Rainbow Falls

Becky is now talking about show tunes and french horns, and I’m kind of hearing her but not really because I’m now silently cursing the couple because the falls are not “right ahead” and we are still going up.  Becky will tell you that I did not silently curse them.  The JT concertgoer passes us on her way back from the falls.  She tells us to check out a Bruno Mars concert because he is apparently as good of an entertainer as JT.  I nod and say, “Uh huh.”

FINALLY!  We hear the waterfall and I drag my backpack up to the flat rock where we proceed to have lunch.  Rainbow Falls is a beautiful waterfall and worth the effort even though I was out of shape.  The breeze coming off the falls was a great pick me up along with the PB&J sandwich.  Here’s a picture with me at the bottom to give you some perspective.  It’s not as pretty as Falls Creek Falls in my opinion, but it’s still amazing.

Here’s a quick video of the falls:

After lunch, I am feeling energized and ready to hike back.  Since it’s all downhill, we’re making pretty good time, but all of a sudden I almost run into the back of Becky, who stopped short due to this:

Yep, that’s a real live copperhead.  It’s slap in the middle of the trail, and there’s not a way to go around it because it’s extremely steep on both sides.  It’s sloowwwwwwly moving off though, and while I’m standing there, Becky decides (without telling me) to quickly dart around it.  This scares the copperhead, and it coils up suddenly in my general direction.  I may or may not have blurted out an obscenity at this point.  It eventually uncoils and decides to sloowwwwwly move off the path.  I’m able to get by after a minute or two.

Once we get back to the Jones Gap Trail, Becky and I part ways because she has a longer drive to get back home than I do, and I wanted to find the two geocaches that I had downloaded to my phone.  Found them!  I head back home and get in my cold bath for my aching legs and feet.  I decide the next day to start walking in my neighborhood on a regular basis for the upcoming Big Boy hike in October.

So check Rainbow Falls off the list (whew)!  On to the next one!