Maya's Beautiful Tenaja Falls Hike

What makes hiking a serious matter is when you untimely  go home to Jesus while hiking. Meet-up.com hikes never overlook the risk and danger of trekking In the wilderness and every event posted comes with a waiver. Hike  at your own risk. Know your level. Your organizer is not your tour guide nor your baby sitter. Please, no dramas! 
Maya who didn't sound like a stickler to meet.com waivers described the hike to Tenaja Falls as one beautiful hike. It is! Just like the flowering sage I have never seen before. Maya's bubbly charm was for me one of the highlights of the beautiful hike.
It was a pleasant carpool ride with Maya and Juani with Lee on the wheel  of Maya's SUV to the trailhead to start with.  I was surprised to learn that Cleveland National Forest extends to the Riverside County. It felt like the trailhead is already part of the San Bernardino National Forest to me.
Tenaja which I naturally pronounce as tea-nah-ha given my Hispanic language background means bowl.  We never got to the bowl. We just decided to stick to the rivers and lakes that we were used for the moment. We had enough chasing waterfalls for the day. 
So literally, the Tenaja Falls found in the San Mateo Canyon Wilderness in the Riverside County  drains into a bowl. I wondered why would there be a fisherman's camp in the area. Maybe there's a fish bowl under the Tenaja Falls.
Juani Alvarez was my trail angel to this beautiful hike. I was hiking with Juani for the second time. The first  time was at the Airplane Monument trails in the Cuyamaca mountains in Julian about two years ago. Juani thought I have a good memory. I told her, I used a photo with her in it on a blog. Besides, she reminds of my sister who was born a little Juani until Bombom, a nephew, started calling her Tita Tits.
Maya's beautiful hike was never seemed intimidating to this snail mail hiker. The wildnerness was a phototographer's delight.  There were monkeys who never looked the same as their San Diego counterparts. 
The Santa Rosa Plateau wildflower brochure identifies this what I called a whatchamacallit flower as Foothill Deathcamas. My randomly wonderful fucked mind couldn't come up of any idea why a flower would be called a death camas. 
It turns out that this Foothill Death Camas  is a poisonous lily. It's bulb contains a steroidal toxin called zygacine. If eaten, the toxin causes muscular weakness, ataxia, nausea and vomiting, coma and finally death. Early Mormon settlers in Utah were once poisoned after eating Foothill Death Camas bulbs after learning from Native Americans that they were edible. At least, the Mormons went home to Jesus ahead of time and became latter  day saints sooner than they planned. 
"Don't be too hard on yourself."
Maya's pep talk sounded as sweet as I  have imagined blue dicks would be. 
Maya told me of her athletic nephew feeling weakened after hiking the same trails.
It would be a while before I probably be hiking with a group again. There is no need for theorIzing from dramatic experiences like muscle cramps, stomach upset, headaches among other complaints after walking under the heat of the sun at midday. I have heard about heat strokes before. Now I know where I easily meet Jesus who had died and who had since risen and before he even comes again










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