I tried to get out in between the storms this weekend. One forecast said it would be cloudy all morning. The other said rain all morning. Which would it be? Neither! It boggles my mind why they can’t get the forecast correct two hours into the future. I arrived at the Table Mountain trailhead and it was sunny. Well not quite. Table Mountain was on the edge of the clouds, Oroville was clear. So it was still clouded over but I would be hiking to the west where there were no clouds. Would I make it in time? That is the question.
The answer is cows. Huh? You heard me. Cows. The cows this day were the worst I have ever seen them on Table Mountain. It started off all right. Journey and I made it down to Hollow Falls. I took a quick photo and we continued on. There is a new fence up blocking the official trail to Crevice Falls. I didn’t understand why there was a fence but I think I was about to find out. We came upon our first cows right in the middle of the trail. It was a narrow section and there was no way around them. I yelled at them to get a move on (mooov-on), and they started running away down the trail. At this sight, Journey thought the chase was on! She wanted to run after them. She really tried. She is so silly. We finally came to an open spot. The cows had stopped but now we could go around them. A couple of them started to charge us. I yelled at them to stop. We were caught in between two groups of cows. They wanted to get to their friends. To gang up on us. One of them started mooing very loudly. This alerted more cows in the bushes that I had not seen and they started running away down the trail. Journey felt this would be a good group to chase as well. We came to the Beatson crossing and the cows were again blocking our path. I thought if I could get across the creek we might leave them all behind. Since I could not get to the normal crossing, I crossed a bit earlier and started climbing up the hill. Again, more cows. Again, we were caught in between them and both sides started charging towards us. Again, I yelled at them. Once at the top of the hill we were finally onto wide open land. There were more cows up here as well, to my chagrin, but we were able to go around them. Well around them. Well off the main trail. By this time I was quite stressed. The cows made me stressed. I felt like going back but there was really no path back except through the middle of them. We continued and finally arrived at Crevice Falls.
The sun was out now. I was able to take some photos of Crevice Falls before it got too bright. Now what should I do? I was not planning just to go here to Crevice Falls, I had an additional spot I wanted to try, but with the sun being out now and with all the cows, I just did not feel like going any further. In addition to this, I had decided I would go back the long way towards Phantom Falls since all the cows seemed to be congregating along the Crevice Falls trail. It would be a lot more mileage. I should have done that. However, when I got back to the Beatson crossing, there were no cows along the Crevice trail. Maybe they had all mooov-ed on? I decided to take a chance. Eventually we caught up to them and this time it was even worse. They were blocking the entire path. There was no way around them and they were not moving away when I yelled at them. We had to climb up the hill, through the brush and poison oak, and then back down to the trail once we got past them. I think I avoided touching the oak but Journey definitely touched it, so I hope I don’t get it from her. I was tired of all the cows. Journey was tired of the cows as well. If you know her, she would never get tired of seeing cows, but she was, so this tells you just how much and how bad the cows were today.
Finally we made it back to Hollow Falls where we had our lunch. It was a crazy day on Table Mountain.
As of Feb 1, our California stats do not look so good. Snow pack is at 60% of normal (north), 53% (central), and 35% (south). Rain is at 77% (north), 51% (central), 43% (south). It is up quite a bit from Jan 1, but clearly we are still far behind average. The Southern Sierra in particular is in dire straits. We need a huge February and March to catch up. Having said that, voila! We have two monster storms hitting us this weekend. The first one was not really so big, actually. We just had 2.5 inches of rain in the foothills. I had wanted to go back to Oroville but they only had 1.5 inches. But the Bay Area? 4 inches of rain. Hmmmm, should I go back to Marin County one more time?
I asked my daughter if she wanted to hike with me. Shockingly, she said yes. Usually she wants to rest on the weekend because she is dancing 5 days per week, but for some reason she wanted to hike this weekend. And this would not be a particularly easy hike either.
I wanted to return to Big Carson Falls because I did not have a very good photo of it. Plus it should be absolutely rocking with all the rain. In fact, I was a bit worried we would not make it. There are three big creek crossings and after 4 inches of rain I thought they might be at flood stage.
I picked Nekoda up from her dorm at 7am and we got out to the trailhead by 7:30am. There is just one single parking spot so it’s a good thing we were there by sunrise. It was a Big Chilly morning for us to see Big Carson Falls but we warmed up quickly. It is a 700 ft. climb up the mountain and then a 600 ft. descent down to the creek and waterfall (and reverse that on the way back). The creek crossings were pretty tame. We rock hopped the first two without much difficulty. The third crossing I had to wade across but you don’t even have to do that one in order to see the waterfall. I went across to get a better photo angle but Nekoda did not bother with it. I was a little surprised the crossings were so easy. I have been down at this creek in the past when it has been uncrossable and I was expecting similar conditions after so much rain.
Big Carson Falls is 56 ft. high. We chilled out at the base of the falls enjoying it very much. It was gorgeous and flowing much better than the last time I was here. I was pleased. I think Nekoda was pleased as well. She thought the hike was a bit too hard though. She asked me which of my muscles were sore after the hike. I told her none. I don’t think she believed me. We ended the day with a pizza lunch. It was another magnificent morning in Marin County.
This is of course the famous viewpoint at Little Phantom Falls with Phantom Falls in the background.
It is funny how this view has significantly changed. When I was last here the only way to see it was to climb out on a very dangerous rock outcrop with a huge dropoff. I chose not to do it that time because the rocks were very wet and slick. Also, the view of Little Phantom Falls by itself was only obtainable by crawling through poison oak and to the edge of a cliff. Now … ??? They have cleared away all the trees and poison oak and now anyone and their chihuahua can easily come to see Little Phantom Falls with the view of big old Phantom Falls in the background. Is this a good thing? You be the judge. You don’t need to climb out on the scary rock anymore although you still can do it. I did not this time because I had Journey with me but I’m not sure you would get a better view even if you did climb out on it.
The old man returns to Phantom Falls. It was my birthday. I took the day off work and went for a hike. To one of my favorite places. With Journey.
Journey is a high energy, high maintenance dog. That is not a bad thing, it is just the way she is. It is built into her genes from her breed. She will play fetch with mom for an hour non-stop and still not be tired. I don’t think I am exaggerating much. She loves her walks with daddy and also “needs” a walk every day. That’s not possible every day but I try to take her most days. I knew a 9 mile hike at North Table Mountain would not be a problem for her even though it was twice as long as anything we have done so far.
We arrived at sunrise. No one else was around. Yet. It is a very popular place, even in winter now. Even on a weekday. It never used to be popular in winter before. There were no cows around either. Yet. We began our journey to Phantom Falls.
I have to say I was disappointed with the amount of water flowing. I saw a photo from the 15th and it was flowing quite well. Since then they had 5 inches of rain. It should be absolutely amazing today. But alas, it was no better than the flow on the 15th. It was not horrible, it was good, but definitely not amazing, which is what I was expecting and hoping for. Indeed I was worried about crossing the creeks with Journey. Would she be able to even do that? Well, it was not really an issue at all.
We stopped at Ravine Falls first. Then to the viewpoint at Phantom Falls. Then we crossed over Phantom Falls and continued on, looking for another waterfall, however the creek was dry (disappointing). I did see a coyote, which was cool. Journey did not see it. We also saw a bunch of bones from an eaten cow. Someone had a feast (I assume it was a mountain lion, not the coyote, but who knows). Journey was very interested in sniffing all the bones. We came back to Little Phantom and Lower Ravine Falls, had our lunch at Lower Ravine Falls, then continued on back to the car. Journey did not want to cross the creek at the top of Lower Ravine Falls. It was not really that deep but I guess it was too deep for her and she could not see the bottom where she was stepping. We went upstream a bit and found a better crossing. It was a good 9 mile hike by the time we were all done. Journey was very tired and slept on the drive home (but was raring to go again once we got home). She did awesome on the hike. She was incredibly patient while I took photos of all the waterfalls. She listened well and was so happy. It was by far the best hike we have had thus far together.
As for the cows? We came close to them a couple of times. Journey was entranced. Can I go chase them, daddy? Pretty please? They certainly kept a close eye on her as we walked by. All in all, it was a fantastic birthday hike at North Table Mountain.
My second hike of the day was in nearby Kentfield. There were a ton of cars parked by the trailhead. I was a bit shocked. It was a rainy day and there were still this many people out hiking? And it started pouring. It was not supposed to rain until the afternoon, but it was raining. And hard. Maybe everyone else was not expecting it to rain until the afternoon as well.
Well a little rain has never stopped me. The hike started out with a very steep uphill. This road was crazy steep. After a few hundred feet of climbing it leveled out at a point where I needed to drop down off the road and down to the creek. It wasn’t too steep of a descent, thankfully, and I made it down to the waterfall in short order.
Bill Williams Creek Falls is 21 ft. high. Whoever Bill Williams is I have no idea. When I got home I looked up the name, however, and found this: “Legend has it that a ‘treasure’ lies buried somewhere on Mount Tamalpais. Bill Williams, after whom Bill Williams Creek is named, is said to have deserted the Confederate Army taking along a chest of stolen Confederate gold.” I did not find any treasure down at the creek except for this pretty waterfall. Nonetheless, I was expecting more water in the creek. There was a lot more in the first waterfall and the creeks are about the same size. It is difficult to take photos in the rain but I managed. Thanks again to Mike for telling me about this one.
I hiked up the mountain and then back down to the car. I decided to skip the third hike that I had planned. I was supposed to meet Nekoda for lunch. I wanted her to come hiking with me but she dances five days a week. She says she needs to rest on the weekend. I suppose that is smart. At least she can have lunch with her old man. It was another beautiful morning in Marin County.
