FEELING BLUE

My plan was to hike to Fantasy Falls on the North Fork Mokelumne River. I did not make it. But it was still a great day.

It is a long long long drive out to Salt Springs Reservoir. Along the way I saw two skunks and three raccoons in the road. That is a lot more wildlife than I usually see (not counting deer, squirrels, and birds). The first skunk was hilarious. As I drove up, he waddled off down the middle of the road with me following. He would not get off the road, even though there was plenty of opportunity for him. I could not pass him because the road was too narrow, so I followed him for a long time; finally he got off to the side so I could pass. The first raccoon did the same thing, except he took off at lightning speed. I did not think racoons could run so fast. According to the “internet” their top speed is 15mph, but I am certain this one was going quite a bit faster than that.

After all that adventure, it was time for an adventure of a different sort. I arrived at Salt Springs Reservoir in the dark, but I could not find where the picnic area was. There were no signs, except for one very unhelpful one. I even started walking down one path thinking it must be in that direction, but soon realized I was going on a very wrong path. By the time I finally found the correct trailhead, it was already getting light and I had wasted quite a bit of time. Argh. It is a very long 5 mile hike to the end of the reservoir. And mostly boring. How exciting is it to walk along a big reservoir, a reservoir that is incredibly low. How low was it, you ask? The reservoir is 5 miles long in length and quite wide of course, but right now it is only 3 miles long in length and probably only about 1/4 full in those three miles. Two miles from the end, there is no reservoir. There is just a river. The river was flowing pretty good, and actually too strong to cross (as I would find out later), but at this time of year, the reservoir should be mostly full, not so completely empty. Stupid drought. I’ve sure been saying that a lot lately.

At the end of the boring five miles you will find the Blue Hole (pictured here). At first I was not going to take a photo of it, thinking that it was too small, but I decided to go down to look at it, and when I got up to it, I thought it was just so cool, the way it slides down and hits a big rock ledge in the middle, sending the spray straight at you. So I just had to take a picture. I also measured it and found it is 24 ft. high in total, so actually it qualifies for inclusion on my website.

From the Blue Hole, the boring hike along the reservoir ends and the real fun begins. There is no more trail and it is another two miles up to Fantasy Falls; I really had no idea if it was possible to get to it via hiking. I had heard and read nothing about anyone ever doing this before. As I examined it on Google Earth, it looked feasible except for one particular spot, which looked extremely iffy. Then a few weeks ago, I found an entry on the internet where one guy claimed he hiked 4 miles up from the Blue Hole. Yet he mentioned nothing about Fantasy Falls, which he must have passed. I even wrote to him about it, but his response made things even more unclear. He said that the picture on his website was of Fantasy Falls, but it was clearly not a picture of Fantasy Falls. I highly suspected that he did not hike 4 miles up the river, and that he never did make it as far as Fantasy Falls. And now, after hiking up there myself, I am pretty sure that is true.

Yet there is a trail from the Blue Hole. It is very faint in places, and I lost the trail many times, but always came back to it. I finally got to the extremely iffy spot, where the cliffs come right down to the river. There was no continuing on from here. There were two options: cross the river, or attempt to climb up above the cliffs. I tried the river crossing first. I made it halfway across, at first it was just up to my thighs, but then realized I would not be able to make it the rest of the way. The river became much deeper and swift to continue any further. It was darn cold too. Strike one. What about the cliffs? Well, I made a few attempts in different places, and continually had to turn back down. Finally, on the very last try, I found a way up to the top, and I could see all the way up river (Fantasy Falls was out of sight, around a corner). The view of the Mokelumne Wilderness from the top of this ridge was absolutely stunning. The beautiful valley stretched out before me, with snow covered mountains way off in the distance, and towering cliffs looming over me from across the valley. I was in awe and wonder, and in a very real way it reminded me of this awesome song by Geoff Moore:
Every mountain, every valley
Your creation, it surrounds me
Every breath I breathe, every heartbeat
Every sunrise that You give to me
These and so much more, tell a story we cannot ignore
The evidence of God

I could also see that it might be possible to continue on and I actually might make it all the way to Fantasy Falls. However, by this point I had reached my turning around time. You should always have a turning around time, the time that you absolutely must turn back if you have not reached your destination. It took a lot of extra time attempting to find the trailhead, crossing the river, trying to find a way up the cliffs, and now I had reached the time limit. The waterfall was still a long way away. I estimated that it would be at least 45 minutes more to reach it, if not more. If had continued on, I would most definitely be hiking back in the dark. I had no light with me, I would have run out of water, and I would certainly be bonked from the hike as I was already at my limit physically, and I would probably be stuck out in the dark all night with the mountain lions (and skunks and raccoons). It was time to hike back. As it is, I made it back to the car only an hour before dark. Another 45 minutes up to the falls and back, plus time to photograph it, you do the math. Anyway, the good news is that I think it is actually possible to hike to Fantasy Falls, and I will definitely try it again now that I know the correct way to go. It probably won’t be anytime soon, but I will be back someday.

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