Ventana Wilderness. I am a glutton for punishment. Why do I always return here? Brush as thick as thieves. Poison oak as abundant as bunnies in spring. Ticks as huge as dragon flies. It is not going to be pretty.
I left the house at 3:30AM. The fog is back. It is back with a vengeance. Visability was down to about 20 ft. I swear. This fog was thicker than we had it earlier this winter. At least from what I saw. I have not seen fog this thick since I was little. The fog going up the Rossland Trail hill in British Columbia where I lived was thicker than pea soup in winter. And my dad drove up it like gangbusters. Ha ha. Well I slowed down for this fog. And then it was gone. Just like that. And then it returned again further along. So this is how it is going to be, eh?
Highway 1 is open now. This cuts off about 30-40 minutes from my drive. I knew it was going to be a busy weekend there with the holiday and with it being the first weekend the road has been open in years. I was not wrong.
I arrived at the Salmon Creek Falls trailhead at about 8:30AM. There were already a lot of people here. I wanted to get a photo of the big waterfall from the bottom this time. I did not have a photo from there yet. I was able to get right up to it although it was not easy and involved a lot of creek crossing and boulder scrambling. There were tree branches obsuring the view but I expected that. So all was good.
I did make a huge mistake, however, and got into the poison oak. I was not paying attention. So before I even started my big hike I already had poison oak on me. I tried to wash it off but it did not help. I ended up getting a bad rash including some in my eye. Argh.
I had thought about bringing Journey on this hike but wisely decided not to. I was worried about the ticks. I have heard that the ticks are already horrendous this year and this is Ventana Wilderness. Tick Central. The worst place on Earth. The ticks are the size of dragon flies (almost). As it turned out there were not that many after all. I saw just one on the first day. The next day there were more, about ten, and one that got on me. Not really bad. I was expecting much worse. Even so, Journey probably would have gotten a few on her but that didn’t turn out to be the biggest problem. The hike was incredibly difficult, gaining 3000 ft. in elevation. I was dead tired by the end of the day. Journey has not done 3000 ft. before so I think she would have really struggled on the hike.
I arrived at Lion Den camp about 2PM. It did not occur to me until afterwards but it is not necessarily such a great idea to camp somewhere named “lion den”. This could get really bad. Why is it called this? There was one other guy already at the camp. For some reason he did not take the best spot. He left it for me. It was a fantastic spot up on a bluff with an ocean view. It may have been because he had a hammock but there was a spot on the bluff in which he could have set that up. I did not complain. I was treated to a very beautiful sunset. Apparently his water filter had broken and he was trying to boil water for drinking but not able to do so. I do not understand how you go backpacking and cannot boil water. Nonetheless, after I was finished using mine I let him borrow it so he could filter his water. I am such a nice guy! He was grateful but apparently not that grateful and I may have regretted being so nice. Stay tuned for the rest of the story …
The weather forecast for Bodega Bay this weekend was cloudy skies. This would be perfect for me to go see multiple waterfalls. It was going to be a great day. Of course the stupid forecaster was wrong again. It was a sunny day. At least I was able to see three waterfalls in good lighting conditions.
I was not planning to take Journey on this trip because it is a very long drive and she would not be able to go on all the hikes I had planned. Then it occurred to me I should invite my wife to come along. She is not able to go on any hikes right now but she loves the ocean and she would not mind waiting for Journey and myself to hike, and afterwards we could go to the beach and then have lunch in Bodega Bay. It was a good plan.
The main hike I wanted to do was 6 miles in Sonoma Coast State Park. There are two waterfalls here that I have not been to before. Journey and I set off down the trail leaving mom at the car to read her book. It was a very nice trail, a little muddy but not bad at all. It was a gorgeous morning.
We went to the upper falls first. Most people have no clue that an upper falls even exists. Thanks to my friend Mike for telling me about this one. The trail is difficult with a lot of fallen logs to negotiate but it is much better than I expected. Journey had no troubles with it. I think she had a lot of fun jumping over and crawling under all the logs. The last part is very steep and we had to take our photos on the side of a very steep hill. Journey had no place to sit down. I did not spend much time here though. I had to hurry and get to the other waterfall before the sun found it.
Willow Creek Falls is 76 ft. high. It is a real beauty hidden off the main path. It was flowing quite well after all the recent rains and we were the only ones here to enjoy it. Journey ate her snack while I took photos. Then we climbed back up the mountain to find mom waiting for us. Journey was so tired she did not even greet mom back at the car before flopping down on the seat (that is very strange because she loves her mom so much). However, she found a lot more energy to play fetch when we got to the beach in Bodega Bay. It was a wonderful day on the Sonoma Coast.
Our whole family was sick before we went to Canada. Tara and Jadon had the flu, Nekoda and I had colds. My wife claims our colds turned into bronchitis or RSV or something. I don’t know but I had a horrendous lingering cough. We were getting over it and not contagious anymore by the time we started the trip but we still had those horrible coughs.
My energy was non-existent as well. I did not do much hiking up in Canada as I had wanted to. I took Journey out on some easy hikes in the snow. She needs exercise every day. I did not do anything difficult. The only waterfall I went to was Marysville Falls which I go to every time I am up there. It is a very easy hike. We continued on down to the river which also is an easy hike but coming back up the hill was a monstrosity for me because of my lack of energy and sickness. It did me in for the rest of the day. Journey had no such troubles coming back up the hill. She was not sick, thankfully.
Marysville Falls was almost completely frozen. It is always interesting to see what it will be like in the winter. How frozen will you be this time, my dear Mary? I think they have had a fairly warm winter up there so far. Only in the week or so before we got there did it get cold and they got some snow. I guess it was enough to freeze over the waterfall. I was surprised. It was a nice easy hike to dear Marysville Falls.
After Christmas we drove to Canada to visit my family. It was somewhat sad for me because we would first be attending my mom’s memorial in Rossland. It was not a surprise that she passed but I do really miss her greatly. There were so many little things on the trip or places we went that made me think of her and miss her.
On the way we made a quick stop at Hedge Creek Falls. There has been a lot of rain in California this month but not much snow. As of Jan 1, the snow pack is in very bad shape: 45% of normal (north), 70% (central), 92% (south). Precipitation is well over 100% of normal throughout the state. However, we need the snow, not the rain. People will exclaim: global warming! If it is all due to global warming then explain why the snow pack was normal last year and the year before that. You can’t. Maybe it is just a bad year for snow in California. Hopefully we will get more snow in January, however. There was a lot of flooding because of the rain before Christmas. There was some legitimate bad flooding in southern California and some due to king tides in Marin county but others I don’t understand. Redding, for instance. They only got four inches of rain but had bad flooding. They were saying it was a 50 year storm. That is baloney. It was not a 50 year storm. 4 inches of rain is not that much. Plenty of times in recent years they had 4 inches of rain (and no flooding). I can tell you the dates if you want me to. On our own street there was a little flooding because leaves were blocking the drains and the city did not clear them out before the storm. They knew the storm was coming but they did not bother to clear the drains.
Hedge Creek Falls was roaring. There were cascades falling above the waterfall and down into the top of the falls. I think I have just seen that once before and I had the same issue then. How to photograph it? I could not figure it out. There is no decent angle to photograph the waterfall with the above cascades so I just photographed the main drop from the other side. It was wet and misty going behind the falls. Journey did not want to get wet! She went as far up on the inside of the cave as she could to avoid getting wet. She is so funny. It was a nice and quick stop at Hedge Creek Falls before we continued our journey to Canada.
I did not sleep well. It was not because of the new quilt. I was quite warm. The new quilt is a winner. I also had my sleeping bag liner which I always bring when it is below 40 degrees. For the first part of the night I was in fact too warm with the liner so I had to shed it but I put it back on when it got colder. I think the reason I could not sleep was because it just got dark too early (5PM). Even though I tried to do some reading I still was not tired. Eventually I drifted off late in the night.
I woke up at about 5:30AM and packed up all my gear. As soon as I exited my tent, all of a sudden the temperature was much colder. Significantly colder. The new Durston tent seems to hold a lot of my warmth. Interesting. I never noticed that with my old tent.
When I got back down to the brink of Chilnualna Falls it was still dark but it would start to lighten up soon.
My goal #3 for this trip: View the massive Chilnualna waterfall unlike anyone has done before. You can view Chilnualna Falls from the main trail but it is a long distance away. When you come to the top of the falls on the trail there is no view of it to be had. I have wondered for a long time whether a better and closer view is possible. My initial idea for this weekend was to attempt to get up to it from the bottom. It seemed an impossible task. I don’t know if it is or not but it definitely would be extremely difficult. When I got to the brink of the falls the previous day I came up with a better plan. Hike down the ridge on the opposite side of the creek. It looked do-able. Very do-able. Crossing the creek was easy. I did not even get my feet wet. The route was brushy but I found a way around it. I descended the ridge to find this amazing viewpoint.
The main drop of Chilnualna Falls is 231 ft. high. At this time of year it is a magnificent and stunning waterfall. I could not quite see the bottom of the falls from here. It would have been possible to continue further down the ridge but I knew the further down I went the less I would see of the bottom of it. This was the best viewpoint that could be had. I have seen just one other photo of Chilnualna Falls from this side but they rapelled down the cliff. Admittedly they had a better viewpoint but rapelling is not in the cards for me. No rapelling needed! My route was steep but not cliffy. This trip was a massive success in my books.
It was very cold and windy on the ridge as I took my photos. I did not linger. I still had to go back and photograph the middle falls before the sun came up. I hiked back up and made my way over to it. I got right up to the base of the middle falls this time which I did not do before (and would have been impossible at high flows). Afterwards I made some coffee at the brink of the big waterfall before hiking back down the trail to my car. I saw just one group coming up the trail and there were no cars in the parking lot at the bottom. When the sun came out it was very warm and I was hiking in shorts and a shirt. It is funny because when I got back home it was so much colder! I needed long pants and a jacket! That darn Tule fog has been lingering in the valley for a long time now. I wish it would end and we would get some rain and snow instead. This winter has started off horribly. The snow pack is currently at 7 percent of normal (north), 23 (central) and 63 (south). Please God, let it rain! We have a weak La Nina but only the northwest is getting the rain so far this winter. Send some of it down south please. Anyway, it was an overwhelmingly successful overnight trip at Yosemite National Park.
