500 MILES
500 miles. Would you drive that far to see a waterfall on a day hike? What if there is a four year drought and there are no other waterfalls flowing in the state and this was a special weekend release on the river?
Oh did I mention that you needed to get up at 3am in order to arrive in time for good lighting conditions for taking photos?
Well the waterfall madman would. And in fact … did.
PG&E was having a weekend recreational release on the Pit River for kayakers increasing the flow from 400 to about 800 cfs. I do like to take advantage of these releases as well, especially in the summer, and with double the flow it would be amazing. Wouldn’t it?
The last time I was here the flow was about 500 cfs so I expected it to be utterly spectacular today. It was also the hike I badly twisted my ankle on. The trail hasn’t gotten any better. I think worse, probably. It is steep and very crumbly with many loose rocks. I can easily see how I twisted it before. Needless to say, I was extra careful hiking down this year. No close calls, but I went down the wrong way, thinking it would be a better way, but it ended up worse with more loose rocks to fall on, more brush to smash through, and more poison oak to rub all over my body with. Later when I went back up the mountain, I went the correct way of course.
When I got down to the falls it did not seem to be turned up yet. According to the website, the release was supposed to happen at 8am so I expected to see a much increased flow very shortly. The flow was definitely more than last time I was here but it did not seem to be double the flow for my good pleasure. I could tell it was more because last time I could get right down up close to the falls but if I did that this time I’d be having to walk through the water and get my wet feet. I didn’t dare go down today. It would be suicide (literally) if suddenly the flow was increased any more. I stayed in a safe place, I took some photos and waited. And waited. And waited. As it turned out the flow was actually increased the previous night. When I finally realized it wasn’t going to be getting any better, I made the hike back out of the canyon.
I stopped for one last gander from the falls overlook. Some kayakers came up to look at the falls and I heard them say it’s HUGE and they were all quite excited about it. Well I guess they would know but it seemed to me to be closer to 500 than 800 cfs. I guess I was just thinking the falls would span the entire River at that flow, though the kayakers’ comments definitely made me a bit happier that I made such a long drive up here to see it. But next time I come here it will be 1200 cfs at least.