Friday morning I took some time off work to go back to Dutch Creek in Coloma. I knew I had to work late Friday night, so I was able to take the morning off for a hike.

My goal: Get to the base of Johntown Creek Falls. The one waterfall in this fantastically stunning area that has eluded me thus far. Surrounded by steep cliffs and dangerous drop-offs, these beautiful waterfalls are difficult and deadly to get up close to. Would I be foiled again?

It is spring time in California. We have not had rain in a couple weeks now. The flowers are blooming. And yet, Dutch Creek was still flowing rather strongly. I was surprised to say the least. It had a bit less flow than when I was here last time, but still very nice. I was definitely worried it would be down to something not much more than a trickle. It is also very nice along the trail right now with the wildflowers blooming. I saw many sorts, and do not know the names of them all. But I do know poppies, and there is quite a beautiful display of them on Murphy Mountain. Definitely these would be worth seeing even with no waterfall. And the poison oak along the trail is most definitely in leaf now, and it is extremely abundant. Last time I was here, it was not in leaf and thus very difficult to see. Now I could see that it is just all over the place up here. It is not surprising that I picked up a rash last time I was here, because it is difficult to avoid even when you can see it.

My friend Rob recently was here and showed me pictures of Johntown Creek from the base. How did you get down there, I asked, incredulously. He told me that he crossed the creek above Johntown Creek Falls, and scrambled down a path on the other side. I was skeptical, knowing that the terrain is very steep on the other side. But he told me that “it wasn’t too bad”. Yeah right. So anyway, that was my plan, to follow in his steps. I crossed the creek without even having to get my feet wet (though I had brought my water shoes in case needed). I found a path on the other side where people had obviously gone before (and many more than just Rob), and it looked fairly easy at first. Then it started to get steeper as it descended down to Dutch Creek Falls. I proceeded very carefully now, not wanting to fall. It got steeper and steeper the lower I descended. Finally I came to Dutch Creek Falls, and found steep drop-offs all around. No way to proceed any further. Not too bad, yeah right. I know Rob is part mountain goat, but did he really descend this cliff? That would be just incredible. Well, no way was I going down this cliff. I took pictures of Dutch Creek Falls from here, then turned around to go back.

As I turned around, I noticed a rock outcrop over towards Johntown Creek Falls. I decided to go take a look see. As I got there and peered over the rock outcrop, I noticed a path down to the bottom! It was hidden behind this rock, but it was very descendable. Aha, so this is how Rob got to the bottom! I followed it down, and it was steep, but not too bad, just like Rob had said. At the bottom, you can go back over to Dutch Creek for a nice view there, or over to the base of Johntown Creek Falls. I did both, but first went over to Johntown Creek. It is so beautiful at the bottom of this waterfall, as it is tucked into a lovely little cove area. I measured this main drop of Johntown Creek to be 48 ft. high. The waterfall is bigger than this though, as it continues down in a large slide below this main drop, but it is difficult to see the bottom slide from here. This is such a spectacular location, even though I have the pictures I want now, I will definitely be returning here again someday.

Spring is definitely in the air here. The rain is gone. The sun is out. The flowers are blooming. I do not think I have heard the following words/phrases at all this year in California: “drought”, or “water restrictions”. And yet, as of March 1, we were only at 90 percent of normal snowpack, according to the DWR. With no more rain on the horizon this month (it seems), we will probably end up being right around average for the year. Folsom Lake is currently 50 percent full, and when the snow melts (and it is definitely melting right now), then it will fill up, so we will certainly be okay for this year. However, considering it is an El Nino year, one would have expected (and hoped) that our snowpack this year would be very well above average. That just did not happen. It will be another short waterfall season here, this spring, I think.

And yet, because our precipitation this year was well spread out over the winter, it looks like it is going to be a very good year for wildflowers in California. Spectacular, even.

This is a shot of some of those pretty flowers on Table Mountain in Oroville. And a waterfall in the background to boot. Is that sweet or what?

The waterfall is Hollow Falls, one of the many on Table Mountain, and one of five I got to on this day. I had not been to Hollow Falls before, and it is a pretty nice one. You can even get down to the bottom of it fairly easily.

The flowers on Table Mountain were just starting to come out when I was here (that was a couple weeks ago, now they are probably quite nice). The one exception to this, however, was right at Hollow Falls, where I saw these really nice ones. I tried to get a shot of them with the waterfall in the background. I am rather fond of this one.

After work last week I headed up to Auburn to go to the Black Hole of Calcutta waterfall. This is an easy hike located on a well traveled trail (in more ways than one), starting from the very popular Confluence area and hiking down river, across the historic No Hands Bridge, and continuing on to the waterfall.

It is a pretty exciting 40 ft. high falls, though it is dry or trickling for much of the year, and so must be seen during the rainy season. The creek flow is substantially reduced now (due to the recent reduction in the rainfall here), but I find it much prettier when the flow is a bit lower like this, and easier to photograph, with no heavy mist at the base of the falls.

It was a weekday and late in the day. I saw a few people along the trail on the way to the waterfall. But once I arrived at the falls and started taking my pictures, I saw no one else along the trail for the rest of the day except for one lone female jogger who came along the trail with her small dog (much to the excitement of Kaya, who also was with me), and heading back towards the Confluence. I thought that would be the last I saw of her that day. Well …

After shooting the falls, I decided to continue hiking down river for a short distance, just for the heck of it. Actually, I wanted to get a full hour hike in this day for exercise. I am trying to lose weight and stuff, and hiking is certainly a great way to do that. I am down 12.5 pounds so far and am quite rather pleased about it (and halfway to my goal of 25 pounds). Anyway …

I continued on the trail with Kaya for a while and then turned back. I was walking along minding my own business, lost in my thoughts, and then I looked up and saw two big brown things on the trail ahead of me. Not lions or tigers or Sasquatch. But they were most certainly bears! They looked to be about medium sized, probably juveniles. When they saw me, they scampered off (as bears do best) into the bushes and up the hillside. I am not even sure if Kaya saw them or not, as she was far too occupied sniffing every little thing we passed along the trail (as she always does). The bears were right in my path of where I wanted to go, so I waited a few minutes before proceeding to allow them to clear out, then I continued on slowly. But they had not exactly cleared out. I saw them again, this time on a side trail up on the hillside, and one of them was standing on his hind legs looking down at me. Obviously, they were very curious. But when they saw that I saw them, they scooted off quickly into the bushes, making loud noises whilst scurrying away, and I never saw them again after that.

Once I arrived back at the waterfall, I saw the female jogger again with her dog, returning along the trail. I told her that I had just seen a couple bears about 3 minutes up the trail, and she told me she was heading up that steep side trail, exactly where I had seen the bears. She seemed a bit unsure of what to do, but continued on her way anyway. Hopefully, the bears were long gone by then and she never saw them.

It was definitely interesting and exciting to see bears out hiking. I was surprised because it is a popular trail, and so very close to the city and highway; and also, I would have thought they would still be hibernating at this time of year (but I guess they think it is spring already, or something!). I love seeing bears while out hiking, and it is pretty rare when I see them, though I have seen them quite a few times before while hiking in California. Interestingly, I have *never* seen a bear in any national park I have been to (which is usually the place where you would see them the most), but I have seen them in other places in the wilderness.

After work last week I headed out to Colfax and down Yankee Jim Rd. to the North Fork American River.

The creeks down there were all rushing. There were waterfalls falling down the side of the cliffs beside the road, on unnamed streams. Devil’s Falls was going crazy. I have only seen it like this once before, and that was many years ago. I didn’t have a lot of time before dark, so I headed up to Mexican Gulch. Most of the year, this little creek is dry or just a trickle. But today it was flowing stupendously. There is a nice little cascade, 34 ft. high, flowing down the drainage right beside the road, and I wanted to photograph it.

Getting up to the cascade was a little more difficult than I imagined however. I had to scramble up through the low hanging brush, crawling on my knees to get through it, then came to a spot where I had to scramble up and over a big rock and down to the creek in front of the cascade. Then I had to setup my camera in the middle of the stream, taking care not to slip on the wet rocks.

That is when I realized my favourite tripod head was broken! Ugh, it was like the attachment had just broken loose and it is now very wobbly, and not tight. When I got back home, I could see no way to tighten it back on, it just seems to have come un-attached. That sure bugs me, but fortunately I have another one I can use for now.

Well, I managed to get this nice photo of Mexican Gulch despite my tripod issues.

On Saturday I took off up north to Oroville’s Table Mountain area for a good ‘ole waterfall hike. I took my dog, Kaya, as well. She loves a good ‘ole waterfall hike.

I had envisioned a beautiful sunrise shot from the overlook at Phantom Falls. I had mentioned this cryptically a couple weeks ago, but I hurt my back that weekend, so my plan to go here fell through. My back is better now, so I thought to try again. This time, though, the weather did not co-operate. I arrived in Oroville to overcast skies. It was dark, though, so I couldn’t really tell if I might get a decent sunrise or not from Phantom Falls. It is a 1.5 mile hike to the waterfall, so I needed to start hiking in the dark to get there in time for sunrise. So off I went …

And immediately got bogged down in a big swamp. There is no trail on Table Mountain, you just need to work your way cross country in the general direction you want to go. With all the rain recently, there is a lot of standing water on the mountain top, and since it was still dark and I couldn’t really see much, I walked right through it. Uck! Now my boots are soaked and I just started the hike. I found my way through the swamp, and fortunately, found dry land for the rest of the hike.

Table Mountain is a wonderful place to visit if you like wildflowers. There is an amazing display here in the spring, and this year, it is going to be spectacular because of the good winter rains we have had. Already, the flowers are starting to pop up. They are all over the mountain, and since there is no official trail, it is rather difficult to hike here without stepping on the flowers. It is hard enough to avoid them in the daylight, but in the dark it is extra difficult. Well, it did start getting light out fairly quickly, so I was able to see where I was going … eventually …

And that’s when I came upon the crazy cows. The cows are also all over the mountain, and most likely, in your direct path to where you want to go. I don’t know why, but they make me rather nervous. I put Kaya on the leash so she wouldn’t go chasing after them (or vice-versa). I made a direction to head around the cows, giving them as much space as possible, and not get too close to them. They watched me closely. When I got by them, they started trotting after me! I think they were preparing to attack. Now I was the one watching them closely. But I guess they figured human meat (or dog meat, I’m not sure which) wasn’t so tasty after all, so they stopped following me, and went back to eating their grass.

I arrived at the Phantom Falls overlook shortly after sunrise. There was no pretty sunrise, just overcastness. That was okay, because it meant that I would be able to see plenty of other waterfalls here as well. There are a lot of waterfalls on Table Mountain, and I managed to see five of them on this day, but there are others as well, and I will definitely need to come back here someday soon and get out to them.

Phantom Falls was flowing quite nicely, though I thought there might be more water flowing in the creek than there was. The overlook at Phantom Falls is definitely a spectacular one. It is also an incredibly steep drop-off. Now Kaya was making me nervous, wandering around close to the cliff. She is a very sure-footed dog, but she did once almost go over the brink of a waterfall when I wasn’t watching her. I told her to lie down near my bag while I took my photos, which she did very patiently. She is such a good dog.

Once done with Phantom Falls, I made my way around to some of the other waterfalls in the area, and I will post some of those pictures later. Afterwards, we made our way into Oroville for lunch, and I bought Kaya a hamburger to reward her for the good hike she did. She deserved it. And of course, she really enjoyed eating a bit of “cow”.