For the first part of the ascent, the trail is pretty well maintained, albeit lots of grass and other harmless plants protrude into the trail.
After topping out on the ridge, the descent is laden with waist-high foliage. It's manageable, but the ground is hard to see.
However, within a few minutes of tramping through the bush, I heard a loud buzzing sound in front of me near a bunch of flowers.
Thinking it was just some harmless flies (I was DEETed up already), I was about to pass through when I encountered the most frightening scene on a hiking trail: the wall of flowers before me was covered with dozens of bees. Stopping for a moment, I pondered whether I should cross the gauntlet of bees. But I decided against it. Bees are not my thing. So I turned back.
All in all, the Van Tassel Ridge trail seems fine, apart from the dense foliage encountered later. If not for the bees, I would've liked to have seen the falls.
While hiking, I met a nice gentleman named Gary who hikes the ridge quite often. He carried some pruning shears with him and was doing some light trail maintenance. Kudos to you, Gary, for making the first mile and a half so clean.
