…I drove up to the machine controlling the barricade, inserted the ticket to open the lever guard on our way out, and then suddenly when I pulled forward, we heard a brief crunch…

…we got back to the cafe by the car park after crossing over the bridge fronting the dam. This included a small break where Mohammed went to the reservoir to put water on his shoes to cool off…

Anyways, the road seemed busier than I would have expected for a weekday, and when we noticed that there were a ton of cars parked at a vista point, we were wondering what all the fuss was about…

I even overheard someone conversing amongst his own family saying something to the effect like “that’s why we come here; to get away from the craziness down there…” I couldn’t have said it better…

Julie was having doubts about stream scrambling, but given how dry the conditions were, I’m sure the stream scramble was now much easier than it would’ve been had we had to climb the waterfalls…

…the air was noticeably thinner up here. I guess we were just getting old now as such effects didn’t really bother us in the past (or at least I didn’t remember it)…

The force of the winds were becoming even more apparent as we were driving through the local streets along both Base Line and Etiwanda Ave. That was because we saw a handful of downed trees and…

As we were anxiously making our way up Santa Anita Ave, we ultimately got up to the twisty mountain road leading up to Chantry Flat. That was when we found ourselves following a caravan of…

And on the ridge we traversed to get up to the final climb, Frederick pointed out the fresh new rocks that had landed on the very ridge we were walking just this past Monday…

When Julie returned to the car, she dropped me some bad news as we learned that there was a NATO Summit going on at exactly the two full days that we would be spending in Cardiff…

The GPS made it seem like it wouldn’t take long to get there. However, when we ultimately got to the B869 road, we saw that the single-track road persisted and was more dangerous than we thought…

Outside, I could hear rain hitting the roof and the windows. The winds were also blowing pretty hard. The thought did cross my mind that I could very well do the 2.5-mile hike from the town of…

In any case, I definitely felt like I was coming down with something as my congestion was now stuffing my nose. Fortunately, I was so tired that I was ultimately able to sleep, and I knew that I…

Ultimately, we would go on the familiar winding road up to Monrovia Canyon Park. We were worried about the parking situation here given the past troubles the last time we were here. At first…

So we kept forward hoping perhaps to find a plaza or fast-food restaurant to stop at to see what was going on. But moments later, Tahia started puking. And it seemed like she was heaving quite…

…there was a bit of unusual circumstances on our way out as we heard a loud circling chopper hovering right above the canyon. It was kind of ironic that we saw some memorial dedicated to “Arturo”…

Then, we turned left at the familiar signposted junction for Paradise Falls. Tahia was doing quite well during the hike, and we were still proceeding with Julie in front and Tahia trying to play…

But already, I was feeling a bit uneasy when I saw wet rocks and muddy spots on the descent. A slip and fall here could potentially be fatal. Even with the ropes tied to trees here…

…I attemped to cross above the rope. All it took was the first step and the slip of that step (without me losing my balance fortunately) to make me realize that the initial approach was too risky…

After walking through the rain to the Auberge from the car park on the quai, I was finally in our room at 3:55pm. It turned out that our room was big and charming, and it was easily the best…