Road Trips, Rednecks & Reality Checks

            After you turn off the main road it is approx 15 miles down to the very short Lower Lewis River Falls trail head. Vinny, Dene and I decided to make the journey down to the falls this morning hoping for a little residual ice left over from the recent cold snap. We got that...and much more. 

The road started off easy enough. There was about 2 inches of slushy snow and one vehicle had already driven a path down the road so we cruised along for about 3 miles before the snow started getting deeper and even in Vinny's 4 x 4 Nissan we were beginning to slip and slide just a little. To pass the time on the way down I played a little game called Do You? with Vinny. 

Do you have chains?          No. 
Do you have good tires?     No. 
Do you have a spare tire?   No. 
What about a rope?            Uh...No. 
Do we have any food?        I have a cliff bar. 
Do we have any water?      You get the idea. 

As we rounded the next corner, I told Dene and Vinny that if things got rough out here I was going to have to eat one, or both of them. They kind of laughed and then the car grew silent. Just so you know I would never joke about eating people. One more turn and our trip was abruptly halted by a fallen tree. We could not get around it. We were discouraged that we had come this far only to be stopped in our tracks. We actually considered walking the remaining 10 miles down to the falls and were doing the math on if we could get back to the car before dark. 

That was when the Rednecks arrived. Out of nowhere like an oasis in the desert, a 3 truck caravan of real Washington Rednecks rolled up with trucks full of chain saws, crossbows, shotguns and gasoline. I mean...what else could one possibly need? The lead truck, a Toyota 4 x 4 with a two foot lift kit, tires taller than Vinny and a Squirrel skeleton for a hood ornament pulled up and they cut the tree down and then offered to take the lead and blaze a trail down to the falls for us. 

I don't think I have ever met such pleasant Rednecks. Around the corner there were more of them. Rednecks over here skinning a deer, Rednecks over there drinking a keg out of the back of the truck. It was like Mad Max beyond Thunder-dome. I felt like a freaking geek when one of them asked us what WE were doing down here and I said....um...we want to take pictures of the waterfall. It sounded so square as I said it that I am sure that no upstanding Redneck would ever let me in their club after that. 

After Vinny white knuckled the last 8 miles in snow that had now risen to 10 inches or more in spots we wondered how we would ever get back out of here, but none of that mattered. A beautiful Winter Wonderland of snow and ice awaited us and we were excited to get there! 

Finally we arrived and walked the trail down to the lower portion of the falls. Dene and I had waders but Vinny was going to have to freeze to death. We were all going in. It was very unnerving being down there. The entire time the cliff above our heads was dropping chunks of ice and snow and at one point a section of ice that was a third the size of a car broke off from the cliff and crashed against the rocks less than 20 feet from where we were standing. We knew the chances of us getting back here in conditions like this again were very slim so we made the best of it and then hiked back out..tired, frozen and battered before darkness enveloped us. 

Vinny drove like a champ. Nuff said. We survived and brought home the goods. It was an epic adventure that I was not sure we were going to get out of on our own. Now we have a list of items to throw in the back of the truck. Rope, a spare tire, some chains and some water in case we run into trouble. 

I am going to get a crossbow and a squirrel skeleton just because. 
   

Taken in: United States / Washington / Cougar (show map)

Taken on: November 26, 2010

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Camera: Canon EOS 5D Mark II, f/22.0, 3 sec, 19mm, ISO 50 (more info) (hide info)

Camera:	Canon EOS 5D Mark II
Lens:	EF16-35mm f/2.8L II USM
Aperture:	f/22.0
Exposure Time:	3
Focal Length:	19mm
ISO:	50
Exposure Bias:	0 EV
Flash:	Off, Did not fire
Exposure Program:	Manual
Exposure Mode:	Manual
Metering Mode:	Multi-segment
White Balance:	Auto
Color Space:	sRGB
Software:	Adobe Photoshop CS4 Macintosh
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