Dave_Anderson
Member
Well.. it would have been embarrassing if I had killed myself... some years back I had my big bag of camera gear and tripod, and was at Castle Rock park near the end of the day. I wanted a shot of the red sunset light on Castle Rock Falls, so I climbed down to the bottom, and I took my pics. By the time I put the gear away, it was almost dark and I would have had to hike quite a way downstream to meet up with the trail(and probably would have missed it in the failing light), then as I recall it would have been at least a couple of miles back to the parking lot. Instead I started climbing straight up the side of the gorge, hoping to strike the trail a bit west of the platform over the falls and get there while there was still light. It was probably 100-150 feet up, but it felt like 5 miles. It was too steep to climb on my feet, I hauled myself up by grabbing onto brush, roots, rocks, etc. on all fours. I had a few close calls when handholds or footholds gave way, the heavy bag on my back almost tipped me over backward a couple of times, I almost dropped the tripod a couple of times, but I made it to the trail with the last little bit of light. I made it back to the car in almost pitch darkness, having to stop many times and use the test button on my flash(squinting to avoid killing my night vision completely) to find my way.
As I got into my car a ranger gave me a mild scolding for being in the park after hours, but I had visions of how stupid it would have looked if someone found me dead in a pile of camera gear at the bottom of the gorge, or ran into me stumbling through the woods trying to find my way with a flash. BTW, I religiously carry a flashlight on this sort of outing now.
As I got into my car a ranger gave me a mild scolding for being in the park after hours, but I had visions of how stupid it would have looked if someone found me dead in a pile of camera gear at the bottom of the gorge, or ran into me stumbling through the woods trying to find my way with a flash. BTW, I religiously carry a flashlight on this sort of outing now.