I arrived at the Leavitt Meadow trailhead to the sound of Thunder.
Big Thunder. Lightning. Hail. Huge Hail. Pebble Sized Hail. I took shelter in my car. It pelted the windows. I almost thought they might shatter. I would not want to be standing outside in this. Or hiking in this. The hail continued for about an hour. Followed by a steady rain for another half hour. So much for being one and a half hours early for my hike. There were another couple guys and a dog parking next to me that did the same thing. Waiting for the rain to stop before they started their backpacking trip. Finally the rain stopped at 6:30PM. I had cell service so I kept checking the radar during this time. It seemed that no more rain was coming for the evening so I got all my gear together quickly and started my hike. It was perfect timing, really. I would not have wanted to start hiking any later than this. In fact, if the rain had continued any later, I probably would’ve slept in the car and did the hike to the waterfall in the morning. But I didn’t want to do that, I wanted to backpack in and camp at the waterfall. It turned out to be a very pleasant evening hike. Cool temperatures with a nice breeze. The sagebrush had a wonderfully refreshing smell. There were a lot of puddles on the trail from the rain. There were no bugs. There were mosquitoes near the end as I hike through the forest after the breeze had stopped and I had to put on bug spray but when I got to my camping location, there were not many bugs there at all. I arrived at sunset, 8:30PM. Unfortunately, there was no easy access to water at the top of the waterfall but thankfully, I had enough water left to last the night. Barely. I would get more in the morning when I went down to the waterfall. I set up camp in the dark. It took longer than normal because I was using my old tent and it had been awhile since I have set it up (remember, my good one died on the last trip). I hopped into bed and went to sleep.
The forecast said it would rain more in the night, and more in the morning. I did not care about that, so long as I could take photos of the waterfall in the morning before the rain started. However, that did not happen. It did not rain at all. I slept fairly well, and woke up to an absolutely gorgeous morning. No mosquitoes at all. It was perfect. Thank you, Lord.
I scrambled down the steep hillside to the river. You have to cross the river to see the waterfall. This is the reason I did not bring Journey on this trip. I thought the river would be a lot higher and I figured she would not be able to cross it. As it turned out, the river was a lot lower than I expected. I think she could’ve crossed it. But she definitely would not have wanted to cross it. It was deep enough and slippery enough that she would’ve had troubles. Maybe it is a good thing I left her at home.
I spent a lot of time taking photos from different angles. West Walker River Falls is a beautiful 33 foot high waterfall. It is well hidden and off trail. When I was here a few years ago I walked right past the waterfall not knowing it was even there. Shame on me. I suppose I probably would’ve figured it out eventually but many thanks to my friend Mike who told me about it. After taking photos I gathered some water and hiked up the hill to my camp, made some coffee and enjoyed the beautiful morning.
On the hike back, I passed some people with a pack of horses. They told me to go way up the hill off the trail because they had a skitterish horse. Thankfully, there was a place to get way off trail. What if it was a much narrower spot? Anyway, one of them asked if I saw the beaver at the waterfall. There is a beaver at the waterfall? I never saw it, but it would’ve been cool to see one for sure. All I saw this time were some deer. I arrived back at the car at 10:30AM and drove home. It was a magnificent one night trip into the Hoover Wilderness.
A day off work. Some much needed stress relief. My plan was to go for an overnight trip to Sonora Pass and see a couple new waterfalls. I left home at about noon and arrived in late afternoon.
The first waterfall was an easy one and about a one mile hike along a rough dirt road. There were a lot of trucks driving up the road. It was almost like a freeway. Not for me. I just parked at the highway and walked up the road. Much more pleasant this way. Once at the creek, I scrambled up the creek to the waterfall, crossing back-and-forth a few times. Easy as pie. Apple pie.
Upper Leavitt Falls is a very lovely 71 foot high tiered waterfall. There was a storm coming in and so with clouds overhead, I was able to take photographs of the waterfall early. In fact, I was now about 1 1/2 hours early for my second hike. This was a good thing. It meant I would not be hiking in the dark. Unless I had any delays. Such as …. (Part 2 coming) …
Forty percent chance of thunderstorms for Lake Tahoe. That means there is going to be a thunderstorm. It is just a question of when and where. Would Journey and I get rained upon? I forgot my umbrella. That could be a problem.
When we arrived at the trailhead, there were clouds around but not threatening and it looked pretty nice. There was a breeze to keep the mosquitoes away and it was cool. Off we went. Journey was happy to be on trail again but she was lagging a bit. I’m not sure why she would be tired. I don’t think mom played fetch with her in the morning.
So, the waterfall … When I first heard about this one along the Tahoe Rim Trail, I thought it was right on Ward Creek. That is what was initially conveyed to me. However, upon further research I learned it was not on Ward Creek, but on a tributary. I also found a second waterfall in the area. I hoped to get to both of these today and hopefully they would still be decent. It is late in July now. The first one (the unknown one) is off-trail but on Google Earth it looked like a well defined trail going most of the way to it. I thought it would be quite easy for Journey. NOT! The trail was overgrown and had a lot of brush. Journey does NOT like brush. It was very hard for her. She followed me like a trooper though and she did very awesome. Eventually it got too brushy and I could see that the creek was just a trickle. It would not be worth going up to the waterfall. Instead of going back the same way through all the brush, we cut across Ward Creek and back up to the trail. Finally on a good path again, Journey was happy. And so was I.
The second waterfall is called McCloud Falls. I’m not sure how it got this name. It is 30 ft. high exactly. It would be much nicer in the spring but it was still flowing decent in late July. A very pretty waterfall along the Tahoe Rim Trail. The wind had died down now and the mosquitoes came out but they were not horrible. We took photos and had our dinner here. Then we hiked down (on trail), arriving back at the car at sunset. On the drive home on I-80 we had some rain and there was a heckuva lot of lightning about every 30 seconds, lighting up the sky all the way down the hill. Crazy stuff. It was a very lovely evening at Lake Tahoe.
Initially I was planning to hike in Lassen Volcanic National Park on Saturday by myself. I did not think Journey would want to get up at 4:30AM two days in a row, plus there are some hikes in the park I still want to do. However, I felt bad for Journey the previous day. She had a great time no doubt but it was tough and all off-trail. She loves running ahead of me on the trail, exploring every little thing, and she could not do that. She had to follow in my footsteps the whole time. I know I am overreacting. She loved the hike. Nonetheless I felt I owed her a good hike. Besides, I love hiking with her. It brings me great joy when she is having so much fun and so happy. Returning to Canyon Creek Falls in Lassen National Forest should be a good one for her. It is almost entirely all on-trail. Well, not so much. Sigh.
Once again we were up at 4:30AM. Once again Journey looked at me with an evil eye for disturbing her sleep (kidding).
The trail started off well. Journey was very happy. She was able to run ahead and explore. We came to the short off trail section. This started out great also. It was very easy, just as I remembered. We descended down the other side of the hill and that is when everything went to bat sh*t. The Dixie Fire ravaged this area in 2021. The manzanita brush has grown up since then. I could not find the main trail. It should be very well defined and easy to follow. What the heck? Finally I found it, but it is now very overgrown with manzanita. The trail was not easy to follow at all. For me, once on the trail it was not too horrible (yet. it won’t be long before this trail is impassable). For Journey, however, it was very bad. She had to walk through it and it was hard for her and very hard on her feet. Manzanita is not exactly soft to walk on. She was walking very gingerly as she tried to follow in my steps. This trail should be very easy but is only getting worse and worse now after the fire. Yet another trail going the way of the Dodo bird. Et tu, Brute?
We came to the Lower Canyon Creek Falls, 41 ft. high. The creek was not flowing very well. I was surprised by this considering that nearby Digger Creek Falls was quite nice the previous day. These creeks should be quite similar in size. It was a little disappointing.
My plan was to do the Spencer Meadow loop as I have done before but considering how overgrown the trail is I now had my doubts. Should we just go back? I did not want to subject Journey to more difficulty. We continued up the trail for a short distance and it became clear again before we reached the upper falls. Relief! Journey was happy again. The upper falls was looking quite pathetic so I did not even bother to take any photos of it. Above the upper falls the trail once again became very overgrown with manzanita and Journey had a very hard time but it was another short section and then it was clear again. The rest of the way back to the car was all good. There were probably about 1000 grasshoppers on this section. They were flying everywhere as we hiked through them. The hike ended up being about 5.5 miles in total. It was a wonderful morning in Lassen National Forest.
July 4. We were up north visiting my wife’s mom for the long weekend. I really wanted to take Journey hiking somewhere. I wanted to do something new but also something that we could get to in time before the sun got on it. She is not allowed in Lassen Volcanic National Park so I could not go there. I could go to Lassen National Forest, however. There was one hike that would work: Digger Creek Falls.
We were up at 4:30AM. Journey was not very appreciative about this disturbance to her beauty sleep but she would be excited once we reached the trailhead. We arrived at about 5:45AM.
It is a short hike up to the waterfall. The USGS topo map shows an old trail following the creek up to Heart Lake. It is not the official trail to Heart Lake but I was confident it would work and I have heard of others going up here before. The trail to the waterfall was not too bad but there were a lot of downed trees we had to climb and jump over. Journey was a trooper and did very awesome. There was only one that she could not jump and which I had to lift her over. (on the way back down I was getting ready to help her again but she surprised me and insisted on jumping over it on her own).
We arrived at the waterfall in short order. Digger Creek Falls is a very pretty 47 ft. high tiered cascade. The creek was flowing quite well for early July. I was pleased. In order to photograph the falls, I had to get right in the middle of the creek. It was really the best and only spot to photograph it. I left Journey beside my pack while I did this. She waited very patiently and was absolutely perfect. That’s my girl.
After the waterfall my plan was to continue on the old trail up to Heart Lake and then come back down on the official trail. It would make for a very nice loop and a perfect hike for Journey. It did not happen. After the falls, the trail became much much more difficult. I lost the trail many times and in fact, it was impossible to follow. We were essentially going off-trail. Lots of downed trees. It was slow going. Journey did very well to follow in my footsteps as I tried to find the best route for her up the mountain. We got very close to the lake but then the route became much worse: too difficult, too rocky. I could tell that Journey did not want to continue any further and I don’t blame her. We turned around to go back.
When we got back to the waterfall I gave Journey her breakfast. There were a few mosquitoes but they were not bothering me (though I think Journey may have gotten a couple bites). Mostly, I think the mosquitoes have migrated to higher elevations now. It ended up being about a four mile hike by the time we got back down to the car. Not as much as I had hoped and I felt bad about bringing Journey on a tough off-trail hike. It was hard and she could not run ahead on the trail as she normally loves to do. I would have to do something better tomorrow. Even so, it was a great morning hike for both of us in Lassen National Forest on Independence Day.
