Fall Creek Unit

The intent was to hike the full, hard loop of Fall Creek Unit, and then to relax at Roaring Camp in the evening, taking their moonlight ride.

Bob drove down separately and was to meet us at the trailhead. As usual, we arrived later than planned, and didn't see Bob anywhere. About a half hour into the hike, though, Bob showed up out of nowhere. He had gone on ahead of where we were, but came back one last time to see if he could find us.

We decided that we were just not going to be able to make the loop and still make it to Roaring Camp, where most of us had already bought tickets, so we did a shorter hike. At the far end of that shorter trail, Bob decided to go on ahead and do the full loop.

I told Bob that it was a very steep climb from where we were to the summit, but he went on, undaughnted. I won't say what happened to Robert. But we do know that some person -- let's call him Trebor -- was found hiking down past the University of Santa Cruz and had to get a ride back to the Fall Creek Unit trailhead.

We rented a motel room so that we could all shower after the hike and take a short rest before heading over to Roaring Camp. This turned out to be a good decision. The owner of the motel, however, tried repeatedly to discourage us from staying there. He was sure the septic system could not handle six people taking a shower, and said the woman who gave us the reservation should not have.

We talked to him awhile and convinced him that we would be very careful to limit the amount of water we used. And, indeed, it all worked out ok. The barbecue at Roaring Camp was just the thing after the hike. The moonlight train ride went off without a hitch. And most people took the line dancing lessons afterwards.

We plan on coming back again to try the assault on Fall Creek Unit. Perhaps we'll even take another moonlight ride.

For the gallery of pictures from the hike, click HERE.