Leon Turnbull Photography

Look ma, water! Is this Mars or is this California? What is your guess? If you said Mars, then I am sorry to say that you are incorrect (as unlikely as it seems that this would be California, and I can’t blame you for guessing Mars).

Of course, the big news from NASA a couple weeks ago was that they have apparently found tiny rivulets of water on Mars. I suppose that means Mars has more water than California right now. Sigh. But if they do have waterfalls like this one (or bigger), then I am wondering how can I get there to see them?

This is the South Fork Feather River and it is going right now at about 400 cfs. Obviously it is a controlled river, and every year they have a recreational release mainly for the kayakers. I really did not think they would have it this year, however, because of the drought. But surprise surprise, they did. I was here last year and despite the hecka long killer drive out to it and despite it being a small waterfall, I decided to come back again this year for a couple reasons: (1) I wanted to get down to it on the other side of the river where I would get a different (and possibly better) angle of the falls, and (2) There is nothing much else to see in California right now. (I’m serious: is there anyone that can take me to Mars?)

So it’s 4AM. Off we go … About 1800 hours later (give or take) I arrive at the dam and parking area. The water is flowing. That’s a relief. No kayakers in sight. I was a bit surprised about that but so much the better. I will have the waterfall all to myself today. I crossed the dam and scrambled up to the top of a ridge. I was thinking there would be a good trail traversing the ridge over to the falls. However, there really was not much of a trail and what there was was quite difficult to follow. Perhaps that is because I went off in the wrong direction, staying too high above the river. The route soon became far too brushy to continue. Dang. I was not expecting to have to do battle with the brush here. It was too late to try the other side of the river (where I went down last year). So, I backtracked my steps, and then tried a route further down closer the river, and fortunately I found a path through the brush and a slightly (only slightly) better trail too, which led all the way over to the waterfall. There was a big log blocking my way though. The only way past it was to go under it, and I had to shed my camera backpack to squeeze under, and as I did this I somehow managed to kick my backpack, which promptly started tumbling on its own downhill and towards the cliff, off of which it would promptly land in the river. It did not make it that far, fortunately, and stopped before it got to the cliff edge, but it did raise my anxiety level slightly. Needless to say, I was much more careful on the return trip, going back under that log. Once down near the falls, I found quite a lot of mist so I had to shoot from further back, but I had plenty of time before the sun arrived, and it was highly enjoyable. Such a long awful drive, but it was easily worth it to see some good water falling in California.

So what about El Nino and the big winter that is supposed to save us? I was really hoping we would have an early start to the winter this year, but it is October and we are still dry, and in fact was close to 100 degrees in late September and it still can’t seem to drop out of the 90’s (though maybe we are seeing signs finally that things will change in October). If we don’t get rain by December our reservoir will be dry (literally). It is currently 17 percent of capacity, and the 2nd lowest it has EVER been. And now for some more bad news: El Nino seems to be peaking already, or almost peaking. Remember what I said earlier about the two strong El Ninos that peaked early in summer/fall? Those two years of so-called strong El Ninos (1966, 1988) resulted in horrible winters in California. Now I am wondering if this so-called strong El Nino has peaked too early but hopefully it will still be ok, it has not quite peaked yet. Keep praying folks.