One of the ridges near Lake Berryessa

A beautiful sunny day in Napa Valley and I was resting on the ground on my back staring up at the sky. If I hadn’t just tumbled down a 20-foot hill nearly killing myself, it would have been an ideal moment to gaze happily upward. Instead, I was doing a mental check that I could 1. feel all my limbs, 2. move all my limbs, and 3. remember who I was. I had kind of taken all those abilities for granted – right up until the moment I lost my footing while inching down a dirt hill to reach the base of the 100-feet-high Zim Zim Falls, a spectacular waterfall set in the hills just outside of Lake Berryessa.

Sad to say, one minute I was inching down a bank, the next I was a-tumblin’ down, coming to an abrupt rest on my back on a pile of rocks at the base of the embankment. Other than a few very nasty bumps, bruises and aches, I immediately assessed that I wasn’t seriously hurt. Well, maybe my ego was hurt as my view of myself as a skilled hiker incapable of misstep was clearly tarnished, but as a state trooper I once knew used to say at the scene of highway wrecks, any accident you can walk away from isn’t so bad.

To start the day, our intrepid group had headed out toward Zim Zim Falls as a 40-degree morning was fading away, to be replaced by a brilliant sunshine-filled, warm day. After about three miles of crossing some ankle-high streams and navigating a few hills, we were overlooking the falls. Twice before I’ve done this hike. Once, our group headed down to the base of the falls itself, a harrowing scramble through a mountain slope with no clear patch and plenty of possible pitfalls, and once, our group just took in the view and kept going. With Saturday being a picture-perfect day, we headed down to the falls. The nice thing about falling and getting banged up on this kind of hike is that at least I was able to immediately soak my wounds in the ice-cold water of the falls. So, as my friends enjoyed lunch, I had my pants legs off and was proceeding to numb my legs and ignore the odd swollen shapes protruding from them.

With all the recent rain, the falls promised to be raging and terrific, and they were. From there, to circle back to the traihad, we did a series of hilltop ridges, going up and down about a dozen different ridges. All are exposed to the sun, and all are diifficult. It’s about an 8 mile trek, which made the total hike about 11 miles or so. On the ridges themselves, there are amazing views of the lake to be had. To be honest, much of my attention was focused on walking as fast as I could and not really taking in the expansive landscape as much as I should have,  but the combination of a lot of ibuprofen, a solid limp and a desire for a very cold post-hike beer were motivating me in a serious way.

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