Day 5 - Lake Vernon to Rancheria Falls

6/25/2005, Friday - While today probably did not constitute the toughtest day of backpacking (the second day would deserve that honor), it featured the longest hike. Lilla gave Jennifer, Grace, and I a good tent shake at 7 A.M. Still, we would not leave camp until after 9 A.M.! We began the day by hiking around the lake and wading across a stream before crossing the wooden bridge that took us to the other side of the lake. We then climbed the switch backs that took us out of the lake basin. The terrain soon became level, rolling and very densely wooded. After an hour or so, we began descending steeply into TilTill Valley.

Before descending, we came across a small stream in which Grace found a young garter snake. Lilla (whose radio call name when she was young was "Snake Woman") could not contain her excitement and tried to catch the snake. The snake was able to hide under a rock only for a few seconds. It turned out Lilla was "Snake Woman" in more than one way: her dad was a snake enthusiast; her pet Chester is a Kingsnake which she caught she was seven. This garter snake proved no match and was firmly in Lilla hands in a few seconds. We took pictures; Lilla weven showed Jennifer how to hold the snake. I tried to pet the snake but got a terse bite in response. Luckily, garter snakes have no real teeth, and the bite did not even penetrate my skin.

After a couple of hours of descent, we came upon a meadow and ate in the forested shade at the edge of the meadow. After lunch, we hiked across the by now humid and warm meadow. Several sections of trails were quite soggy as we crossed and rounded the meadow. Soon, we sarted climbing again. The climb was short though, and the trail soon began descending again - this time finally into Rancheria Falls. This second descent was steep in sections and felt even longer than the first. Fortunately, we got many awesome views of towering rocks during the long descent.

We arrived in a crowded Rancheria Falls camp. It was Friday, and many weekend people had already hiked in from the reservoir. After setting up camp, Grace and I walked up to Rancheria Falls. The water, as expected, was flowing like crazy. We washed up a little and took a few pictures at the base of the falls.

For dinner, we had chicken spaghetti and baked cookies. An intoxicating celebratory air infected us. Devan and Jennifer even got into a mud eating contest by out eating each other spaghettis that had accidentally dropped on the ground.