Changing Plans: Miller Creek Trail to Angel Falls

Here it is over a week later and I'm still writing about our weekend trip at the end of July. It didn't really seem like it at the time, but I guess we did a lot that weekend!

Sunday morning we left our Saturday Night Halfway perch in Madera. After filling up with gas and food at a truckstop across the highway from hotel— truckstop food is a totally reasonable choice for breakfast in a place like Madera— we headed across the eastern edge of the San Joaquin Valley up into the Sierra Nevada foothills to the town of Oakhurst.

Our plan originally had been to hike a few falls on Lewis Creek several miles north of Oakhurst, then head higher up into the mountains to the west to see a drive-to falls recommended in one of our hiking books. Two things made us chage our plans: One, when we checked current trail conditions on Lewis Creek we read that a bridge was out and parts of the trail were in terrible shape from overuse. Two, we forgot all of our hiking books at home! 🤦 And when I searched for it on AllTrails.com it wasn't listed. 😰

But then a bit of serendipity happened. As I browsed for that other trail on AllTrails.com I found a more interesting hike nearby: Miller Creek to Angel Falls and Devil's Slide. Even the name sounds interesting! Plus, it's new; we've hiked Lewis Creek a few times before. We decided to hike Miller Creek first and then visit Lewis Creek in the afternoon if we still had time and energy.



The trailhead for Miller Creek was less than 10 miles outside of Oakhurst— another bonus, as the trail I was thinking of in the guidebook we left home was more of a drive to get to. And the parking lot for the trailhead was difficult to find, but fortunately AllTrails.com makes really detailed maps available. Then, when we got to the trailhead... graffiti. Fucking vandals!

We laced up our boots, shouldered our packs, and started up the trail. With graffiti at the trailhead and the number of people already drinking beer in their cars before 10am we were worried the trail would be polluted like the parking lot was. Fortunately all it took was walking 50 meters for things to improve significantly.



Angel Falls is not just one set of falls but several series of cascades. Above and below many of the cascades are quiet pools to wade in. There are also plenty of sunny rocks to sit on next to the rushing water. There were a few people up in this area with us, though not so many that it spoiled the enjoyment.



The trail on the west side of Miller Creek was washed out in several places by this winter's heavy storms and the heavy snowmelt that followed. It wasn't too much of a problem as we were able to scramble up the slickrock on the side of the creek. If we'd come several weeks earlier in the season that might have been tougher, with creeks in the Sierra Nevada swollen with record snowmelt.

Stay tuned, more to come!

Update: More falls in part 2!

This Old TV

One of the friends I hung out with this weekend, J., told me, "I've gotten up to date on my TV technology!" He bought a new OLED display with all the built-in services, replacing an LCD TV he's had since... 2008. That's interesting to me because we have an LCD TV, also from 2008... and we don't see a reason to replace it.

The main reason we're soldiering along with a 15 year old TV is that we don't watch enough TV (including streaming) to want to invest in fancier technology. When our set breaks we'll replace it— but likely we'll buy a good LED model, not an OLED. LEDs are actually cheaper than LCDs were 15 years ago. We paid $750 in 2008 for our 42" LCD screen. Today a larger LED costs half that. OLEDs, though, are like 4x the price of LEDs.

J admitted he wasn't inclined at first to go with an OLED model. Like us, he expected to buy a simpler LED set— which is still a step forward from the LCD tech in our 2008 TVs. But says he was sold on OLED when he saw how much sharper and better contrast the picture is.

J's new TV also has all the built in services. "So they can spy on you!" I exclaimed... and he agreed. Then he added, "And more stuff that can break and/or be something Samsung decides to start charging a monthly fee to access." We both have Roku sticks for streaming and will likely keep using them until they break.

A Day Without a Car. Back to Normal.

Monday was a day without a car. Well, so were Saturday and Sunday and part of Friday. I didn't notice us temporarily being a one-car family over the weekend since we did mostly take it easy. On Monday, though, it hit me when I made (solo) plans to go out for lunch, walked down the stairs, and realized... there's no car in the garage!

The car was in a garage, just not ours. It was at the shop... where it had been for 10 days while the insurance company dragged its corporate feet. Actually, counting the weekend and Monday it was up to 13 days.

Solo lunch wasn't hard. I simply changed my plans to walk out to a restaurant 0.6 miles away. And while I was eating I got good news: my car was ready to pick up. (some_other_dave  gave me a ride later in the day to get it.) While that was good news it also pissed me off again because it put back into sharp relief how much foot-dragging the insurance company had done. They caused my car to sit, unusable, for nearly two weeks. Once they gave the green light to go forward the shop fixed it in half a day.

Money-wise, at least insurance agreed to pay for the repairs, less a $500 deductible. The damage, which was caused by a road hazard, is officially recorded as "Driver hit stationary object," though. That's gonna jack my rates for the next few years. 😡

To Angel Falls and Beyond (Hiking Miller Creek Part 2)

Two Sundays ago we hiked the Miller Creek Trail above Bass Lake in the Sierra National Forest. This is my second blog out of at least 3, maybe 4, from this hike. In part 1 I described how we scrambled over slickrock past numerous small cascades. As we continued up the creek the sides of the canyon got steeper, leading to an apron falls about 50 feet high.



This might be the actual Angel Falls. It's definitely a big falls. Unless the whole stretch up to this point is all Angel Falls. I'll take it either way. It's one beautiful cascade after another with numerous little swimming holes and sunny rocks in between.

The trail on this side of the canyon continued to be rough, though we continued not to care. A) we had the equipment and skills to hike it if we wanted, and B) we didn't want to. We simply went cross-country over the bare granite. Including up the dry face of the falls in the photo above.



We sat and relaxed for a while atop Angel Falls. The second photo (above) shows the top bit of the falls. Above that the creek is flat for a ways... though still flowing swiftly. While sitting here we also pondered a choice: whether to continue on or turn back.

Miller Creek trail. Arrow shows top of Angel Falls where we paused to consider crossing despite the bridge being out. (Map adapted from AllTrails.com)

The Miller Creek trail is what I call an upside-down lollipop. It's a lollipop because the route contains both a loop and a stem (see map at right/above). Usually "lollipop" routes start out with the stem and have the loop at the far end. This trail starts with a loop and has the stem at the far end; that's why I call it upside-down.

We started the trail by hiking the west (left) side of the loop from the trailhead. Our reference website cautioned that the bridge was out where this branch of the loop crossed the creek to join the rest of the trail. Indeed it was out. It wasn't just broken, it was completely gone. Like, ripped out from the foundation gone. And the water above the falls was flowing swiftly. Not impassably swift, but quick enough that (a) we'd definitely get wet up to our knees, and (b) we might slip and fall in and get wet all over.

We considered just calling it a day here, doubling back the way we came in, and hiking Lewis Creek for the afternoon. Of course, we've been to Lewis Creek before— a few times. The call of the unknown beckoned! If nothing else I wanted to hike the other side of the loop back to the trailhead. But once we've crossed the water, why not go all the way up to Devil's Slide?

We took the plunge— literally, almost— into the swiftly flow creek and waded across to the other side. After minutes to decide it was all over in seconds. We were on the other side of the creek and ready to continue exploring.

Stay turned for more!