Leon Turnbull Photography

I hate it when people complain about the rain and call for it to stop when we are still in the middle of winter. There are still 2.5 months of winter left! News flash: If the rain stops now then we will still be in a drought at the end of this winter and we will still end up below average for the year. Although with all these recent storms some areas are very close to the Apr 1 average already but other areas are not (especially the north). Also, we need much more than just an average year for the drought to end. Do you want to continue in drought and continue to have more fires than normal next summer? I sure don’t. California needs more rain not less. Stop complaining. But these people are going to get their wish. The rain is going to be stopping next week. Okay, end rant.

Anyway, I wanted to go hiking this past weekend but I did not want to drive too far. I decided to return to Paradise Canyon Falls on the Middle Fork American River. It had been a long time since I’ve been here and I did not have a good photo of it. With all the recent rain I figured it should be flowing quite well, much better than I’ve ever seen it before. Or would it?

I arrived at the trailhead and found that there is now a $10 parking fee. Ugh! What a ridiculous amount of money to pay for day parking at a state park. What choice did I have? I was going to be on a long hike. There was no way around it. I thought I could park back on the main road and walk in but you had to pay for parking there as well.

There was not very much water flowing in Mile Hill Creek at the trailhead. That was not where I was going but it was not a good sign. Then I came to the first creek crossing down at the river. There was so much water flowing in this creek it was almost uncross-able. Now that was a good sign. Paradise Canyon Creek also had a lot of water flowing in it. In fact, it was pretty much perfect. This waterfall is one of those that needs a lot of water to look nice. It certainly would have been much better a week earlier but then I would not have been able to photograph it. In order to photograph it you need to cross the creek right at the bottom of the falls. It was not an easy task and the water was deep. In higher water it would have been impossible. Even if I could have crossed a week earlier there would have been far too much mist. So Paradise Canyon Falls was about perfect on this day. Paradise Regained.

I continued on the trail along the river in search of other waterfalls. I did find a small one though it wasn’t really all that special. I ate my lunch and then hiked back. It was a perfect day in Auburn State Recreation Area.

Bassi Falls in the spring? Very awesome. Bassi Falls in the winter? Not very good. What about Bassi Falls in the winter after a Pineapple Express with 11.5 inches of rain? I wondered what it would be like this last weekend after the storm. Would it be flowing as well as it does in the spring? Or perhaps even better than spring?

I was actually planning to go to Table Mountain in Oroville on this day but I was just so tired and I could not wake up. I slept in until 7:30am (for me that is incredibly late). I blame my kids. I stayed up with them on New Year’s Eve and the lack of sleep caught up with me two days later. So I slept in on the holiday Monday and did not feel like going to Oroville when I woke up. Instead, I thought about going to Bassi Falls in the afternoon. Heck, why not?

There were a lot of people on Ice House Rd, going up there to play in the snow, but no one was hiking to Bassi Falls. Nonetheless, there were a lot of tracks and the trail was well trodden down. I did not need my snow shoes as the snow was hard packed and easy to walk upon. It was quite icy, however, and I wondered if I should have brought my spikes. I especially thought it was going to be very icy at the falls (and it was).

Bassi Falls was indeed spectacular and it was very much like spring flows. The ice around the waterfall was incredible and obviously not something you will see in the spring. To be honest I did not really think it would be flowing like this on Monday. This really made me wonder what it would have been like on Saturday in the rain. I imagine it would have been much tougher to get there but the water flows would have been out of this world (it would have had at about 10 times the flow on Saturday). Perhaps for the next Pineapple Express I will try this one.

By the way, to the assholes who left their graffiti all over the area this past summer, thanks so much for making Bassi Falls look like those southern California waterfalls that have ugly graffiti everywhere. Please leave your address below so I can personally thank you.

On the hike back to the car I did see a couple people. Apparently they only went to the lower falls and were on their way back already. Why would you hike all the way to the lower falls and not go to the big waterfall? I have seen that a lot. People only go to the lower falls and don’t even know there is a big waterfall just a short distance further. You people need to check out waterfallswest.com. It is a pretty good website, you know. Anyway, as I passed by this couple I definitely let them know they missed out on seeing an incredible waterfall. It was an awesome winter day in Eldorado National Forest.

As of Jan. 1 the snow pack in California is at 135% (northern CA), 183% (central Sierra) and 206% (southern Sierra). Precipitation is at 116% (north), 162% (central), and 149% (south). This is after the big storm we just had. More storms are coming this week, so we are in very good shape. We need to pray it continues, however. There are still 3 months of winter left and I am still afraid the tap is going to completely shut off as it did last year. “Ask the Lord for rain in the springtime; it is the Lord who sends the thunderstorms. He gives showers of rain to all people and plants of the field to everyone.” (Zech 10:1)

This one was taken before the storm on Boxing Day. Who knows what that is? ha ha.

I have wanted to try this one for awhile. Access is questionable. However, I  finally found a route to it that is legal so on the day after Christmas I gave it a shot. It did not quite work out the way I wanted.

The first part of the hike is along a logging road on public land. It was a lovely and very easy going section. My back was hurting from the day before though I have no idea why. All I did on Christmas Day was sit around the house eating, drinking, and opening presents. Or rather, watch people open presents – my big present was the new Gopro camera which I got early. Anyway, going on a tough hike was probably not very smart. And it was about to get very tough.

I made it down to Montgomery Creek which I would have to cross. The creek was flowing fairly strong. The crossing was easy but it was deep. Up to my thighs. There was a path going up the other side which I was not expecting. Obviously others have had this idea before. When I got to Lick Creek I saw the creek was at very low flow, much lower than I expected. My initial idea was to wade straight up the creek to the waterfall so I wanted low flow in the creek but definitely not this low. I was a bit bummed. With Montgomery Creek flowing well I would have thought this creek would be much better than it was. The wading up the creek started well and easy enough. That did not last long. It soon became too brushy to continue. I decided to climb up the bank, hoping for a higher path. That was a big mistake. The poison oak was Unbearable. Atrocious. Savage. Wicked. Vicious. You get the picture? Nonetheless, and stupidly, I continued on a bit and soon came to a long distance viewpoint of the waterfall. It was a clear shot so I took a photo and called it a day. If it wasn’t for the poison oak I would have tried to get closer, but I had more than enough of it already. I was out of there. Lickety split. Lick Creek Falls is 69 ft. high. It would certainly be a fantastic view at high flows. I returned to Montgomery Creek and explored further up the creek, hoping to perhaps find another small waterfall, but all I found was more poison oak. I ate my lunch back at the crossing and then climbed out of the canyon and back to the car. It was a croaky oaky day in Shasta National Forest.

(hopefully no one!)

The rivers did not get as high as I predicted this weekend. We received the 11.5 inches of rain in the Sierra foothills as forecast, however the North Fork American peaked at 29,000 cfs on Saturday morning midnight. I predicted it would get above 50,000. What happened? Well, the snow levels dropped much quicker on Saturday morning than forecast and so there was less rain falling in the mountains. This is a good thing (we need the snow pack!), but I had planned to hike out to my go-to waterfall Canyon Creek Falls on Saturday afternoon with the river raging at 50,000 cubic feet per second. When I woke up it was at 20,000 and dropping fast. I did not feel like hiking there now. Certainly, there is no question it would have been awesome but it was nothing that I had not seen before. I wanted something different if I was going to hike in the pouring rain. Also, it is probably a good thing I did not go there because they closed the freeway on Saturday afternoon. I might have been stuck.

So anyway … change of plan. I decided to go to Point Reyes instead. The rain there was supposed to be lightening up or stopping by the late afternoon. Off I went.

It rained the entire drive and was still raining when I arrived at the trailhead at around 2pm. It is an easy hike amongst the killer cows down to the beach. I do not think they liked all the rain. They were mooing very loudly. I had to cross the creek at the top of the falls. It was flowing strong and I would be getting my feet wet (normally this creek is dry except after a lot of rain). Crossing was not too much of a problem except it was very deep. I stuck my pole in to find the bottom and I could not find it! That is crazy for such a small creek. Anyway, I found a spot that was not too deep and I made it safely across. Then I had to descend the cliffs down to the beach. It was a bit muddy and slippery but it wasn’t too bad (which is good because I was a bit worried that it would be too dangerous). Bolinas Point Falls was raging. A fantastic 42 ft. high cascade. Not bad for a waterfall that is dry for most of the year.

I messed up. I was not using my brain properly. There was a second waterfall here that I wanted to go to. I did not make it. The tide was coming in fast, much quicker than I anticipated. As I hiked up the beach to the second waterfall the waves were already almost up to the cliffs. I still had a long way to go to reach the falls (and then I would have to hike back). I did not want to be trapped by the tide so I decided to play it safe and turn back. If I had gone to the second waterfall first then I would have had time to go to both, but I spent too much time taking photos at the first waterfall. Stupid madman. On the bright side I did see a coyote on the beach. It ran away and up the cliffs as soon as it saw me. And I saw a second one on the road later. Not a bad way to end the year. It was an awesome rainy day hike in Point Reyes National Seashore.

I knew there was an upper falls on Swamp Creek and this seemed like a great day to try it. It was supposed to be cloudy all morning at least, if not all day. One forecast said the clouds would break in the afternoon. Of course by 10AM I could see the clouds breaking and the sun came out. I was not even close to the waterfall. But I did not doubt this time. God would provide the cloud cover for me (and He did! thank you Lord!)

The first problem with this hike is that it is a 2000 ft. climb UP THE MOUNTAIN! There is NO TRAIL. I was not really sure how excited I was to do this hike. On the one hand I wanted to do it. On the other hand I was intimidated by the elevation gain. Let’s climb a 2000 ft. mountain with no trail whatsoever. Or let’s go back to bed. What would you choose? Also, as I mentioned I injured my foot the previous day. How would that hold up on a very very strenuous hike? Actually, the foot did very well once I got off the rocky railroad tracks and started climbing. Good news. Also good news, it was not cliffy, it was not brushy, and there was no poison oak. Bad news, it was a 2000 ft. climb straight up. But other than that, it was easy! Ha ha. I was hiking up through the Camp Fire devastation of 2018, which is probably the reason it was not brushy and there was no oak. Interestingly, I saw a huge water hose that was left by the firefighters. It was probably almost a mile long. I hit the snow line at about 3900 ft. elevation and from that point it was a bit hard to hike because the snow was soft and about a foot deep. The snow might make it too dangerous to get down to the waterfall. But that was the least of my worries.

I thought it would be quite easy to get down to the creek at the waterfall. Nope! In fact, it was horribly cliffy and sketchy. I used my rope to descend the last 100 ft. or so to the waterfall viewpoint. I should not have done this. It was quite stupid. However, when you have climbed up 2000 ft. to see a waterfall, you really really really do not want to be shut out. It would have been extremely disappointing. So … I got out my rope (I used all three ropes that I brought) and descended down the cliff side very very carefully, very very slowly, one step at a time. I came down to a spot where I could finally see the waterfall and set up my tripod on top of a sketchy rock beside a sketchy burned tree on top of a huge dropoff. The mist from the falls additionally made it even more difficult to take a photo. But I made it!

Upper Swamp Creek Falls is a gorgeous 46 foot drop. I just wish it was easier to get to! I climbed back up to the top, had my lunch, and then descended the 2000 ft. back down to the railroad tracks. It was much easier going down, believe me! It was another wild and crazy day in Plumas National Forest.