Day 167: I have to fill in here a bit. Y'see, I need to go back up to Sulphur Creek Falls to get a better picture of something unusual. I took several shots of it earlier this week, but when you're in dark forest trying to run a camera one-handed because your other hand is holding on tightly to a root so you don't roll downhill, your focusing ability is somewhat hampered and you wind up with a picture which isn't quite blog-worthy, but was good enough for a team of experts to make a sound identification. To give you a rough idea of what I was up against, see the slope immediately behind me in this photo? I had just come directly down it. Thoughts en route included, "If that rock rolls, I'm going to break something," and "If I slip here, I'm gonna bust my leg off at the hip," and "Damn, that moss is slick! If the bark on this log peels, I'm dead." Are you getting the picture?
A good hiker/explorer plans exit routes for those just-in-case moments when they can't be sure of the solidity of the next step. All my Plan Bs seemed to end with, "No, that's not a good idea either," followed by a mental image of compound fracture of the tibia or worse. That said, I have only broken myself once while adventuring, and that was on a climb when my blithe snowy glissade suddenly turned into an ice-slide at high speed and sent me sailing over a lip to land my tailbone hard on a pointy boulder. I have gone into some very treacherous terrain alone (quite often, if the truth be told), and count on my route-finding abilities and good balance to keep me in one piece. There are no alternate routes into Sulphur Creek Falls, or at least none which don't require a partner and a rope.
Why do I go? Not to be glib, but "because it's there." Or "because I can," especially at my age. I have always been adventuresome. What's over the hill or up the gorge is something I simply must see with my own eyes. The day I stop wanting seeking out the strange new worlds of the Pacific Northwest will be the day my spirit dies within me, leaving the husk to follow at its leisure. For me, there is nothing more exciting than the discovery of something I haven't seen before, whether it's a rare species of mushroom, a new lichen, or just what's at the top of another bump in the terrain. So why do I go alone? Because I like my adventures like I like my scotch: straight up. Or straight down, as the case may be.
