Flown Home. It's Hot!!

Pacific Northwest September Travelog #18
Back hone - Mon, 5 Sep 2022, 10pm

After we got to PDX airport early enough to relax with a few beers, our flight left on time. Double-nice!

Right before boarding we checked the weather forecast. Articles about the heat wave gripping much of the US made us curious what weather we'd be flying into. Temperatures in Portland and southern Washington were actually cooler this weekend than a few days earlier, with highs in the low 80s (27-28° C). Well, the heat that was here a few days ago is appearing in the SF Bay Area right now. Our home town recorded a high of 105 today! (40.5° C) Yesterday was only a degree or two cooler; tomorrow will be similar.

It was still hot when we landed at 8:30pm. The weather app said 86° (30° C). The latent heat in the jet bridge said it was much warmer earlier.

At home the AC was already running when we arrived around 9:15. I'd set it on a program to start at 9pm. While it was pleasantly cool on the ground floor, though, it was much warmer up on the top floor where our bedrooms are. I could feel the temperature gradient just walking up the first few stairs.

An hour later the AC continues to do its thing, we're unpacked, and I've eaten a late small supper. (Okay, "small supper" is rather grandiose for I microwaved a Hot Pocket. 😅) We'll leave the AC on all night because that's how not-cool it's going to be for at least the next few days.

The First Day of Fall was Sep 1? Try Again!

Last week I noticed a flurry of headlines in my newsfeed about how "It's Fall Already And...."

"LOL, no," I thought. Fall in the Northern Hemisphere begins on September 21 or 22 each year, at the time of the autumnal equinox. This year it's the 22nd. What's the deal with people trying to start fall on September 1? I know words like "autumnal" and "equinox" are hard for the average person to comprehend, but is remembering the number 22 also a bridge too far?

Today I finally had a chance to look up why people were saying fall started last week. It turns out that using the autumnal equinox as the start of fall— the way we were all taught back in grade school— is known as astronomical fall. Meteorological fall simplifies the seasons to start on the first of the month. Meteorological Fall is September 1 - November 30.

Now, if you thought words like autumnal and equinox were hard, let's break down what astronomical and meteorological mean. Astronomical = relating to objects in space. In this case, the point in the earth's annual orbit around the sun when day and night are of equal length. Meteorological = relating to weather. As in, let's say fall starts in September because suddenly the weather turns cool. Except... NO IT DOESN'T!

Anyone in the US who's not living under a rock right now knows that half the country in the grip of a record breaking heat wave. And if you are living under a rock... well, likely it's because you know how hot it is and are under there for shade. 🥵 After yesterday's record setting heat of about 103° F in Sunnyvale (I've seen reports between 102-109 depending on location) today was even hotter at 106° F (41° C). Previous records were 99°. The average for this time of year is comparatively pleasant at about 81° F (27° C).

While the record setting heat wave is particular to this year, warm Septembers are not. September normally starts out warm. Yeah, it ends cooler. So, meteorologically, the marker for fall belongs in mid- to late September. Maybe even... September 22nd?

Hiking the Falls Creek Trail

Pacific Northwest September Travelog #3
Carson, WA - Sat, 3 Sep 2022,12:30pm

Despite arriving late last night and not getting the earliest start on things this morning (we left the hotel at 9:30 then stopped a mile or two away for donuts) we set ourselves a pretty aggressive agenda: no fewer than five waterfalls, all clustered in the Gifford Pinchot National Forest in southern Washington.

Our first hike of the day is at the Falls Creek Trail north of Carson, WA. We chose to hike it first not because it's the closest (it's not) but because it's the longest and most strenuous. We want to make sure we have energy for it. Also, it's a hike we haven't done before. One or two the other 4 hikes on our day's itinerary we've done before.



The trailhead was a bit over 2 miles up a dirt road. Maybe that's why we didn't hike this trail when we were in the area several years ago? Or maybe it was that dratted book again. I don't remember.

Anyway, we found the trail with no drama, and drove up the dirt road with no drama thanks to our Toyota RAV4 AWD rental car. Though there were at about 15 cars at the trailhead, the trail itself was fairly quiet. We enjoyed the peace and near-solitude in the deep forest.



The trail ascends about 700' over the course of 1.5 miles. These aren't huge numbers... but given we're hiking 5 trails today, it'll be a full day. It's nice that this trail never feels steep. It's well graded most of the way. And again, for the first half we enjoyed near solitude for our walk in the woods.



About two-thirds of the way in the trail splits. "FALLS CREEK TR" the official sign reads and points in the wrong direction for the waterfalls. Oh, did I mention there are waterfalls here? Yeah, Falls Creek Falls. (Love how they're so original with these names.) Wouldn't it suck if you hiked Falls Creek Trail and it didn't go to Falls Creek Falls? Other hikers have helpfully corrected this poor guidance. I count no fewer than seven bits of graffiti on there telling hikers they actually want to go the other way. 😅



Speaking of things that aren't Falls Creek Falls, this isn't Falls Creek Falls. It's a dry gully choked with stones covered in rich moss. "Dry Moss Cascade" we dubbed it. I'll bet it looks amazing in the spring, when it's flowing with water from melting snow.

Just 10 minutes past this the real Falls Creek Falls came into view through the trees. And it was huge. Keep reading: Fall Creek Falls!

Falls Creek Falls (Hiking the Falls Creek Trail, part 2)

Pacific Northwest September Travelog #4
Carson, WA - Sat, 3 Sep 2022, 2pm

We hiked the Falls Creek Trail to Falls Creek Falls. Given the redundancy of those names you'd expect there'd be a) a trail, b) a creek, and c) a falls. And you'd be right. Bigly.

Just a few minutes up the trail from Dry Moss Cascade Falls Creek Falls appeared through the trees. We could tell from a distance, even with it more than half obscured by foliage, that it was special. The view when we got out of the dense trees to the lip of the bowl opposite it did not let us down.



We perched here awhile, drinking in the falls and appreciating them in different lights as clouds in the overcast sky crossed in front of the sun. The near solitude we experienced on the trail up the gorge was gone here. At any point in time there were at least 4-5 groups of hikers at the falls. But most were respectful, and it was easy to tune them out to focus on the natural beauty before us.

We scrambled down to that earthen perch you can see at the bottom of the photo above. It's about a 25' drop from where I took the photo. The view down there was immersive, being in the lower bowl with the spray of the falls getting us wet, but the view wasn't as good. From down there the perspective of the falls becomes strange, with the lower tier looking like a too-wide necktie from 1972 and the upper tier looking like an afterthought.



Speaking of that upper tier, it absolutely is not an afterthought. This zoomed in picture I snapped (above) reminds me that if we only had one-half of the falls it'd still be amazing and totally worth the trip. And we had both halves.



We left the area after relaxing at the falls for almost 30 minutes. Our journey back downhill was quick and not as quiet as on the way up. The falls was getting more popular in the afternoon. I'm so glad we started when we did.

In beauty I walk.