the Way of the Turtle

2 Mile Hike at High Falls Conservation Area
Saturday, September 26, 2009

High Falls Conservation Area trail map (PDF)

My parents had mentioned a while back that there was now an official trail to High Falls, a tall waterfall in the woods near where they live. I was pleased to see that it's actually one of the Columbia Land Conservancy's Conservation Areas and since I was going to be nearby anyways for the trail run, it only made sense to head over there afterwards and check it out. I guess I hadn't fully appreciated what a major trip down memory lane it would turn out to be...

When I was in high school I started going for walks in the woods behind my parents' house. I explored all over the place and found both footpaths and a network of old roads on the other side of the ravine leading down to the basin below High Falls. Some of the roads led to fields that were used for haying, others wound all through the woods. Most of the time I walked, though sometimes I'd move a little faster... I guess I was a trailrunner in the making even back then and just didn't realize it. I spent a lot of hours in those woods, including plenty of time by the falls, both at the base and climbing up and down the steep hillsides near it.

The property that's managed by the CLC is a good-sized part of where I used to roam, and no great surprise, the trails are mostly the same old roads that I used to wander around on. Some are almost exactly the same as they were all those years ago, and others have been cleared a bit to make them more accessible. The information kisok at the trailhead had been vandalized, with two of the three plexiglass covers smashed... why do people have to be so stupid and destructive?

The biggest addition (besides some boundary fencing and posted signs) is a wonderful overlook at the top of the hillside opposite the falls. I probably would have spent more time there, but just after I arrived a family of four came noisily up as well, and I didn't want to hog the scenic spot... plus I didn't really feel like being around a noisy group. So I took the path down to the base of the falls (actually, I took an old road that was one of my major routes back and forth years ago... I suspect it's not an official trail, since it wasn't blazed) and spent a while taking pictures of the waterfall and the huge rocks that border the pool at its base. Unfortunately, the noisy group showed up not long after that, so I kept moving downstream.

Ann and I came down here back in 2003 (before the park was established) and one of the changes I noticed then was that a steel cable/wooden plank bridge across the Agawamuck Creek had collapsed, leaving only some of the cables tangled over the creek. From there I had a short climb uphill before following another trail along the hilltops overlooking the creek back toward the entrance to the preserve.

A short spur trail near the entrance leads down to the creek, so I headed down there and wandered along the edge of the water for a while. Unfortunately, there are houses on the top of the hill across the creek, and the slopes leading down to the water are covered in junk and garbage... there's even the wreck of an old VW Beetle rusting away. I bushwhacked downstream to check out the old dam... it's definitely worse for wear, with a breach in one spot that has most of the water going through the dam rather than over the spillway. I would have liked to get a photo from down below but for the life of me I can't figure out how I used to get down there - I guess it helped to be younger with good knees, because there was no way I was going to risk a climb down today!

After spending a little more time bushwhacking to try to get a decent view of the dam, I headed back toward the preserve entrance, following another old path and then making my way through the locust grove that borders the parking lot. There was no one around to see me climb over the rail fence - probably just as well, since I definitely didn't display any gracefulness, but I did manage to get over the fence without injuring myself (some days, that's the best I can hope for!) A few minutes later I was one my way, heading northwest toward more parks, more walking, and eventually, home.

Checked my photo albums once I got back and found that I have a lot of old photos of High Falls and the woods that I've never scanned... as much as scanning photos is a major pain in the backside, today's visit has me feeling a bit more motivated to get them digitized even though the photo quality is poor (I took them using inexpensive 110 & 120 fixed-focus film cameras... the jump in image quality when I got my first autofocusing 35mm camera in college is incredible.) So that's the latest addition to my ever-growing "to do" list.

JMH