Burundi's Chutes de la Karera

One of Burundi's few tourism locations are the Chutes de la Karera or Karera Falls, a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Located in the same part of Burundi as the German Cliffs, this park is under better control.

A tourism fee of aprox $12 was collected at the gate before we could drive to the parking area. From the parking lot you get an immediate view of the largest (widest) of the collection of waterfalls in the area. On the guided tour we started by hiking a trial that takes you down stream to the lower falls. If you cross the the base of the falls you get to feel the wind caused by the falling water and spray.

From there we were guided back along the trail up to the top of this lower falls. This provides one of the best views of the trip.

View of the Main falls, nearest the parking lot

After a quick stop back at the parking lot, then we moved up stream along the creek to a smallest falls. It seemed like the low slope of slick rock might make a good natural waterslide with higher water levels, as long as you could stop prior to the falls.

View of back up the stairs from the lower falls

The view approaching the lower falls.

From there you travel north along the rim of the falls to another falls on a different stream.

As a late bonus we spotted a few wild monkeys crossing the road as we drove out.

View of the two upper falls among the trees from the upper plateu

Hiking Bear Canyon "7 falls" near Tuson, AZ

This was my second visit to Sabino Canyon. My first visit was during the summer and the heat limited me to short hikes. This second trip in January offered much better weather to hike in. It was also an exceptionally wet and snowy January so the water was really flowing.

We hike just over 9 miles out to the Falls and back, requiring us to cross the very cold stream 14 times.

Visitor Center at the parks entrance

From the parks entrance you hike (or take the tram) east through a large field of Saguaro Cactus and other high desert plants. 



The Saguaros cactus fields on the way to the trail

As you approach the edge of the field, you cross a bridge that takes you over the stream from Sabino canyon. The rain and snow that Tuscon had been receiving meant that the bridge was flooded, just high enough that it couldn't be crossed without getting wet. We removed our shoes and socks and made our way across.

High water was this bridge just before the start of Bear Canyon Trail

Once off the road and onto Bear Canyon trail, the stream crossings did not stop. The high water levels made it so there was no way to cross without getting wet, and so it was once again time to take off the shoes and socks and wade across the cold knee deep water. The bottom of the stream was mostly sand and small rocks which were painful to walk across with your feet so cold. On the way back we decided that taking the shoes off each time wasn't worth it and just hiked barefoot. I wish I had brought my Tevas on this trip.



Just one of the knee deep water crossing of the near freezing water (14 total)

The falls proved to be beautiful and worth the 4.5 mile hike it took to reach them. The combination of cold water and slick rocks meant that I didn't play on the falls as much as I do at other falls (no lele kawa).

The Seven falls at the end of the hike.

Hiking Niagara Gorge

My favorite cardio hike in Western New York, the Niagara River Gorge is a mini Grand Canyon. From Whirlpool State Park down to the rocks along the Whirlpool is a mile and a half with a 1,500 foot elevation change. The majority of that elevation change occurs in about a tenth of a mile.

Other than its cardio benefits the up close views of the Niagara River and it's Class V rapids are pretty amazing. You get a real sense of how much power the river has.

-James

Lele Kawa

Potato Chip Rock Mt. Woodson, Poway, CA

It seem like at some point everyone in San Diego needs to make the trip up to Potato Chip Rock for an (insert social media platform here) photo. Well I am no different. I was surprised to find that it is a pretty demanding hike almost 8 miles round trip and 2k feet of elevation gain. Now knowing how demanding the hike is I have a new appreciation for all those photos.

It seems like this is the Saturday morning cardio hike for a lot of San Diego's fitness minded residents. There was certainly no shortage of yoga pants and sports bras.

Past Potato Chip at the empty summit, I made a number of failed attempts to boulder and reach the true peak of Mt Woodson.

-James

Lele Kawa

Oak Creek Canyon, Sedona, AZ

On my way north to Flagstaff I stopped to visit central Arizona's escape from the summer heat, Oak Creek Canyon. Down along the creek it was impressive how much cooler it was. In the water it was really cool.

By far the worst part was the traffic, since there is just one road and everybody is trying to go to Slide Rock park or park along the road. I managed to park at the picnic area about a mile north of Slide Rock. From there we walked south along the creek until we reached a spot where you couldn't continue without getting in the water. We hung out at this natural pool for a while and I got a few small cliff jumps in.

 One of the small cliff jumps into a pretty shallow pool

Since we couldn't continue along the creek anymore we headed up to the road to make our way down to Slide Rock Park. The number of people at Slide Rock was overwhelming so we didn't stay. I did spot a huge cliff jump located under the bridge at Slide Rock, and a few guys were jumping.

Crowds at Slide Rock

More Slide Rock

Big Cliff Jumping under the bridge

-James

Lele Kawa

Grand Canyon

After living in Arizona for nearly two years, I made it to the Grand Canyon for the first time over 4th of July. A thunder storm rolling through kept the temperatures down, but led to some hiding from lightening strikes.

Mandatory Canyons Edge photo

Panorama shows some of the "Grand"ness

I parked at the south rim visitor center and started the day walking along the rim near the visitor center. After drinking in the views for a while and snapping some photos, we had a picnic lunch near the visitor center before jumping on the shuttle for Bright Angle Lodge.

I had no illusion of doing a rim to rim on Bright Angle, but I did want to dip below the rim as much as I could. Hiked about 2 miles and 2,000 vertical feet before turning around. Even this relatively short distance offered a pretty amazing change of perspective. The hike was followed by a cold beer at the Bright Angle Lodge.

View of Bright Angel trail from 2 miles down the Trail

Under the Rim

A lightening strikes prevented us from going to Hopi Point, so we headed back to the visitor center and jumped in the car to head over to the desert watch tower. Stopping at many of the points along the way.

 View out the window of the desert tower

 View upward of the inside of the desert tower

-James

Lele Kawa

Castle Dome 2, Second attempt second failure to summit.

A year later, and Castle Dome still undefeated. I set off on my second attempt at a summit of Castle Dome sure I could make it. Unfortunately once again it was not to be. I set of after breakfast, and had an easy drive to the wash. Once I arrived I was surprised to find that I was the only one there, the weather was perfect for hiking, clear and 60s.

I set off up the wash as we did last year. We followed the big stone arrow up the second wash to the right and directly at the mountains peak. The was was hard to walk in so we shifted slightly to the right following scattered rock pillars. There is really no trail after you leave the big wash, you just have to pick what you find to be the easiest way.

Once we reached the rock face near the peak is where things went wrong. After exploring the immediate  area it seemed like the trail looped counter clockwise around the peak, which appears to be sloped on your right as opposed to vertical rock faces on your left. This is wrong. The "trail" traces the face to the left, clockwise, through the saddle of the pillar and then up to the summit.

We made our way difficultly to the right. What appeared to be the slope turned out to be much steeper than expected and did not make for easy climbing. We continued counterclockwise as until we reached a cliff and a ridge line. At this point we realized there was no easy way up on this side of the peak, but it was 3pm and to late to hike all the way around to the other side. From there we made our way back a bit to a spot that looked climbable. The loose nature of the desert rock made for some pretty scary climbing but we were encouraged that we were going the right way because we were still seeing rock piles. As it turns out we were just not the only ones to go the wrong way. After climbing to what I believe was about 200 vertical feet short of the summit we decided we had to turn back.

On the way back we searched for a better route down, but since we were so off "trail", nothing looked good. Most of the seemingly promising ways down quickly ended in cliffs we were unwilling to down climb. Defeated we worked our way back down into the wash that we struggled up, making our slow way. We hit the main wash right at the arrow we turned at and headed back for the car. By the time we sat in the car the sun was set. We had made it just in time.

I am not sure whether or not I will attempt the summit a 3rd time. Now it seems there are no more wrong turns to make, but I am not sure if it is worth is.

-James

Lele Kawa

Descanso Wall Hike

On the way home from San Diego, I decided it was well past time to take an exploratory hike of Descanso. It has been on my rock climbing RADAR for a while, but I wasn't sure exactly where it was or what the climbing looked like.

The turn around at the gate also serves as the parking lot.

I half intentionally passed the trail, in order to explore the area a bit more. Which was marked by an unusual large amount of dirt on the road.

"Cliff" at the base of the trail

The hardest part of the hike is the steep "cliff" between the road and the trail. Once I passed the Fire Fighter Memorial,

I wasn't sure which face was which. I took a quick break on the large boulder at the base of the wall.

Bolt on top of the boulder facing the main wall

After that I made my way east along the wall and saw a bunch of bolts along the way. At least four bolted routes, most of them look easy from the bottom. After exploring the bottom I scrambled up the rocks immediately behind where the memorial is to the top. There wasn't much up there until the east end of the face where there were 2 anchors and the easiest path down to the bottom. I look forward to head back here and do some climbing. Because of the easy access, hikeable top rope anchors and variety of difficulty, it should be a good place to take new climbers.

View from the top. Parking center left and I8 across the top

-James

Lele Kawa

Castle Rock, Big Bear Lake, CA

The weather was threatening so rather than commit to a long adventure, I decided it was a perfect time to visit Castle Rocks. Castle Rocks is a popular hike in Big Bear Lake because it is short, hard and rewards hikers with a great view of the lake from the top. The rocks at the end of the hike offer some large faces to rock climb, but I did not bring my gear on this trip.

Thanks to the weather the trail was not very crowded. Road side parking can get sketchy if it is crowded. The trail starts steep but well maintained and easy unless the altitude gets you. You first meet the rocks from a boulder field at the bottom and see the 100 foot faces for rock climbing. As you make your way around the rock clock wise, you reach the shorter back side that offers a pretty easy scramble up to the top. At the top you have your reward of the lake view. There are also climbing anchors scattered across the top, offering a repel down or top rope for climbing.

-James

Lele Kawa

Devil's Bridge, Sedona, AZ

Another of the Grand Canyon side trips was Sedona. Devil's Bridge was one of the outdoor activities in Sedona that came highly recommended, I took advantage of my vehicle's clearance and drove to the trailhead, rather than hike from the parking lot. Managed to only bounce my truck off the rocks once along the way.

The trail is a nice gradual mile long slope up to the bridge. The whole trail offers beautiful views of the valley, especially as you get heigher. Maybe because it was noon in July, but the bridge wasn't very crowded. After the obligatory photo op, we turned back as a thunderstorm began to threaten the valley.

North up the Valley

 Devil's Bridge from below

Devil's bridge from above

-James

Lele Kawa

Lava River Cave, Flagstaff, AZ

Lava River Cave was an unplanned adventure as part of my Grand Canyon visit. I planned to spend the day heading up to Snow Bowl and taking the sky ride, but the weather would not cooperate. The thunderstorms prevented us from going up so we headed underground. I am aware that heading underground during rain can be a bad idea, but there was a ranger at the cave entrance and he never even suggested people not enter.

The below map is just from the parking lot to the cave's entrance. The parking lot was a crowded mess, despite being 3 miles off the paved road. I was lucky enough to arrive right as somebody was leaving and park next to the trail. The trail to the cave entrance is well marked and obvious (along the fire road). It wasn't until we arrived at the entrance that we realized how cold it would be in the cave. The average temp is around 40 fahrenheit, so we returned to the car to get long pants and sleeves.

After signing into the registry we made our way in. The first 50 yards was steep, loose and crowded. Once past that its about a mile of easy flat walking to the caves end. The ceiling height varies from about 4 feet up to about 30, but for the most part it is a comfortable 14 feet. At the end there is a pile of rocks and a hole in the lower right just big enough for an average sized person to crawl through. I wiggled my way in but all I saw was about 50 feet of crawling and graffiti, so I just backed out.

 Looking up at the entrance

Long exposure somewhere near the middle of the cave

The end

-James

Lele Kawa

Summiting Picacho Peak, CA

Today I set out the the meetup group for the other big peak near Yuma. After not making it to the top of Castle Dome, I felt I needed to make it to the top of this one. Six of us set out, but only two made it, the group leader and me.

We got an early start and made the drive down Picacho road and turned off the Wash along the BLM trail.

At the point where you can no longer drive, we started the hike by continued by walking up the same wash. After you pass by Picacho, a trail heads up to the left. The trail continues to a scree slope up to a saddle.

The Guardian

View from the Saddle

At the saddle we took a slight turn to the right and began the scramble along the first ledges. We arrived at the first ladder, about 6 feet tall.

At the top of the ladder is the infamous crack which divided our group. It is only about 2 feet wide but it is very exposed and there is no good location to step off from. The spot where you jump from is slightly higher than the landing. When you lower yourself to get a better angle to jump from, you give up all footing except for one little pocket about an inch deep that you can place one heel in. This means all your upward and most of your forward momentum needs to be generated from that one poorly placed foot.  It took me a minute to build up the confidence to take the leap. The first time I made my way to the edge I needed to back away and collect myself. The video below shows me making the leap.

 The Leap and Landing

Not ready to leap

 After the leap it is easy scrambling to the second ladder. You snake back and forth long a series of ledges and the turns are marked by red arrows. The second ladder was taller. Once at the top, we borrowed it to help go from the false summit to the true summit.

 A boulder divides the summits, and using the ladder to get on top of it was the most exposed part of the hike. I did not get a picture of the previous ladder placement on the other side of the boulder, which was the truly exposed part. The ladder was on a slope that had a small divot that held one leg. The ladder was also only about 3 feet in from the ledge. The only redeeming part was there were some good hand holds, so you could commit a lot of your weight to the rock as your feet moved up the ladder. The ladder placement in the below photos looks a little precarious, but it was solid.

 Exposure? You should see the other side.

After we reached the true summit we signed the log and got some photos. The log was in a pipe that was cemented into the rock. There was some additional stuff cashed in the rocks that are directly behind me in the below photo.

Colorado River as seen from the peak

-James

Lele Kawa