Once upon a time I went on a hike to Reavis Ranch which turned out to be quite the adventure. Long story short. I was stranded and didn’t end up getting home till 11pm. Click the above link to get the full story.
Since it had been over a year I thought I would do it again. Along with me went CJ, Sara, Lou, David, and two fellow hikers who were on the hike with me last time, Gladys and Kurt. After driving on a dirt road for about an hour or so we get to the TH. Reavis is wayyy out there in no mans land. The closest “town” is Tortilla Flat population 7 again about an hour away. There is a marina which is closer by about 30 min or so.
When we started it was COLD!
Left to right Me, Sara, CJ, David, Gladys, Lou and Kurt. I am telling you it was cold! I had on 2 shirts, a sweatshirt, and 2 jackets, a pair of pants and spongebob underroos. What TMI? Okay it was cold!
Okay we are in the right place.
The marina would be down there somewhere by the water..Still very far away. Very very soon it will be to far away.
The weather was around 30something degrees. It was not the brutal temperatures but the freezing WIND that smacked that coldness right in your face! Over and over and over again.
I love hiking.
Seriously. I might need help.
It was so cold it snowed! It was gone when we came out, but there was TONS of snow going in.
Yes, I think this is tons of snow.
See. Tons of snow. And a camera string in the bottom right hand corner. Your welcome.
I got hot really fast. I still have on 2 shirts and obviously my pants and Spongbob Underroos, along with my beanie and ear warmers. I also had a ski mask but took it off. The gloves kept coming on and off all day.
Lou and David.. battling the brutal temperatures.
Actually this might have been the one spot that was warm.
The views of this hike are amazing. The last time I went on this hike, we encounter a few backpackers camping. This is a 12/13 mile hike round trip. I have known people who go in about 4 miles or so then hike down and visit the water falls. they hang out and enjoy them, then go back to camp, stay the night and hike out the next day. I personally think that is the way to do it. There are however some really super nice camping spots all the way at the beginning of the creek, but you would need to haul your lovely camping gear* all 6 miles. Along the way to the creek we spotted about 2 or three amazing camping areas.
I still think the same thing about this trail that I did the first time I completed. The first time the trail was described to me it was flat or down the entire way there, then a steep decline that leads you to the creek and eventually to the falls. Then obviously reverse it entire way out.
Well fellow hikers, I disagree. Strongly. This hike goes upish on a wide trail for about 3 miles, then there is a fork in the road with a very small tower of rocks. This is the turning point. Turn left and go up. The trail here is perhaps best described up then flat aka a chance to breath, then down. This down part is pictured above. This time the trail was more packed then my previous journey, but I was still grateful I had my hiking pole. If you have them bring them. If not then wal-mart has some that will make due and not put you back tons of money.
We finally got down to the creek and I was just wasn’t feeling in the mood to cross a creek for 1/2 a mile to see the fall. It is hard and the trail is not easy to find, and if you just take your time and look for the upper trail you will not have to spend much time in the creek. On my way out last time, it took me 15 min to get out while getting in took me 3x that. There are cairns all over the place, but just look for them. I had already seen the falls and from the pictures it still looked like the same waterfall.
So while I waited almost 2 hours for them to see the water fall I played around and took some pictures.
I also took a nap for about 45 minutes. I should have brought my sleeping pad. I would have been OUT!
This was my view from nap position. After they were done, we headed back out.
World famous Cactus. Not really but its a cool picture!
Ahh yes the marina is just over there. Not super far…but just far enough. So we hiked out which I still think is a pure joy to hike. Even the part where you hike up coming out of the creek area is not that hard.
So we all go back to the car and stretched and whatnot. The driver (David) said, give me one second to rest and I’ll start the truck. We were all cool with that. Now you must read my previous journey and what happened to get the full effect of the next thing I am going to tell you and what a bummer it is that it happened. AGAIN.
He puts the key in the ignition and what do ya know.
The FRIGGIN BATTERY IS DEAD!
DEAD! Deceased! No Juice! Not Going anywhere anytime SOON!
And I gotta pee and I am hungry.
There were two other cars at the trailhead so they all figured we would just wait for someone to come out. Um WAIT?
Um! NO! CJ got through to her husband and he said he was going to come and give us a jump. The only problem was he would not get there for about 2 hours and was rather tipsy, having had a few brewskis.
I armed with my brand new phone and knowing full well that this is the ONE place in the world that “Can you hear me now” does NOT work, I casually whipped out my SPRINT phone to text my boyfriend to come rescue us. (Sprint was the only phone that worked the last time. Verizon bad, Sprint good).
While I was waiting to see if my text went through to my soon to be heroic boyfriend, I figured CJ and I could go and wander down the road (toward the marina) and see if some of those cars we saw at the crack of dawn were still there. The sun was setting and we forgot our headlamps/flashlights so we only walked to a certain point and turned around. No cars. But I did get hold of my boyfriend and he had called the Marina and someone was going to give us a jump. YAA! Turned out that CJ’s husband and my man both called the marina asking for someone to jump us.
And for those of you out there, not not jump US, but the vehicle. SICKOS!
As we were walking back I caught something moving out of the corner of my eyes. What I thought I saw was a group of dogs with their owner. So I yelled “hey, hey, heeeeeeeeeeeeyyyyyyyyyyyy! Over here! Come help us. Waittttttt, don’t go!!
What it really was: A group of big horn sheep. Great! I was yelling at big horn sheep to come and jump our car.
Then as I am trying to grab my camera, I am say….waiiittttttttttttt I NEED your picture!
They ran away even faster.
And I now realize I might need glasses!
We got back to the car and waited for someone to come and jump us. Good think we had jumper cables!
After 20 minutes of them trying to jump the car we determined that OUR JUMPER CABLES WERE BAD! No good. NO SPARK!
Amazingly the guy did not think he had a pair of jumper cables, but lady luck was in our corner and he did!
Attempt numero uno!
Time numero 2. YAAAA
It is a good thing we got jumped as it was going to get cold! When we left it was 32 degrees without the wind-chill factor.
So you might ask “what did I learn from this trip?”
1- take more then 1 car so one can always jump you.
2- always make sure person driving has good jumper cables
3- I cant distinguish a human from a big horn sheep and might need glasses.
We, meaning me, Kurt and Gladys decided that Reavis Falls is cursed…at least for us or me…you pick.
Despite the crazy day, I had a great time and would do it again…maybe.
* I say lovely camping gear very sarcastically cause unless you are a brute or on amazing shape hauling your stuff down is not that bad but folks…what goes down must come up, unless you want to live down there because you are running away from civilization which makes it a different story all together.
