Norvan Falls: A Long Hike and A Fishy Decision

@mickeybeaves and I spent our summer solstice hiking a 8.7 mile hike to a waterfall that took roughly 5 hours of our day, after some confusion that morning about the map and where exactly Norvan Falls was we were finally 100% confident about our route. The hike began in a very easy elevation no intense inclines, we walked a fairly flat path through the trees, we walked over several bridges and walked along a babbling creekside for roughly the first 2ish miles. When we came out to the chute our path became more obstructed and challenging.

As we trenched through a sea of rocks Cody and I both lost our footing on the unstable and wobbling rocks that lay underneath our feet at every step, as the rocks began to lessen our climb became a steep uphill. When our uphill climb began we became deeper into the forest and noticed that we were on our path practically alone, passing maybe 3 people in the final 2.3miles we had left to the falls. As the thought of bears dawned on us so did our lunch choice of tuna sandwiches(the only thing we had left in our fridge) and that maybe not being the smartest meal while hiking in bear country. Cody decided that clapping every now and then would be the best solution, but I felt safe when a hiker walking the same direction as us joined our incline with her dog, who she had said had warned her about a bear and a mountain lion in the past.

Our incline led us to several old landslides where we had to make our way down and then back up to stable ground, when finals we made it to the river and a bridge we thought we needed to cross and two very scared dogs refusing to go across. I crossed first and Cody followed after taking a few photos and we walk only a few feet before realizing we had forgotten to turn right to get to the Falls, so we turned back walked back across the bridge and turned up to another incline to come into view of the falls. After coming to the falls we scowered some fallen trees that took us to the other side of the river and closer to the falls and we ate a quiet lunch beside the falls. We had just enough quiet time before a loud group of teens made their way down to the poolside of the falls and annoyingly asked me to take a photo of them.

After the teens crashed the silence of nature we decided to head back, it was a long journey back and by the end my feet, calves and back were ready to rest, Norvan falls was the longest hike Cody and I have been on and I was so happy to challenge myself and happy to avoid yet another potential bear interaction.