July 24 Great Wall of Panthertown

I was not signed up for this hike but the leader, Darcy Douglas had her co-leader depart for home early and she asked if I'd assist. We are visiting the Great Wall of Panthertown. The Great Wall is an one mile long, 400 foot high granite rock face. Our hike was billed as a 5 mile loop. Darcy told me the night before it was more like 8 or 9 miles. Not knowing Darcy that well, I just assumed she wasn't looking at the map right and hadn't calculated it properly. Leaders are assigned hikes and should scout them. Darcy had done that but still I wasn't convinced. Then she showed me the maps and I calculated the distance at 10 miles. So in the morning we had to tell folks who had signed up to go on a 5 mile hike, that we were doing almost double that and there was a take your shoes off creek crossing (above). That scared some folks off and we were left with a total of 14.

I had read the top of the Great Wall - Big Green Mt was not a worthy hike and was confusing so I knew we'd want to skip that, bringing it down to an 8 miler.

Things started out fine. We stopped at this waterfall roller coaster - Granny Burrell Falls, for lunch. It was quite scenic and several other folks came by while we monopolized the dry rock. It was here Bad Boy Bob hiked on back to where he'd left his boots knowing that we were to head that way after lunch. As we left the lunch break I counted 13 and that prompted a search for Bob. Darcy and group went on ahead to a junction and I was to search and catch up. Well, of course they found Bad Boy Bob sitting there. This prompted Darcy to remove him from her responsibility but we let Bad Boy hike on with us.

This is the best glimpse you get of the great wall. There was lots of water streaming down the face.

Here we are walking through what I'm told is an abandoned Christmas Tree farm from a few decades back. 

Colicroot had me baffled for a while.

I understand Yosemite is sometimes referred to as the "Panthertown of the West".

Luna moth in the trail.

Our hike ended up being 8 miles and we were finished before 3pm. Even though Bob was bad, he had made a deal with Darcy prior to that. If he'd slide down the waterfall, Darcy would buy him ice cream afterward. Darcy made good on that promise.