The Apr 1 final snow pack results are in. Unfortunately it is not a joke. Or perhaps it is a very sad joke. The snow pack is just 6% for northern California, 20% for Central Sierra, 33% for Southern Sierra. Most of the snow we had melted in March of course and we had no precipitation. We had a nice April storm but this did not add to the snow pack, it was melted in a couple days. It did help the reservoirs, I suppose. Next winter we are looking at a El Nino, possibly a super (strong) El Nino. That does not necessarily mean we will have a good winter. Remember all the hype for the super El Nino in 2016? We ended up with just an average winter that year.
I had plans this weekend to do a quick overnight trip to visit a couple waterfalls I discovered last year. It would have been awesome if I could have made it.
I expected there would be 2-4 inches of snow from the April storm. There was about 3 inches. It was enough to make the hiking a lot more difficult and tiring than I anticipated. My major worry was where to park my vehicle overnight. I could not drive down the road because of the snow. I did not want to park overnight along the busy highway. There was nowhere else to park. My last ditch plan was to park back at the Peddler station and walk along the highway for a mile. There was an easy path to walk well off the highway. Well, it would have been easy if there wasn’t any snow. Nonetheless, I think it was a good safe choice to park at Peddler.
I did not see any bear tracks in the snow (a bit surprising) but I did see fresh mountain lion tracks. On the second day I saw more fresh mountain lion tracks. And there were older tracks as well, so there is definitely a lion cruising around this area. I did not see him. I suppose that is a good thing.
My planned hike was 6 miles half of which is off trail. The on trail part was easy. The off trail part not so much. There was quite a bit of brush and it was slow going. With over a mile left to go I came to a hard stop. An unnamed creek. Roaring. Uncrossable. This was not even the main creek that I knew I would have to cross (which is a bigger creek than this one). I was not expecting so much flow in this little thing. It is no doubt due to all the snow melting from this last storm. Last week probably I could have crossed this one easily. Not today.
It was almost sunset and I was very tired. I set up camp beside this unnamed creek, ate some food, and went to bed. It was very windy. The wind was battering my tent like there was no tomorrow. It was relentless. My tent held up well. This was the first good test for my new Durston tent and it passed admirably. I had to go out once to tighten one side because it seemed looser than the other side but after that, all was good. Of course I still could not sleep with the wind howling. I prayed to God to let it stop. At midnight, the wind stopped. Just like that. Now considering that the forecast said it was going to be windy all night and that is what I was expecting, I say this is a miracle. Whatever you think, it did allow me to get some sleep.
In the morning I consulted my map. I did not want to go home with nothing to show for it. It looked like there could possibly be a waterfall on this unnamed, uncrossable creek, just a short distance downstream. Off I went exploring. It was brushy but I was able to find a way through it, and before long I found my waterfall!
I am calling this unnamed waterfall West Fork Tragedy Creek Falls. It is the west fork of Tragedy Creek so it makes sense. It is 48 ft. high. It has multiple segments and I took quite a few photos. My trip was not a complete failure after all.
I went back to camp, ate breakfast, and hiked back to the car. I was home by 1:30PM. It was a quick and very interesting overnight trip in Eldorado National Forest.
It was about 42 degrees at night. Journey was warm enough with her two coats plus my sleeping bag liner over her. In the middle of the night we got up to go to the bathroom. As soon as she got out of the tent she started growling and tried to chase something in our camp. I always have her on leash at night for this very reason. I don’t need her chasing after some animal in the night. I don’t know what it was but she certainly saw something.
In the morning we hiked to Upper Pauley Falls. Yet another discovery by waterfallswest. It is off trail but not difficult. The viewpoint is along the side of a cliff so I was worried and had to be careful about Journey getting too close to the edge. When my kids were little it was the same thing. I am paranoid but safety comes first. Upper Pauley Falls is 43 ft. high, a gorgeous multi-tiered drop. The viewpoint was a very good one. We spent some time here and then hiked back down. The middle falls is just below the upper falls but I could see no easy way to get over to it on this side of the creek. We crossed the bridge and tried the other side. Again, we found a nice viewpoint on the edge of the cliff. The middle falls was very nice as well.
We headed back to camp for breakfast. I always bring a special breakfast of Journey’s favorite meal even though it is heavy to carry. After eating, we packed up camp and hiked back down the trail. Once she had her pack back on Journey was noticeably dragging and going slowly. Was the pack hurting her? Was she too tired? She was fine on the way to the waterfall and back (with no pack on). I checked over the pack and it seemed to be in good order. I did not really understand but I think maybe there were a couple things going on: Firstly, I was walking much faster than the previous day. Going downhill and the trail was in good condition, I felt good, and I was hiking much quicker than the 1.5 mph pace I did on the previous day which was a very difficult uphill climb. Journey on the other hand was going the same speed. That is ok! Hike Your Own Hike and all that, which is exactly what she was doing. I had no problem with her going this speed and I waited patiently for her, not trying to encourage her to go faster than she wanted. We had lots of time. It took a couple hours to hike the 3 miles back to our lunch spot on the previous day where we stopped again. Journey was definitely tired but I noticed now that she had a sore on her leg. Was this from the pack rubbing against her leg? It did not make sense. I checked it! Did I not check it well enough? Now I was worried about the pack hurting her too much so I decided to carry it for her the rest of the way. It was about 4 miles back to the car and it helped her enormously.
Also, we did not go back the same way. Instead of going back down the Second Divide Trail with all the tree blowdowns we went back on the Third Divide Trail. This was shorter and was far better. There were only a couple blowdowns on this section. It did mean we had to do a road walk at the end to get back to the car and Journey had to be on leash for that part. All in all, I think it was a better choice. I suppose we could have just hiked from the Third Divide trailhead in the first place but the parking lot was gated and there would have been no place to park overnight. Why was the parking lot for Third Divide closed? The Third Divide is also popular with mountain bikers. We saw three groups of bikers on the way down. Fortunately they all passed us when Journey and I were together and stopped for a break. Journey had a lot of energy (without her pack on) and for the most part she was running far ahead of me. I was worried a biker was going to zoom past and scare her but I did not want to call her back because she was having too much fun going down the trail. Thankfully we did not see any other bikers.
We arrived back at the car very exhausted and drove home. It was an awesome overnight backpacking trip in Tahoe National Forest.
Winter is dead. Spring snow melt is in full swing and it will not last long. The snow pack in northern California is only 28% of normal and it is only going down. April 1 is the key date for end of winter. We have had no storms in March. There is no miracle March.
What this means is that the snow melt is about one month ahead of normal. Northern California is past peak flow (indeed, I don’t think we really even had a peak this year). Southern California has not reached peak flow yet but it will soon. The waterfalls are flowing right now, a month early, and waterfall season will not be long. It is going to be a very bad summer.
I had planned this backpacking trip for mid April but I had to move it up a month because of the early snow melt. My plan: Upper Pauley Falls in Tahoe National Forest. You may know about Pauley Falls in Downieville (pictured here) but probably had no clue there is an Upper Pauley Falls (and a middle one as well). I have had my eye on these waterfalls for quite awhile and I wanted to bring Journey here on a one night trip. It would be a very long day hike so an overnight backpacking trip sounded perfect to me.
My route would be 8 miles one way on the Second Divide Trail with 2000 ft. of elevation gain. This would have been all right for us except for one thing. Firstly though, we stopped at spunky little 15 ft. Pauley Falls in Downieville. It was early when we arrived. The flow was strong, about 120 cfs. Snow melt was in full force on Pauley Creek. It was a very quick stop then we drove a couple more miles to the Second Divide trailhead. The road is very narrow with steep dropoffs and few turnouts. I hate these types of roads but I saw no other cars, thankfully. At the trailhead, there is essentially only room for one car to park. That car was me. There was no one else here yet on Saturday morning.
We started up the trail. At first the going was very good. A nice gentle grade. Before too long we came along the first of MANY tree blowdowns. Some of them were extremely difficult to get by, especially for Journey. This was very tiring and made the hike 10 times more difficult than it should have been. I was surprised because this is a popular mountain bike trail, I thought it would be clear, but I guess it was because we were the first ones up here this year? I was worried we would come to an impassable section and we would have to turn back. After the intersection with the Third Divide Trail, however, there were not any more blowdowns (or maybe only a couple). By this time, however, we were dead tired and only half way through the hike. We stopped for lunch and took a big rest along Pauley Creek. Journey flopped out on the dirt ground after she ate. We still had 1000 ft. to climb from here and no more gentle grade either.
At least there were no more blowdowns. That made the hiking a bit easier. We were only hiking about 1.5 miles per hour so it was taking longer than I expected. Eventually though, we made it up the bridge over Pauley Creek near the upper falls. I thought there would be a camping spot here. There was no camping spot and no access to the water either. I could continue to the top of the falls where I was certain there would be camping but that was another 300 ft. or so of elevation. We were too tired for that. Instead we retreated back down the trail about a quarter mile to where I had seen a camping area along the creek. This was the perfect choice. It was a fantastic wide open area. We setup camp and ate dinner. By now it was late. We would go up to the waterfalls in the morning. I read some of my book. Journey was completely puckered out. We got into the tent and went to bed. It was a tiring but fantastic first day in Tahoe National Forest.
I returned to Upper Bidwell Park in Chico. They received an additional 2 inches of rain in the past week (after the big storm the prior week) so I was sure the waterfalls here would still be flowing well.
As Journey and I hiked down the trail there were many little streams flowing along down beside the trail, sometimes in the middle of the trail. Other little creeks had very good flow. These are all normally dry. This was a great sign. Lovejoy Falls and Iron Canyon Falls would be roaring. Right?
We came to the Lovejoy Falls stream. It was pathetic. It was worse than when I was here before. What the heck? Why isn’t this creek flowing better? Indeed it should be very strong. Iron Canyon was the same way. It barely had any flow at all. It was all quite disappointing.
Iron Canyon Falls is 63 ft. high. I have not been to it before. There is a very interesting slot canyon you can go down to get to the bottom of it. I was not sure if Journey would be able to do it but a friend who has a dog said it was not a problem for his pooch. Indeed Journey had no trouble getting down the slot. I, on the other hand, did have a slight issue. There is a very narrow spot at the bottom and I got stuck trying to go through it. I had to take my backpack off then I was able to squeeze through, pulling my backpack down after me, with Journey following along behind. We made it. It is an incredibly cool spot. Even with the low flow there was a lot of spray from the falls and it was difficult to take photos. I can’t imagine taking photos down here at high flow (but a friend of mine has a great photo from the bottom – how did he manage?). Anyway, I will definitely be back here again when there is more water. Give me more more more.
We climbed back up the slot and over to Lovejoy Falls. Then we hiked back to the car and drove home. Even though the water flow was disappointing, it was still a gorgeous hike in Upper Bidwell Park.
It was dance show weekend so my wife and I had to go to the Bay Area to see our daughter perform. Leaving at 5AM so Journey and I could do a hike beforehand was an allowed thing. Let’s go!
This was going to be a 4.5 mile hike and all on trail so not difficult, and no ticks, and no poison oak. What a relief.
After a short distance we came to a creek crossing and lo and behold there is a waterfall here! A surprise waterfall! It was not exactly a spectacular one but I thought it was worth taking a photo, so I got out my camera gear and set up in the creek. I was not paying attention and I did not hear the group of hikers coming up behind us until it was too late. Journey got scared. The reason was that the trail here is very narrow. There was no room for the hikers to pass by her so she got scared and started running up the trail to get away from them because they did not stop and wait for me to get her first. I told the lady in front to stop and I left my camera in the creek and went up to get her. Even though Journey was scared she came back to me when I called her and I got her into a place where the hikers could go by. She is such a good girl. She is not normally like that and we had no issues with anyone else we saw that day but it was just because the trail was narrow and there was no place to pass. No worries. We continued our hike.
After this we came to the main waterfall of the day: Tucker Falls. The information I had on this one was lacking so I was only 90% sure of its location but I turned out to be right on. Supposedly there is a campsite here called Tucker Camp but I saw no obvious place for one. It was not a particularly flat area but I did see the waterfall from the trail so I knew we were in the right spot. You have to climb up to it. It was a little difficult but Journey did well of course. Once up at the falls I saw that I went the wrong way up which was more difficult than the proper way. Ah well, c’est la vie.
Tucker Falls is 23 ft. high. It is not an incredible waterfall but it is a good little one for sure.
We took photos and continued up the trail doing a big loop back to the car. We saw a lot of bikers, hikers, and runners along the way. It was still early when we got back to the car so we went to a park where Journey played fetch for another couple hours. Where does she get all the energy? She was tuckered out afterwards though. It was a great morning in Marin County.
