My brother had planned to take me and some friends of his to go to these beautiful falls near where we lived at the time, but it required a mile or so hike to reach them. We get to the start of the trail, and my brother says this guy at work told him about a shortcut. We had to go left instead of straight though. So we did... and got deeper into the forest on a dark path covered in cowpies. My brother decided to check under them for special mushrooms; his search was fruitless. It was around this time we hit a dead-end and he realized he had been tricked. I facepalmed a bit and we walked back to the start of the path to head the right direction.
The correct path had less trees than the one we had gone; as a result, there was less shade and less protection from the hot sun. It was friggin' warm that day... I think it was in the 90s. Maybe 80s. Anyways, it was quite the hike in the open a bit... but we kept going. We ended up passing a truck that was broken down and had obviously been there for some time. We finally reach the falls, and they're beautiful. We first decided to explore upstream, which was pretty cool. We returned to our entry point, and look ahead. A few pools of water filled with the miniature falls from the previous pool, with a large waterfall on the far end. I wasn't trying that, hell no. But I did want to check out one of the pools.
The rock was smooth, made that way with the water that had been running over it for countless years. This also made it quite slick, and I took a step onto the rock to reach a pool... At which point I slid on the smooth slick rock and got my toe jammed beneath a large heavy rock and the rock I slipped on. The fact my toe was partially
under the rock meant the path there had a casualty: my big toenail. I screamed in pain, and my brother rushed to my aid. Or so I thought; instead he laughed at me a bit. He did help get it covered so the nail didn't fall off just yet, and we left soon after that.
And that interim when it was hanging and fell off was worse than when I didn't have it at all!!
Ugh that was horrible. But the falls were as beautiful as promised.
