Capturing the Art of Nature
Bridal Falls FSR
Easily accessible from the highway, I had driven past it for years always intending to drop by. So today was the day - sort of.
Category
Serendipitous Discoveries
2009
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I had taken my kids to see Bridal Veil Falls on a couple of occasions over the years. The Falls are a pretty sight when the volume of water is high and the park around it quite a pleasant picnic spot. The road above the falls had intrigued me for some time and I had planned on a number of occasions to check it out but never quite made it. So today I set out making the road and park my primary destination. Being January we soon encountered our first problem, the park was closed for the season. I suppose we could have walked in but the ground was icy and I didn't really feel like it, though I am sure the ice effects at the Falls would have been interesting!
So we decided to head on over to the start of the logging road and see how far we could get up it. Shortly after entering the FSR we reached the first climb only to discover extensive ice covering. It was not looking good but we tried our hand at this section of road and were able to make it past the worst of the ice without too much problem. After that first section the road was clear of snow and ice for a few kilometers. So we slowly made our way up. We past one hiker out with his dog. We finally came to an exposed turn where the ice started up again. Since this time there was a steep drop to the side we decided not to push our luck a second time and so parked the truck and as it was early we decided to hike up the road.
We found the hike fairly easy going as we were on a well used road the whole time but the snow did slow us down and tire us out quickly. We hiked on through several switch backs and a couple of kilometers but as we weren't sure of how much further we would have to go before we reached a good viewpoint we decided to stop and eat lunch before heading back down.
This road is the main access to a launching area used by paragliders ; it is preferred over the higher site due to its easy access. At one point the road continued on up to connect to the Chipmunk Creek FSR and then on to Mt. Cheam but a section had washed out some time back. I had previously approached this road from the other end but was stopped by that washout, it had intrigued ever since. So today was a partial fulfillment of some long held plans but as I didn't get all that far along it I will need to return once the snow is melted.
After our brief lunch we noticed that the weather was getting a bit more iffy so we decided to head back down. The return was faster but more treacherous. We both wiped out at one point on our decent. The snow covering is deceiving as it is quite slippery which is accentuated on the way down. About half way back we came to the hiker with his dog that we drove past on our way up. We chatted for a bit - he is a paraglider and regularly comes up here. He hikes the road in winter to keep fit. It would seem that we still had a ways to go from where we turned back, so I felt better about our decision.
Once back in the truck we drove down and stopped at a few streamlets to capture some ice covered plants. Then we finally came to the original icy area, it had melted a bit and now was slipperier than on our way up so it made for a few uncertain moments as we slid our way down the final section of road. We did make it off the road without incident and so were happy to be on our way. I will need to get back here before the end of this year's season.