The first night was pretty uneventful.  When we arrived, it was too dark to pitch the tents outside, so the boys slept in the loft and the adults slept downstairs, and it was fairly comfortable sleeping.  We woke up cold the next morning as the propane tank ran empty.  After a quick evaluation of the situation, we were able to switch propane tanks and had the heat back on within minutes.  Just before lunch, the boys pitched the tents outside in hopes of “roughing it” Saturday night.  After lunch, we decided we could not be this close to Cedar Falls and not go hiking, so at about 2:30 we set out for Cedar Falls.  We decided to take the ¾ mile trail that would take us to the falls and then back up to the parking lot.  On the trail, we stopped and looked at some of the ice formations on the sides of the cliff walls.  We then continued to the falls, afterwards we realized that this hike was not long enough to satisfy our taste for adventure.

Looking at the map, we decided to take the red trail, which is 2 ½  miles to Old Man’s Cave.  The plan was that the red trail would intersect the 1 ½ mile blue trail, which would take us back to Cedar Falls and eventually to our cabin.  Along the way we discovered skipping rocks on a frozen pond creates a unique sound.  The red trail came out by the Visitor’s Center at Old Man’s Cave and never did intersect the blue trail.  The visitor’s center is fairly new, so we thought we would take a pit stop, use the facilities and get a drink of water before continuing our search for the blue trail. Despite the fact that the visitor’s center is newer, the facilities are not designed for winter use and were closed for the season.  After a short walk we found the start of the blue trail and discovered that it goes along the creek bed.  We ventured down a flight of stairs, through a tunnel and over a bridge only to find the trail is closed due to ice.  Our only choice was to take the red trail back to Cedar Falls as we know we will be pushing daylight to get back.

We arrived at the parking lot at Cedar Falls at about 5:00.  We still had to find the continuation of the blue trail that would take us to our cabin. With darkness setting in we found our trail and we head off back in to the wilderness.  We eventually come to several forks in the path, with our sense of direction and good leadership skills we make a decision of which path to take.  The longer we go, the darker it gets.  The darker it gets the faster we want to go, but with the recent rain starting to freeze on the trail we have to tread carefully; most everyone had already made a few attempts at stargazing.  Soon we see the light at the end of the tunnel (or rather end of the trail).   At about 6:30 we emerge from the woods onto the road just couple hundred yards from our cabin with the only casualty being a broken watchband.