I went hiking this past weekend and I’m glad it was better than I expected it to be.  When I learned that the hike was about 2.1 miles or was it only 1.2, probably the latter, I thought it was going to be pretty lame.  In fact, I was thinking it was just going to be one of those trails similar to the ones in that huge park in RB.  I thought we would be in and out in 30 minutes.  Oh yes, I forgot to mention that Tenaja Falls is up in Murrieta, so the thought of driving that distance just to hike for about an hour total was not going to be very exciting.

But I was wrong…and the hike turned out to be eventful after all.  We hiked to the end and the reward was some small waterfall.  There were tons of kids around, running around, playing around in the water.  Since I thought the hike was just whatever, I opted not to wear my hiking shoes but just wore my running shoes instead.  That was not such a great idea because I didn’t really have good grip on the rocks.  The waterfall was surrounded by these huge rocks that you had to climb up/down on to get to the bottom of the waterfall.  So, my friend suggested I just take off my shoes and socks to get more traction.  Good idea.

We hung out for a bit and were about to climb back up out of the waterfall.  I was first and began up this rock.  It wasn’t really one where you could just step up, so I was kind of on my hands and knees and trying to find a groove for my feet.  Next thing you know, I try to put my foot somewhere, and I slip and am unable to hold myself up considering I barely had anything to hold onto.  Falling…smack on my butt into the pool of water at the bottom of the waterfall.  Fail.  I immediately jumped up to check my cellphone since it was in my pocket and I immediately grabbed my backpack to see if it was wet because my camera was in there.  Whew!  Everything was safe.  The cell phone was a little wet but was fine.  I, on the other hand, had my shorts all wet and part of my shirt too.  Not only was it wet, it was muddy.  Gross.  It was kind of funny because my friends were all concerned about me since I fell and I was more concerned about my electronics!  :)

So, I realized I could not go back up that way because now I was completely wet which would make it even more slippery.  So we decided it would be best to take this other route.  We had to cross over this small stream of water but I was afraid too since my feet were all wet.  So I decided that since my feet were wet anyway, I might as well just step into the stream and then cross over instead of trying to hop over it.  I take a step in the stream and then BAM, slip AGAIN!  Fell on my butt into the water AGAIN!  This time my backpack was more wet so I was more concerned.  Whew.  Good thing I put the camera in a bag in a bag.  Now this is not just some measly compact camera I had in my bag, it was a dSLR.  So then we thought it was best to put my camera into my coworkers bag.  I put my socks and shoes back on and was able to climb, cautiously, bak up above the waterfall onto the trail.

I was pretty wet but it was warm so it was okay.  The problem was that we were supposed to eat afterwards and I had wanted to check out this one store in the mall.  So we made a detour at Target for me to purchase some basketball shorts :) and a t-shirt.  So I buy the stuff and go change.  Then we were off to the rest of our adventures.

Notes to take:
Rocks + Water = Slippery
Always keep an extra set of clothing in your car