High Desert Waterfall QUEST! Seeking Mt. Lewis Falls

I'm perched precariously on this ledge here. They sprayed that smelly spray on me and they're all attacking. On the way out I had to wash off some of the smell from the ants. So here I am back on the Manzanita Trail right near this South Fork campground and on my way to see if we can find Mount Lewis Falls. If you recall a couple months ago I went looking for this but there was still a ton of snow on the trail and I wasn't set up for that. So I decided to bail and today's a perfect day. It's like 82 degrees, clear skies, plenty of water flowing down there. So if we make it to the waterfall that also should be flowing. I don't see any snow at the top of Mount Lewis. Actually I don't even know if that is Mount Lewis or if Mount Lewis is behind here. Headed up, beautiful, beautiful views from down here. This campground behind me, definitely a party campground. They got the techno going, they got a drum circle going, all sorts of loud music going. So hopefully we're going to leave them behind as we make our way further up the trail. It's definitely a party family vibe here. People going down to the creek and swimming and stuff like that. There might be some deeper swimming holes up on the other side of the campground there. We didn't check that out because we just want to see if we can make it to this hidden waterfall. It's around a few bends here so I think once we get over the ridge that sound is going to kind of stay down on the campground. I'm hoping. Well it feels like summer has arrived guys because there are actually more mosquitoes on this trail than I was expecting. Haven't seen anyone else out here. Few mountain bike tracks so people probably bomb it up from Vincent Gap down. Some small black flies. They're not really biting but some mosquitoes and other horse flies and stuff. It's getting pretty dry this way so I'm not sure if any water is going to be flowing. It's interesting that there's this many pine trees in this area given that like right across this little valley here is like just like short little stubby brush and high desert mountain over there but this is kind of the last gasp of these big pine trees right here till you get right over there and then you're in the Mojave. Right after I just said that about being dry up here I can hear water flow. We're almost where this waterfall is supposed to be and there's definitely water flow. I don't know how far up this side canyon is but I'm really excited. There's good news and there's bad news. The good news is I'm perched precariously on this ledge here so getting down to this and back up is not the way to go. I might be able to bushwhack up the creek. I just brushed into a bunch of those velvety tree ants that we saw in Devil's Canyon so they're biting me now. They sprayed that smelly spray on me and they're all attacking. This is beautiful although not from where I'm standing. It's not, I can't fully enjoy it. So yeah either going to look for possibly an upper tier that's easier to get to or bushwhack up but there's a dense bush down there from the trail though so even climbing from up there down to here was sketchy because the rocks were disintegrating below my feet and the hands so I'm just going to climb out and figure out plan B. So it looks like I was right. There's an upper tier to this Mount Lewis Falls here but I mean it is dense bushwhacking and some sketchy climbing here. I'm going to try and scope out another approach but I don't know if we're going to be able to make it to the base of these falls. These are definitely, this top tier is definitely bigger than the bottom tier. The bottom tier is a little more open though and if you were just going to bushwhack from the trail up to the bottom tier it's still pretty beautiful. But yeah we made it, Mount Lewis Falls. It's still flowing in June. I'm covered in biting ants though. Well we just bushwhacked through and there was a lower cascade I climbed up and then she came like hugging that rock over there and then we made it. Upper tier, Mount Lewis Falls. Mount Lewis Falls, what? Tons of ants bushwhacking but it feels so exhilarating right now. This is what it means to be infamous, getting all up in those waterfalls. You know what I'm saying. So I'm above that upper tier now and there's plenty more cascades. It doesn't look like it opens up or has any more big drops there. Maybe a couple more big drops up there but steep climbing, loose rock, dense bushwhacking. So this is about as high as I'm going to go today. Ton of biting ants. I should have worn long sleeves. Long sleeves, a better hat, maybe a bug net, maybe some gloves for the climb down here because it's going to be loose and a little sketchy climbing down this. But hell yeah, this is awesome. All up in this gorgeous backside of Angeles National Forest here. Just realized I didn't show what the bushwhacking was like on the way in so this is what it's like on the way out. Hugging this rock seems to be the easiest way. Although easy is a relative term I would say. Clapping back at you. Tried to wash off some of the smell from the ants so they wouldn't start biting immediately. Although if you follow me on Instagram you already know that I'm going to be leaving Los Angeles around mid-July and it's going to be the first time in a long time that I'm going to be traveling continuously without a home base for the next year at least. I'm going to be traveling the world with my wife. We're putting our stuff in storage. We're getting rid of our apartment. We're going to keep her car. I'm selling my car and I've already put my notice in at work. So three more weeks of work and then putting our stuff in storage and we're going to take off. And I just wanted to thank every one of you that's one of my local Southern California subscribers for joining me so far. All your support up until now and I hope you stick with me for my travels around the world. I also wanted to say that I am going to do a meetup for subscribers and Instagram followers and so follow my community feed on YouTube for notification on that or follow me on Instagram for notification on that as well. I'd love to have a meetup with as many of you that can make it before I take off. But I appreciate all the support over the last few years. But this is just the end of this chapter, the first chapter of my YouTube journey. And there's another huge amazing chapter waiting for us after this. So I'm going to do a bunch more videos here in Southern California. Maybe some more touristy stuff that I've been holding off doing for a while. But plenty more coming guys. It is going to be an amazing year. And I'm so excited to share it with you. Let me know down in the comments if there's a part of the world that you've always want to go to or wanted to learn more information about. Or let me know down in the comments also if I should come to your town. If you've got some awesome spots that you want to share with me, hit me up in the comments. In the meantime, get out there, find your adventure and be infamous. Infamous.