A Hike to Sylvia and Goodwin Falls

 It was windy in the morning but just a short hop in the boats across to the other side of the river and the third campsite and start of the trail to Sylvia and Goodwin Falls.

There was a lot of dead fall over the trail and the trail climbed up and up to get past cliffs along the river.

Typical trail conditions

Then the trail dropped quickly back down to the river level and we passed through birch forest.

Eventually we had views of the river

And then the top of the first falls.

A little further and we reached Sylvia Falls.

We could also see where Goodwin Falls dropped off ahead.

That green patch below Sybille is just below Sylvia Falls.  We never got down to the second falls because at this point we temporarily lost Dorothea.  But I did get a brief glimpse of Goodwin Falls while trying to track Dorothea down.

Once we were all reunited we ate our lunch in the green meadow below Sylvia Falls 

with this great view:

Spectacular!

Two kinds of mint and fringed grass of Parnassus growing in the mist shadow of Sylvia Falls

It was a strenuous hike back to the boats, up a very steep trail and over many deadfalls in the afternoon heat. We paddled back to our campsite and went for a swim.

We saw some interesting creatures:

This is a water stick insect (Ranatra) (it's about 3 inches long).

And also along the shore we found this toad doing the dead man's float (it was quite alive).

And the day ended with another fantastic sunset.