The Hiking Writer

Louisville Hiking and Backpacking Meetup

It was a bracingly cold morning on Friday Jan. 1st as we hit the trail right at 9:30 AM and made our way down the Fire Tower trail to start our day. After a frosty group photo on top of the Fire Tower, we made our way down the #2 trail to Clifty Creek.

Brr (yours truly in red on left)
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(photo curtesy of Tony Shulthise)

This was where I probably made a bad decision and I must apologize to our relatively new member Kate. After we walked up the Creek bed toward Hoffman Falls, we were confronted with a problem: crossing an unusually high Clifty Creek in very cold (teens) weather. I was so enthused to show off the creek valley in wintry conditions, I decided to attempt the crossing. All went well until Kate lost her footing and took a chilling dip in the creek. After some debate, a few members did not want to cross and so I led Vivian and Peggy back to the trail junction of trails 2 and 3 while the rest of the group (already across the creek and not willing to come back over) made their way down trail #2 to meet up at the Hoffman Falls trail.

Fateful crossing
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Kate was quite a trooper and made it all the way to Hoffman Falls Overlook, thanks in part to Chris loaning her his dry pants and Eric loaning a dry pair of socks. Along the way, a large group also explored up Hoffman Creek to get a glimpse of what I'm now calling Little Hoffman Falls. On returning to the trailhead and head up to the Hoffman Falls overlook, Nathan's friend Casey twisted an ankle pretty well and needed some help from Patrick, who fortunately had a gel splint for just such and injury.

Little Hoffman Falls
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At the overlook, it was decided that Nathan go back to the lodge, get his truck and come back to pick up Casey and Kate, take them to lodge and get them warm. While we waited, Tony gave foot massages (to Kate who's feet were cold and we checked for frostbite). We also found out at the overlook that a car was handy at the parking lot above the falls, so the ladies made it to the car and got warm and Nathan arrived shortly thereafter.

Neither Casey nor Kate were badly hurt, but my lesson was learned. I won't let my enthusiasm override good judgement again. With about 2 hours left and the two injured hikers on their way to safety, we decided to go see Tunnel Falls and then take the shortcut back to the lodge through the campground areas in order to get back before they closed for lunch. All went according to plan from that point forward and we got back to the lodge with plenty of time to spare.

Tunnel Falls
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Injuries aside, Clifty Falls delivered as always with lots of breathtaking views of frozen waterfalls, rock formations and lofty overlooks. I hope everyone had a great time and again, my apologies to Kate, whom I feel I could have prevented the untimely swim. I hope she's not discouraged from hiking with us again.

New rule: no wet feet crossings when the weather is below 30. (At least when I lead a hike of this size.)

Total turnout was 20-22 (we were joined by a few hikers on the trail) which was quite surprising since it was New Year's Day and pretty darn cold.

Well, I have two new notches on my trekking poles at least.

(Just kidding.)