NW/WWF-Day 19-Much Better Falls Today!

We started our day with a hike to Copper Falls, Brownstone Falls, and the Tyler Fork Cascades (which made up for not finding the Tyler Fork Falls). Brownstone Falls is part of the Tyler Fork River. Copper Falls is on the Bad River. The Falls meet at the confluence of the two rivers. 

Copper Falls from one side. 

Falls #9

Interesting info. 

Brownstone Falls #10. 

There were two of these giant benches on the trail. 

The Bad River (no idea why they think it should be called Bad).

Tyler Fork Cascades. 

We decided to give the Cascades a number…#11. 

This is Copper Falls from the other side of the gorge. 

We started riding about 9:00 after our visit to the Falls. Today was going to be mostly just riding. Yes, there were a few waterfall options, but two of them seemed iffy (the word small was in the description). Having been burned yesterday by non-existent small Falls, we opted to skip those. 

One “feature” we would see right on the route, was the “Pine Stump Corner”. In the triangle of the intersection there was supposed to be the stump of a big pine tree. 

There was a sign and everything. 

I’m standing where the stump was supposed to be. It’s no more, but there is a baby pine tree growing. We thought maybe it was the great grandson of the big pine stump. 

We came flying down the gravel road. We came to a big parking lot for Morgan Falls and St. Peter’s Dome. We figured we could confidently find this waterfall. It was a great trail to the Falls. Lani rode, but I left my bike in the parking lot. There were quite a few cars, so I thought there would be a lot of people on the trail. I should have ridden too. It would have been fine. But, the walk was okay.

Nice bridges and boardwalks. 

Very nice wide trail. 

Morgan Falls. 

Falls #12!

Nice wildflowers on my walk back. 

We really liked Morgan Falls. If it had been later in the day, we might have camped there. It was just 2:30. We continued on. 

Part of the ride after Morgan Falls was on terrible washboard. When we got to County Road E, we decided we’d had enough of the washboard and dust. We took CR E to Hwy 63, which took us back to the route at Mason. In Mason, we stopped at The Thirsty Trout for something cold to drink. We both had Ginger Ale, and felt we could have each drank two. Instead, we filled our water bladders, and got back on the road. We continued on CR E to bypass a section of the route that was on an abandoned railway. It was getting about time to find a place to camp. I saw a small double track. I asked Lani if she thought no one owned it. There were no private property signs. We decided to call it a day. We followed the road in until we each found good spots for our tents. 

Today was 36 miles with a lot of rolling ups and downs. It was cold this morning, but ended up getting up to 78. Even more warm weather is on the way. I think we are down to 125ish miles to go. If we were to go straight to Cable, it would be 24 miles! But, of course, we aren’t doing that.