ON STRANGER TIDES
When I heard from a friend last weekend that the Foresthill Rd was open already, I was in shock. How strange is this? There should be 5-10 feet of snow on the road up there right now in a normal year, but with the meager 12 percent of average snow pack we have this year, that means there is no snow on the Foresthill Rd. This is probably a record for the earliest the road is open. Yet the creeks do have water in them from the small amount of snow that is melting and from some recent rain (though it will not last very long). I was not even thinking about Foresthill until last weekend, but that changed quickly. I figured I had better get up to my favorite area before all the water is gone.
On Monday, I had an epic all day hike planned out. It was going to be awesome, and I would have a brand new waterfall in the bag. However, by Friday afternoon I had serious doubts about this epic adventure. From my initial calculations, I figured this new waterfall would be in the shade by about noon. That would be perfect, giving me plenty of time to get down there and back out before dark. When I re-calculated on Friday, I realized that was incorrect. It would actually be in the sun much later, possibly until as late as 4PM. There is no way I could wait down in the canyon anywhere near that long, I would be hiking back in the dark for certain, and I definitely did not want to hike all the way down there and not be able to take a good photograph of the waterfall. This is really important in my world, and I plan all my hikes to be able to arrive at the waterfall destination in good lighting conditions. If the lighting is bad, I will not even take any pictures. Besides all this, but I had doubts about my back. On an all day hike, I would have to carry a lot more water, and also a lot more gear. My backpack would be a lot heavier, and I did not think my back could handle such a load on a such a long hike (it would be 3500 ft. of elevation hiking back out of the canyon). Also, I wasn’t even sure about my route. It would be crazy steep. Could I even make it to this waterfall? All these doubts overwhelmed me, and so as I got into bed that night I made a final decision and opted for Plan B. I still want to try to make it to this other waterfall someday, but I will have to figure out a better plan on how to do it.
Plan B was a much easier trek back to Tadpole Canyon, where I have been 3 times before. On the last time there, I noticed another waterfall in upper Tadpole Canyon. I did not have time to check it out then, but I vowed to return. And so I did yesterday. It is a strange waterfall, but a very pretty cascade. I say strange because it is bigger than it looks. Up close it seems more like 20 ft. high, but it actually is 41 ft. high. (I measured it). There is an upper 13 ft. section you cannot see from the base of the falls (in this photo), and the bottom section that you can see here is 28 ft. high. Anyway, it is certainly very pretty. And also very hidden away. I suspect very few others ever knew this was here. You would not see it if you were on the normal route along the Iowa Hill Ditch. For some reason, the last time I was here I hiked a much higher route, and that is when I saw it. Lucky me. And lucky you, cuz now you know about it too.
Speaking of strange, I learned later that when I was here, there was a drunk that put his car into the ditch on the other side of the road immediately opposite the Beacroft trailhead. It is so odd that I did not see it when I drove here, and when I left two hours later, I saw nothing also. I wonder also that if I had gone on that epic hike as initially planned, I would be driving up past here earlier in the morning, and perhaps I would have run into the drunk coming down the hill. Perhaps God’s angels were keeping me safe by giving me all those doubts on Friday. You gotta wonder.