So I made sure that each of my steps were sure and steady even though my face, legs, and arms were being whipped and scratched by the twigs of the fallen trees as I was scrambling…

…we did notice another party with dogs that were also whimpering. There was something about this place that dogs didn’t seem to like apparently…

Sure enough when we finally got to the familiar entrance for the Eaton Canyon Falls, we saw that the gate to its large parking lot was indeed closed…

It was an unfortunate circumstance since the mood had now soured from what should have been a serene and peaceful hike through the forest in pursuit of another one of the waterfalls along the…

Eventually at about 9:20am, Julie rushed us out of the house just as I was dialing into my meeting. Fortunately, I didn’t have to do any presenting though it would have been good to see…

As I was climbing and getting a few final shots back down at the Devil’s Punch Bowl, I saw that there was a couple of jeeps making the death-defying drive down! I took this opportunity to…

However, when I got to the other side of the river, I noticed that there was no trail and it was a straight bushwhack into the thickness of vegetation. Without pants, I realized that I probably…

Maybe all the bad decisions in pursuing this falls finally caught up with me and I had to respect the limits that Mother Nature threw at me. I even wondered if I saw the Grizzly Bear Falls at all…

It was unnerving to see this many people out here on a Friday, and I’d bet that on the weekends, it would be even worse. Maybe lots of people were already out of school…

In my mind, I was thinking that all the caution that we were practicing was essentially getting thrown to the wind the moment you start involving people who don’t take this seriously…

Regardless, by the time we were driving on Mt Baldy Road, we were seeing on multiple occasions flashing signs saying ‘All Baldy Trails Closed’ and ‘Parked Vehicles Will Be Towed Away’…

Julie was fearful that they might get reported to police so they stayed behind, but now that planted in my mind that perhaps there was a time limit for my exploration before the cops would show up…

Still, with all the mental stress from being stuck in the house and the uncertainty for how long COVID-19 was going to last in America, we were definitely getting cabin fever. Spring was usually…

Sure enough, when we got to the Bear Gulch Nature Center, given all the delays that Julie induced on the way here, it turned out that the car in front of us took the very last parking spot…

When they eventually showed up, we ultimately got started on our hike at about 10:20am. Surprisingly, our group actually consisted of about five different families, I think, with lots of kids…

Along the way, I saw quite a few more hikers going up to the falls, including one couple where one woman really looked like she struggled (making me wonder if she had brought enough water…

We even had to scramble and skirt by some slippery and eroded ledges or dropoffs (including one rope-assisted part) where Tahia got real nervous and even cried as she was starting to lose confidence..

Julie and I were hoping big time that it wouldn’t result in a really bad injury to one of them where we’d likely get blamed for bringing them to this hike in the first place should such a calamity…

However, some kids came out of a house and demanded money pretty aggressively. The oldest asked that we pay 10 Tala for taking pictures (seemed like she was making it up as she went), and we did…

..I was busy taking pictures before heading out, we noticed that Sophia slipped and fell into a shallow part of Willow Creek. Dad aggressively went into the creek after her when he, too, slipped…