TOUCHDOWN!
The sun is out. It is time for backpacking! Let’s go to Big Sur!
The sun is out. It is time for backpacking! Let’s go to Big Sur!
I had a big whompin hike planned for Saturday but I just wanted to sleep in. When I got up I thought if there was another hike closer to home that I could do and maybe take Journey as well. I thought about Jay Bird Canyon Falls. It has been 13 years since I was there. It should be flowing well but could I get there? There would be a lot of snow. I didn’t think they normally plow this road and thus I figured it was quite unlikely but decided to try it anyway. I had a backup plan to go to Bassi Falls if the road was all snowed in.
Here’s another Folsom waterfall. It looked a lot bigger from the road and definitely seemed to be more than 20 ft. high, but when I got down to it I realized it was only 15 ft. high at most. I won’t be including this on my website but I did take a photo of it, so here you go.
As of Mar 1, the snow pack in California is 92% of normal (north), 77% (central) and 76% (south). Rain is at 91% (north), 75% (central) and 76% (south). In the southern Sierra we are still quite a bit below average as of Mar 1. Certainly we have gained much ground since Jan 1 when the snow pack was 30% but March is going to be the make or break month. With the Great Blizzard happening this first weekend in March, I suspect we will end up slightly above average for the year. This makes me quite happy. DISCLAIMER: I wrote this post before the Great Blizzard. This past weekend has indeed put us over the top for snow pack this year. We are now above average overall but there is still a full month to go, so the final stats could still change for better or worse (if we don’t get any more snow this year).
I had to be in the Bay Area on Saturday afternoon for my daughter’s dance show. I had two choices for hiking: (1) I could leave early with Journey and hike in the Bay Area in the morning, then wait around all day until her dance show started. (boring), or (2) I could hike near home in the morning with Journey, leave her at home, and drive to the Bay Area in the afternoon. Option 2 seemed like the best idea at the time. I should have known better, especially as I drove to and back from Auburn and everyone seemed to be driving extraordinarily slowly. Very slowly. Well below the speed limit slowly. This was a bad omen for my drive to the Bay Area. I allowed 3 hours for the drive (twice as long as it normally takes), and I barely made it in time for her show. I had just a couple minutes to spare. Traffic was ridiculously bad. Oh I hate that drive. At least I made it.