Frost, Rainbow and Falls

Holy buckets.  At this rate, winter is going to fly right by me!  Yeah, ask me about that in March.

I know it's not officially winter yet, but it sure is cold and frosty out there!  Here are a couple pictures I took on my hike this morning.

A frosty fall stump

Remember it a month ago?

Icicles over an icy shore

Town is really quiet right now.  My friend Gilly called me from the Mariner yesterday just because there were no customers!  Yes, it's that time of year.  The colorful leaves are mostly off the trees.  The Covered Stretch of 41 has that long, empty feeling of what is to come... snow!

But we've had some cool waves!

CLICK HERE TO WATCH THE WAVES AT HUNTER'S POINT

According to my camera, that happened Saturday, October 26th.  

The Saturday before, when I was out mountain biking, this rainbow came out, but I forgot to show you.

Whole rainbow from October 19th, 2013

I saw lots of people out shooting it that day.

Now here is a Typical Amanda story for you.  

I had never been to Hungarian Falls near Lake Linden, so on my way back from a trip to town, I decided I would go check it out.

Once I finally found the entrance, I walked down under the bridge that holds up Snowmobile Trail 3.  I got a picture underneath looking up because I thought you'd like it.  Then I scaled the side of this 45 degree hill through piles of leaves, over branches and around boulders.  "This can't be a trail," I thought to myself.  "No duh," the hill rolled its eyes.

But down to the creek I traversed.  Then I saw another cool bridge cement foundation thingy that I thought you would like.  I reached in my, um, unzipped pocket to grab my camera, well, uh, actually, Aaron's iphone that I borrowed without telling him.  And it was gone.

I almost puked right there.  How the heck was I going to find a small object whose front matched the dark, wet leaves and whose back matched the freshly fallen yellow leaves?

"Take a deep breath, Amanda.  Don't freak out.  Just go back and look for it the way you came down," I told myself.  As I looked back, I wondered, "how the heck DID I get down here?"

Long story short, I scoured that hillside for over two hours.  I called it with my phone 42 times.  No answer.  My fingers were white from brushing wet leaves.  My puppy was so hungry, he was eating bark and grass.  And finally, evening was closing in.

I had to leave.  I had to go home and tell Aaron that I lost his phone.  "I'll come back and look tomorrow," I promised.  I didn't even see any falls.

Long story short again, Aaron, Duce and I came back the next morning (luckily not much snow fell).  We looked for nearly an hour.  Then, there it was: tucked next to a rock under some leaves.  And since I just got a Life Proof case for it (my insurance policy, I told Aaron) it still worked.  Yes!!!

Now Aaron is an outdoorsman with a businessman mentality.  "Let's go!" he announced.  "I've got to get back to work."

"Shoot," I thought.  "I came to the falls twice and still haven't seen them."  I had no idea what to expect anyway.

We climbed back up to the bridge and found, well, the actual trail.  Aaron shook his head.  "Here's the trail."  Then guess what?!  We went up it!

Oh, we climbed and climbed, and got to the first falls.  Magnificent!  So tall and towering.  Then we made it to the second falls.  Awesome!  It fell into a great pool.  Then the third falls was a dam.  Not my favorite, but still serves a purpose.  Then the fourth falls which didn't strike me in a way that I could describe it to you.

I am going back in the spring.  Maybe even sooner.  That place is amazing.  And now I know how to get there.

I apologize that I have no pictures to show you from Hungarian Falls, but that phone was dead from being out in the cold all night.  If you would like to go there yourself, here is a link.