On both of these trips, I left early in the afternoon. On the first trip a week ago though, I completely under-estimated available daylight and hung out way too long at the falls. It got dark shortly after I began the return mile-long bushwhack to the trail, and it was a bit spooky.
There is a fairly good deer trail you can follow most of the way when the leaves are gone, but at this time of year, it is virtually impossible to follow it for very long before losing it. Therefore, you just have to roughly follow where you think it should be - above the stream, but below a series of bluffs above.
In complete darkness, it made for a messy and somewhat frightening bush-whack that night, climbing over and above huge fallen logs, with a fog rising from the streams below, bluffs and sketchy places occuring often. Thankfully I did make it back to the trail however, but way further down than I ever have in the daylight.
This past monday I made sure to leave the falls at 4:30 to give myself plenty of time to make it back in daylight. So while the weather was intense at times, it made for a much safer return trip. Here are some photos of the journey:
