berry Creek Falls trail in to camp and the Sunset trail back). The weather was good. A little too warm in the sun, but the trees are so big and thick that most of the time we were in the shade and you'd get a cool breeze every now and then that felt wonderful. E took a bunch of photos along the way, including the one to the right. Isn't he good?
The climb up the second waterfall was still really steep and very wet. But I wasn't as panic-filled as the last time. We both took our packs off and hoisted them up to each other in order to get up the last of the falls. And I was able to climb up myself without help (which I was proud of).
We didn't see too much in the way of wildlife. We saw two banana slugs (which are really cool, in that icky-bug kind of way). We saw a lot of Stellar's jays at the campsite and at the lower Berry Creek Falls. Once we got to the campsite, we met a very brazen raccoon. He walked right up to E's backpack and stole a Ziploc bag of clothes right out of it. Luckily he dropped it as soon as he realized it didn't have any food in it. But then the little bugger came back later and did it again. The 'coon did manage to break into the trail mix that the campers at the next site had. He didn't bother our food (we hung it from a tree branch), maybe because he thought all we had was clothes.
So, it was a good trip in that the woods are beautiful and it was great to spend the time with E. I do enjoy pushing myself to my limits (even if it's just because it feels so good when you stop), though this time I could have done with a little less pushing. Okay, a LOT less pushing. It will be awhile before I do a trip like that again. Need some time to get back in shape.
