I was on-call for my work this weekend. That meant I could not go hiking anywhere, at least not anywhere far from home. It would have to be a short hike and one that has cell service. It is a bummer too because it was a long weekend for me.
On Saturday I just took Journey to the lake. It is our favorite place to go for a walk. It is such a huge area and usually no one is there, especially if we go in the morning. She can just run and run and run. We love it there. And it is free. You would think more people would take their dogs there, it is such a great place. But I am not going to blast the location over the internet, you can be sure of that.
On Sunday I took Journey to Black Hole of Calcutta Falls before church. I did not really want to go here and I knew it would not be flowing great, but I wanted to go to a waterfall this weekend. This is the only one I could think of that was a short hike and had cell service.
We arrived at the trailhead before sunrise. This is a popular place for running and hiking but it seems we were the only ones on the trail. Or were we? As we started down the trail it was not long before Journey alerted me to someone coming up the trail. She is usually ahead of me and always notices other people well before I see them. It was a couple of joggers. So early! They must have started in the dark for sure. It was only sunrise now and they were just finishing up their run? We did not see anyone else until we got to the waterfall but a couple other joggers came by when we were at the falls and of course we saw some people on the way back, but not too many.
It was a beautiful morning. A storm was on the way but the sun was out right now. We spent quite a bit of time at the waterfall taking photos and enjoying the morning. Then we hiked back to the car and drove home. Journey always likes to tell Mom how much fun she had on the hike as soon as we get home, but she was still sleeping. Ha ha. It was a gorgeous morning in Auburn State Recreation Area.
Get back to where you once belonged. Get back, Journey.
American Canyon Creek Falls is my go-to early season waterfall. My favorite little local waterfall. My precious. It is a new waterfall season. It is time to get back.
There were two cars parked in the extremely small parking area that fits a max of three cars. That is two more than I normally see here. I saw one of the two groups on the trail so that is one more than I normally see here. No worries. We had a great hike down to the waterfall.
This was the third time I have taken Journey here. Every year I think I can get Journey further down to the creek. She has improved so much in the past year with rock scrambling (which is very true). Every year I realize it is impossible to get any further down. It is too steep and treacherous. This year it was even more so because the rock was wet and slick. Even if she could get down to the creek there is nowhere for her sit and wait for me to take photos. Maybe I will remember all this for next year. So she waited for me again on a rock ledge while I went down and crossed the creek to see the waterfall. I gave her a snack while I did that but she ate that up in one minute so it did not keep her too occupied. She wanted to come down to see me. I kept telling her to stay stay stay. I took my photos very quickly and then went back up.
Interestingly, the rock that is wedged in the waterfall seems to have moved. I think it looks a lot nicer now and more photogenic than last year. Certainly not as nice as it was pre-rock wedge but much better.
Journey had a lot of energy today and wanted to run back up the mountain. She probably would have run all the way if I was running as well. Obviously I was not going to do that. It is a 1000 ft. elevation gain back to the car. It was a very lovely afternoon in Auburn State Recreation Area.
It was 2008 the last time I went down this trail. I had a wild cougar encounter. Seventeen years later and it was time to go back and find my beloved. I did not find her. I was so sad. Ha ha!
Fifteen inches of rain in the foothills this past week. All the waterfalls were roaring. I had many choices but I decided on Knickerbocker Falls. I have been wanting to go back here and in particular try to get up close to the middle waterfall on this creek. It eluded me last time and I wanted to fix that.
I did not take Journey with me. I thought it was going to be too steep and cliffy but actually she could have made it pretty easily. Except the ticks are out now so that would not have been very good for her. I managed to pick up a couple of the buggers but Journey would have gotten it a lot worse. The route I took last time was too brushy now. I remembered it being quite easy before but I could not find my way through it. I was about to give up but I finally bashed my way through and came upon a much better route. It was open and it was a good path to follow, leading me down the mountain. This entire area is prime mountain lion territory but I did not see my cougar. I suppose I should be relieved about that. My new route took me down past the middle falls so I had to work my way back to it and I came upon a terrific viewpoint of the waterfall on the edge of a cliff.
The middle falls is 144 ft. high. You cannot quite see the bottom from the viewpoint but you can see most of it. It is a beauty. You can see the upper waterfall from here (sort of) but I could see no way to get up close to it. It was also not possible to get down any further to the creek because of the cliffs so I turned back and went down to the lower waterfall at the river. This time I went all the way down to the bottom of it for a better view.
At the bottom I was surprised to find a trail. It seemed to follow the river upstream. It is not on my map but it was well defined and I suspect it is an easier way to get to Knickerbocker Falls. I will have to try it next time (with Journey). It was a very beautiful morning in Auburn State Recreation Area.
I said I would return here to the scene of the crime with weapons in hand. Mission accomplished. It was raining on Saturday. No hiking. On Sunday, I did not have much time to hike after church in the morning and Journey was with her mom, so it seemed like a perfect time to return to Lower American Canyon Creek Falls.
There was quite a bit less water in the creek. I thought there would be more because it had rained on Saturday. Not enough, I guess. I quickly made it down to the lower falls and continued on to Maine Bar. I wanted to go further but that is all I had time for. I returned to the lower falls and prepared for my descent down into the poison oak. My new strategy for combating the oak this year? I put on my rain pants before I get down into it and once back on the trail I carefully take them off. It worked. I did not get any itch and I did not even have to scrub down when I got back home. Next time I think I may also wear my rain jacket in case I rub against the stuff with my arms.
I did get a better photo of the lower falls, I think. It was a bit dicey to go any further down to the creek so I did not, though I probably could have if I really wanted to. I hiked back up to the car in the dusk, constantly thinking about the girl that was killed by a mountain lion on this very trail way back in 1994. I did not have Journey to protect me today. Ah well, I survived. It was a lovely quick little hike in Auburn State Recreation Area.
Just two months ago all our astute forecasters said there was a very high probability we would be having a weak La Nina this winter. Today, La Nina is nowhere to be found and now they are saying it is probably not coming at all this winter. We are stuck in an ENSO NEUTRAL state. How did they get this so wrong? It is bad news and it explains why we have not had much rain yet this December. I was quite excited for a weak La Nina which meant we would have a very good chance for another above average winter (same as in 2023). But now? Technically we are still around average thanks to that Bomb Cyclone in November but how will the rest of the winter fare? I guess we will just keep praying.
I did not have much time for hiking this past weekend so I just took Journey on an easy/moderate hike back to American Canyon Creek Falls. It is my go to early season local waterfall. Journey went to this one last year and I knew she would not be able to get down all the way to the bottom of it. I imagined I could just have her wait up top again while I went down to take a couple quick photos. She is usually very good and patient when I take photos. However, I did not do this. The creek was flowing pretty quick but worse than that all the rock was very wet and slick on both sides. It would have been extremely difficult for me to attempt to cross the creek at the waterfall. I decided to skip it and instead try to get down to the lower falls.
The problem: I was wearing shorts and did not have long pants. This was very stupid. There is a lot of poison oak at the lower falls. I did *not* want to be in the poison oak. What to do, what to do? Well, there was not any oak at the top so I went down with Journey as far as possible. At the bottom there was indeed a lot of it so I figured I would just take a photo from the hill side while Journey waited for me patiently. I am going to have to come back here again soon for a better photo (and with long pants). I’m not sure I will take Journey though. It’s probably not a good thing for her to be in a lot of poison oak. Ah, we’ll see. We hiked back up the trail. I love how Journey runs up the trail ahead of me and then stops and waits for me to catch up. She is so good and smart. We arrived back to the car at sunset. It was a lovely little hike in Auburn State Recreation Area.
