So there's a hiking trail that leads to a 66 ft waterfall near my college town, and today my summer fish field course decided to take the morning to hike and fish it. Our professor and a few of the fishing enthusiasts decided to stay along the stream while the rest of us hike all the way up to the falls. Great.
So we get up there and it was a pretty good hike; not very strenuous even for my bad knee that I fell and landed on while trying to walk up a river the previous day, lots of pretty views, and no real rush. We sat, looked at the falls, and took pictures (RIP someone's iPhone though).
Well after about 15 minutes one of the 4 of us decided to go past the "Area closed due to falling rocks" sign and walk up to the upper observatory. I immediately rolled my eyes and continued snapping pictures because as much as it irked me that that person wasn't respecting the boundaries, I didn't think anything could happen since the weather and water levels hadn't been crazy and everything was probably stable enough to be on the upper observatory of the falls, which is just a sturdy wooden platform. And I was right, for the most part.
After a few minutes, we heard someone calling (we were the only ones there at this point) and looked up to see them... at the top of the falls.... on the other side of the stream.
Instantly, I was really annoyed/ borderline pissed. I'm the only one who's been in the area long enough and have hiked and enjoyed the falls long enough to know how dangerous it is to mess around them; several people have died. On top of that, we just spent the past two weeks busting our own asses on wet rocks in relatively flat rivers... and they decide to do this??
Again, I was very irritated but I didn't think too much of it because... I'm not sure.
After a while of not seeing them, the two other people and I started getting antsy to leave and kept calling to the other person with no answer. I eventually decided to go past the falling rocks sign myself to call for them because they probably couldn't hear us from the bottom of the falls. That's when I became pissed and also began to actually worry.
I had never been to the upper observatory deck before because it's usually closed; I've seen it from the lower deck but never actually went up myself. When I climbed up and finally came to the deck I was really confused for 0.25 seconds before becoming incredibly pissed. See, I figured there might have been a maintenance trail of some sort or some type of access up to the main falls from that deck for that person to get up there. I knew people weren't supposed to be up there (that's how people have died in the past) but maybe our group member didn't realize that an off trail was off limits.
The ramps ended at the small deck which ended with stone walls about up to my ribcage; an unmistakable sign that that was it. For a moment I looked around, not believing what they had to have done to get up to the falls, but it was the only explanation.
They literally climbed on top of the wall and the up the slope that was behind the deck.
I couldn't believe how stupid that was. After thinking for a couple of seconds I put down my stuff and started to climb up the wall and slope. I made it the 10 ft that the incline went until it met a wall of rock. I felt water drops and instinctively looked up a sheer 30 ft wall of rock and suddenly saw flashes of fall rocks whacking me upside the head. Nope. I turned around and came back to the deck.
One of the other group members had come with me, and when she saw me come down she must have decided that *someone* had to go up and see of the person was ok and bring them back down, so she took off her small backpack and climbed up. She made it further than I did and disappeared behind a turn that would have taken me up a slope. After I minute or two she called down and i had to take a second to find her amidst the trees and rocks. When I did she said something along the lines of "I don't want to die" and came back down.
Evidently this person not only had to climb on top of a low wall and up a slope, but had to actually climb up a small rock face.
Clearly, I didnt blame her. So she came back down and tried calling again. After a few minutes we decided to go back down to the last person in our group and see of we could find our adventurous friend somewhere on the top of the falls.
A minute or so later they reappeared where we first saw them. I was relieved; they clearly hadn't died, but I was also pissed. We needed to leave right now to have time to make it down the trail and meet everyone else in time to head back to our biological station and I was over the adventure kid bullshit.
I made gestures getting the point across that it was time to go and they made some back that I just didnt have the patience to understand. Finally the girl who went up to the upper deck with me said "I think he doesn't know how to get back." And then the person on the falls disappeared again.
This time all 3 of us started to go up to the upper deck, but the last person in our group decided to quickly go down the trail and let our professor know we'd be late/potentially need help.
When the two of us got to the deck again, I climbed back up and quickly moved up the slope and onto the small "trail" before I could lose my nerve. This person was clearly a little in over their head and for some reason I felt like I had to go get them. I climbed up the sloped trail and soon came to a small rock face that was about up to my chest and stopped. I'm afraid of heights. I just spent two weeks slipping and falling on wet rocks, and while these rocks weren't getting hit with water, they were still covered in moss. And I'm afraid of heights.
This is where I really began to question if I was doing the best/ smartest thing. I hadn't been up there before either, and while I had reasonable confidence in my footing I also knew that people with more experience have died because of confidence in their footing. Was I just being an empty headed "hero"? I decided to stay put and just try calling out which gave no answer. By this time I was pretty worried for the person. They weren't from around here and weren't even used to hikes/forests/ rock climbing. A self proclaimed "city slicker". The odds were a little against them and I decided I needed to know that they were at least ok.
As I pressed myself against some of the rocks and looked for solid purchase I started shaking because 1) heights and 2) I was possibly going to find someone with their head on a rock or their face down in a stream or suddenly see their body flow and fall over the falls. I dont do well under that kind of pressure. It was over in a few seconds though and I quickly pulled myself up and was relieved to see that most of the ground was dirt/tree root/not slippery rock.
I alternated between calling out their name and advancing 5-10 ft up a mild slope and under some fallen trees with still no answer. Now I was really worried and had several unpleasant images flashing through my head everytime I turned a small bend or looked over a rock.
After calling for maybe 5 minutes I finally heard the other person respond from somewhere behind me. It only took them a minute or so to reach me and we immediately started turning around. Evidently he just got lost and couldn't remember how to find his way back to the observatory deck. I was still pissed- relieved that I didn't find an unconscious body and deal with *that* in therapy, but still pissed.
When we reached the person waiting for us on the deck, we still didn't say much and just started heading down the mountain. I almost felt bad because I could feel the person was embarrassed and actually sorry for making me go up and make sure he got out ok and amikg the other two worry. Almost. Because after I said "Please dont go off trail again" what they said was "Well, yeah what I should have done was mark my way up."
In case anyone is wondering, it's never a good idea to go off trail unless you're familiar with the area or have appropriate training. This is something that was clearly established when we arrived at the biological station to start our class. Dont go off trail. Dont be a dumbass.
And that was just assuming it was a flat forest trail NOT a mountainous waterfall "trail" that started off by CLIMBING OVER A STONE WALL.
By the time they said that I was just done. I didnt really speak the rest of the way and even in the car I refused to join in on everyone else ribbing on them because they clearly didn't learn anything from that.
Then we came back, had a late lunch, and I passed out for 2 hr nap.
Dealing with dumbasses is exhausting.
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