NW/WWF-Day 18-50% Disappointed

Out of 4 waterfalls we actually went to, we only managed to find 2. Of those two, we  only really saw one. A bit of a disappointment. However, there were other things that were great today. 

Our first waterfall sighting attempt for the day was Willard Falls. It wasn’t far from the campsite. 

#7-Willard Falls…yes, that was a cliff that the tree horsey was hanging over. 

You can just barely see it. 

The holes in the rocks were cool though. 

Our next adventure was riding through the gravel pit. Turns out, it was pretty easy. Then we followed the route to Wren Falls. This was the mud adventure. 

First they had recently graded this, what was probably an ATV trail. It was mostly okay. 

Then we turned onto a “rough double track”(even though the gps POI said it was later…well, it was, but this was also pretty bad). A mud double track was more like it! We could see Hogan and Calvin’s tire tracks. They had done it in the dark. It didn’t look like it went well for them. 

The route turned onto the real “rough double track”, but being very wise at this point, Lani noticed we could stay on the current good double track, and avoid that section. So we did. 

We finally made it to Wren Falls. Who should we see? Our new friends Hogan and Calvin! They were still hanging out after their traumatic adventure getting there in the dark last night. It was great to see them again, and for Lani to meet them. There was another guy camping there. He took a photo for us. 

Wren Falls

#8

Lani, me, Calvin, and Hogan…really great guys!

We hiked to the Bill Thomas bridge over Tyler Fork Creek. 

Tyler Fork

The guys needed to get packed up, and we needed to get going. I gave Hogan my phone number, and told him if he had any bikepacking questions, he could contact me. 

We returned to the route (Wren Falls was a 6 mile out and back), and headed to Rouse Falls. Rouse was supposed to be “easy to get to by bike”. That was debatable, especially if you followed the route exactly, which we attempted to do. 

We encountered more mud, so we just parked the bikes and walked. Even walking, it was tricky getting around the mud. 

This was not where the “accurate POI” was, but it was the only thing that roughly resembled a waterfall. We decided this didn’t merit Waterfall #9. We decided it was #8.5 at best. The semblance of a trail was very overgrown. 

We came out to the dirt road, and looped back to our bikes without backtracking/bushwhacking through the mud. In the photo above, you can see Billy in the distance. 

So Rouse was a dud. We came back out, and as we turned back onto the gravel road, I could see the boys ahead. We caught up to them when they stopped at the Hwy. The route actually went on an abandoned railway, but we’d had enough of that rough overgrown crap. We rode the Hwy. 

Ah…smooth pavement!

The next waterfall was supposed to be two, Upper and Lower Tyler Fork Falls. The guys had miles to get in, so they headed on. Lani and I decided to check them out. Once again…we could not find any waterfalls. 

End of the road at the creek, but no trail to any waterfall. 

We rode back up the hill, and saw a road going off I what should have been the direction of the waterfalls. We gave it a shot and walked up for awhile. Nope, it did not go to the Falls. Another dud. 

All we saw was this sinkhole. 

By this time we were getting pretty disappointed. What’s up with this route? When was the last time the Route creator rode it?

We returned to the Hwy, and rode the rest of the way into Mellen. We stopped at the grocery store. All day I had only had a Pro Bar and some Macadamia nuts. Same with Lani. We got food and sat down at a table in the grocery store, and ate. Per the usual, Lani had a healthy salad, and I had chocolate milk and three (yes, three…don’t judge it’s not like i could carry them) maple bars (known as Longjohns here). 

After filling our bellies, we proceeded to Copper Falls State Park. It was too late to see the Falls. We’ll do them in the morning. 

We snagged a power site so we could charge our power banks. Lani noticed they had showers in the other loop. We walked there and had good showers. 

Tomorrow morning we will head out of here early as we couldn’t figure out how to pay (nothing listed for bicycles, only vehicle license plates, and not enough service to do it online).

We decided, even though we only did about 37 miles, it was a tough day. It almost felt like we did more hiking than riding.