Leon Turnbull Photography

The day after Thanksgiving is my most favourite day of the year (to go hiking, that is). Everyone else is either sleeping in or out shopping. No one is out enjoying the beauty of nature. It has become my tradition now for the past few years to go out hiking on Black Friday, and I am loving it. But where should I go this year? I was a bit unprepared this year, and I didn’t really know where I wanted to go. I finally decided at the last minute to go up to McCloud to see the three waterfalls on the McCloud River. I had not yet gotten decent photos of the middle or upper falls. When I was here last time around, there was a truckload of snow on the ground and I had to walk in from the highway through the snow (without snowshoes), and I only made it to the lower falls. This time there was no snow, and it was of course easy to drive right in to all three of the waterfalls. I went first to Middle McCloud Falls, the biggest of the three (46 ft high). I arrived at about sunrise, and hiked down to the bottom of the falls with my dog Kaya (who also loves hiking on the day after Thanksgiving – actually, she loves hiking every day of the year). Kaya waited patiently with me in the cold (and it was quite cold) for the light to get a bit brighter in order for me to take a photo. There was quite a bit of water flowing over the waterfall, and I think for the most part these waterfalls flow very well all year long. But in the springtime, I’d be soaked standing at this location. Nonetheless, the rocks were still quite slippery here, and I did manage to put my foot into the drink. Kaya laughed at me when I did that (I’m pretty sure she was laughing, anyway). It was a beautiful morning in McCloud, and I saw no one out hiking all day.