Tales & Trails of a Traveling Wiseguy

Mississippi Travelog #6
Foxworth, MS - Thursday, 26 Apr 2023, 1pm

Whew, this is getting long: three blogs now about Red Bluff canyon in Mississippi. And I'm going to stuff 6 pictures in this entry to get 'er done.

Once we climbed up through the creek at the bottom of the canyon our views opened up into this crazy, colorful badlands:



The bottom of the drainage was generally easily navigable. It was only going up the sides that would get steep. And going up one of the sides was what our trail map called for. We could see that trail— or, rather, we could see part of it. Another part of it had eroded away recently, leaving it impassable. So we explored various side canyons to see if there was another way out climbing up over the edge.



We had fun exploring around the bottom. The colors down here are so crazy. All the earth around us is dirt, BTW. Dirt in bright hues of yellow, orage, red, and even purple. Purple dirt!



Alas, we couldn't find a safe way up and out over the rim that wouldn't involve a lot of dangerous scrambling— on loose dirt, no less. Fortunately we had plenty of time this afternoon, having canceled redirected our previous plans so that all we have to do is get back to New Orleans tonight for a flight tomorrow. Thus we could explore all these canyons to our hearts' content and then retrace our route back out the bottom and climb back up the side of the hill.



Down below the canyon we walked along the railroad for about 100 meters from where the creek crossed it to where the trail back up the side began.

"Is this a live railroad line?" we wondered.

"Don't walk on the tracks; what if a train comes?" someone worried.

"Don't worry, if there's a train you'll hear it from a long way off," I responded.

Well, the answer to the first question is Yes, it's a live line. We heard a train approaching as we were about to start the ascent back up. We waited to see it— because, yes, we heard it long before it arrived. And surprisingly it was a Canadian train! That's sure far from home down here in southern Mississippi. (You can tell it's Canadian because of the CN emblem on the engine— Canadian National. And all the rail cars have "Sorry for the inconvenience" printed on them in English and French.)



Climbing back up the hill took some huffing and puffing. It seemed like it would take a long time but it didn't. The canyon isn't quite as deep as it looks from some angles. I don't think it took us more than about 15 minutes to get back up to the rim. And the views were beautiful.

Once back at the car we actually skipped opening the car and instead continued further around the rim toward the other side of the canyon. Up here there's a use trail that skirts around where the road has collapsed into the canyon and picks it up on the other side.



We got out to the remnants of the old road. It's actually the new old road.... The fragments here are from where they rebuilt the road further back after the original road fell into the canyon.

After checking out the views from the opposite side of the canyon we headed back to the car. At this point it was almost 1pm. We'd been hiking for almost 4 hours. That's twice as long as we expected to spend here. But the time spent has been so worth it! In beauty we walk.

Olympic Peninsula Travelog #10
Olympic National Park, WA - Sat, 4 Sep 2021. 1pm.

The weird thing about climbing a mountain is that one you get to the top the views are all missing something.... You can't see the mountain. You're accustomed to seeing it dominate the skyline, and all of a sudden... nope. It's under your feet now. Fortunately the flip side of being on top of a mountain is you can see everything else.



Looking north from Hurricane Hill I see down across the twin spires of Unicorn Peak and Unicorn Horn to the Straight of Juan de Fuca. With Hurricane Hill at elev. 5,757' this is more than a vertical mile. The town on the near shore is Port Angeles, where we're staying for 3 nights. Across the straight, on the left, is Vancouver Island. The city on its shore is Victoria, Canada, the capital of the province of British Columbia. The large island on the right farther away is San Juan Island, part of Washington, US. The dead trees on the near ridge are left from a fire that burned in 2008.



Turning slightly to the right I see Mt. Angeles. It's been there, over my right shoulder, pretty much the whole hike up to this point.

From the top of Hurricane Hill we explored out a bit further on the ridge. It descends gently for a bit before dropping off steeply. We went to the edge of the steep area to take a look around.



Here the trail back to the west shows the summit of Hurricane Hill. Beyond it is the Elwha Valley, a steep drop of more than a vertical mile. Beyond the ridges on the far side of Elwha Valley is the Pacific Ocean.

So, having show view to the north, east, and west, what's left is... the south. And you know what's there. Right? It's been there the whole time. Mt. Olympus.



And speaking of things that have been here the whole time, fellow Homo Sapiens have been constant companions on this trek, as well. Some outdoors writers I've had the misfortune of buying books from consider people a pest and bad-mouth any hiking trail that's too popular. Many hikes are popular precisely because they are so beautiful. I don't begrudge my fellow hikers the beauty in which we walk. Plus, it's fun seeing other people enjoy themselves, like the hikers checking their watch to learn "It's Mountain Time!" or these folks, above, posing for their own picture. In beauty we walk. Together.

Update: This hike is over but the adventure continues! Read about Obstruction Point in my next blog.

I've been trying for more than a week to get my mobile phone company, Verizon, to refund me an international roaming charge for Canada. The charges were billed to our account when we went near Canada during our Inland Northwest trip several weeks ago.  When we drove within a few miles of the border on our way to Copper Creek Falls Verizon sent us text messages letting us know they'd "helpfully" billed us automatically for TravelPass - Canada. For something that was so quick & simple to add it was a total pain in the neck to remove. It took me five calls (and three failed chatbot attempts) before getting it fixed.

Technologically, this situation with fake international roaming happens because cell phones work by making contact with multiple towers in range. Near a border some may be on the other side. We don't have any control over it. But here's the thing: Verizon should understand this happens whenever someone is near a border and make it easy to fix the bill afterwards. Instead they put us through ridiculous phone menus that often result in being hung up on by a robot, waits of an hour or longer at some times, and worthless chatbots and chat agents.

Inland Empire Travelog #7
Almost Canada, Idaho - Sat, 15 May 2021. 10:30am.

This morning we've driven up from Bonners Ferry, Idaho to almost the Canadian border. We're so close to the border that our phones are pinging off cell towers in Canada and helpfully telling us that we're now roaming internationally. Memo to self: fight with Verizon next week to get these stupid international roaming charges removed.

What are we doing here? Hiking to a waterfall, of course. In this case, Copper Creek Falls. It's one of the tallest waterfalls in Idaho, with a drop of over 100 feet.



A short but steep trail led up from an ill marked trailhead on a dirt and gravel forest service road. On the flip side, the benefit of being way out here in booger country (as one of our favorite outdoors authors memorably calls it) is that we have it to ourselves. Ah, solitude! We enjoyed the trail and lingered at the viewpoint with nobody else around. Coming from crowded California that's quite a change of pace!

Alas nothing lasts forever, not even solitude in booger country. As we returned to the trailhead two other sets of people had just arrived in their cars.

"How did you find this place?" they wanted to know.

"Probably the same way as you, dumbass," I thought as I said something polite instead. I mentioned The Very Dull (and Frequently Erroneous) Book of Waterfalls... though this time it had steered us right.