Leon Turnbull Photography

On the day of our planned trip to Canada for Christmas, there was a big winter storm coming in the forecast. There was supposed to be a foot of snow at Shasta and I was concerned about the road conditions by the time we would have gotten there, it really could’ve been quite bad. So I decided to go on I-80 through Reno instead. This worked very well for us a couple years ago in a similar situation.  It is a bit longer but if we get over the Donner Summit before the storm starts, it is smooth sailing from there. Or so I thought.

Since the storm was to hit Donner Summit later in the morning, we easily made it over the pass. All right I thought, smooth sailing. But when we hit Oregon, there was snow on the road and it was icy. This did not happen to us the last time we did this route. Apparently the storm caught up to us, the going from here was much slower. However, I still thought that once I hit I-84, it would be much easier from there the rest of the way. Again, not so much.

When we got to I-84 things got far worse. The freeway was closed due to the storm! I already had a very long drive and without my wife coming with us this time, I was the only driver. Now I had an even longer drive to get around this mess in Oregon. We had to go back through Idaho up towards Spokane. This section of the road was the worst yet. It was 250 miles and pretty much averaging 45 mph or less the whole way. People were driving far too slow due to the snowy conditions and it was pretty much impossible to pass anyone. After about an hour of driving and only having gone 40 miles, I figured it would have been much better to have just stayed back and hoped the freeway would open before too long. Too late now. Well it was a long drive but we finally made it to Lewiston/Clarkston where we would stay for the night.

Ew the smell! I could not believe it. It was unbearable. I honestly do not know how the people of this town can stand it to live here. The paper mill in Lewiston is a monstrosity as you drive into town. Ugly, dominating the entire river, and spewing out pollution into the air. Of course they tell you that it is not hazardous or dangerous, and I suppose it is not, but it is still pollution. I read on-line that it is only bad when the mill is going, and the people here are used to it. I seriously don’t think I would ever get used to this smell. We thought about walking from our motel one block to the restaurant we were going to, but we decided to drive instead for fear that we would drop dead before we got to the restaurant. No joke.

I grew up in a town in which just down the hill was a lead zinc smelter. Back in the 1960s before I was born, the pollution from the smelter was so great that absolutely nothing could grow in the town or in the surrounding area. They have since cleaned it up now, and the town is very nice, no more pollution. You do not even smell anything from the smelter. That is certainly not the case in Lewiston.

Well what does this have to do with waterfalls? Certainly there are no waterfalls that can grow in Lewiston. That is actually not a lie. No waterfalls do grow in Lewiston.

Spokane does have waterfalls that grow, however.  Or are made. The next day it was another long slow drive from Lewiston on snowy, foggy roads. It was so foggy I could not see more than 50 feet in front of me. By the time we got to Spokane, I desperately needed a break, so even though I have been to these waterfalls before, we decided to stop for an hour and go down and see them again. It was fun walking around the park in the cold and snow, and a good break before the final slog up to Canada. And it didn’t smell.

Here is lovely little Love’s Falls. Hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas and has a great upcoming New Year. Let’s spread some more “love” around in 2017, shall we ?

We had a large Pineapple Express roll through last week. This storm was very warm – practically hot, so hot it was on fire. Ha ha. It brought up the river levels high, but it was all rain on the mountains and no snow. We do need that snow pack. The waterfalls at least would be fabulous. I wish I could have gone out hiking on Friday, though. The NFAR was up to 20,000 cfs for the second time in less than a week. By the time Saturday came along, the river levels were much reduced, but the creeks still should have been flowing great. You would think so, anyway.

It was very cold on Saturday. It was around 25 degrees. Freezing. Brr. It was all ice. Amazing how the weather can change so much in a day or two. The storm was all gone.

I drove up to Downieville and Sierra City in the morning, not as early as I had wanted to, but I had trouble sleeping the prior night, so I decided to sleep in a bit later than I should have. Here is what I found: The rivers (Yuba) were certainly still very high as you would think. The major creeks (Pauley) were certainly still very high as you would think. But the smaller creeks were not so high, and I was disappointed because I was hoping to see some of the waterfalls on these smaller creeks and flowing strong. Not so much. The first of these was 79 ft. high 1001 Ridge Falls.

There was a dusting of snow in Sierra City, I thought it might be treacherous getting down to this waterfall, but it was quite easy. It was a lovely scene with the dusting of snow, a winter wonderland, icy and fresh. I just wish the falls was flowing stronger. It would have been fabulous a day earlier, I am sure. This was the only “new” waterfall I saw this day. I wanted to see more new ones, and could have if I had gotten up earlier. Nontheless, I did see three other waterfalls. Coming up.

On the way up Table Mountain at sunrise, I could see some interesting color on the right. But without a good view or scene to capture, I kept on going. Then I passed by Schirmer Cascade, and I could see the amazing sky above the falls. Ok, now I have to photograph this! So I stopped the car in the middle of the road (since there was no turnout), got out, grabbed my camera and tripod, set up in the middle of the road and took a couple photos. I got the photo just in time. The fog rolled in, covering up the waterfall. No other cars came by during this time. Who would be out so early anyway?

You can see a second unnamed cascade on the far right. I thought that Schirmer Cascade flow seemed a bit on the low side, but I guess it was pretty good overall, though I have seen it bigger. All other falls on Table Mountain were flowing quite strong. It was a good waterfall day.

Oroville received 4 inches of rain this past week. That means the waterfalls on Table Mountain would be flowing strong. But the Foothills received over 8.5 inches of rain, and the North Fork American River got up to almost 30,000 cubic feet per second. Indeed, I think the NFAR was the highest it has been since before the drought started. That is some pretty awesome stuff, thus I was hoping to hike somewhere in the area of the NFAR. However, when I woke up the forecast was saying it would be too sunny (unlike the previous night when I went to bed the forecast said cloudy).  Oroville, on the other hand, was supposed to be cloudy all day long. So I figured my best bet would be to go to Oroville.

I arrived at the Table Mountain trailhead and started my hike. It seemed partially cloudy (but not completely cloudy like the forecast said it would be – ugh). The big thing, though, was the fog! Do you think the fog was a good or bad thing? The killer cows were nowhere to be seen. It was odd. I only saw a few cows on my hike in, and they were quite a distance away. Perhaps they do not like the fog? I saw a few more on the return, but not nearly as much as usual. As I hiked, I thought the fog would add a fantastic element to Phantom Falls that I have not seen before, but as I approached the waterfall I began to wonder if it was too foggy. I would not even be able to see the waterfall at all. Indeed, when I reached the main viewpoint for Phantom Falls it was completely socked in. I could hear the waterfall, I could not see it. Not even the foggiest little sliver of the stream could be seen (pun intended). Phantom Falls was certainly living up to its name today. Well, I continued on to the brink of Phantom Falls, and as I got near, finally I began to see a bit of something through the mist. This shot was not taken from the main viewpoint, it is a closer spot. I think it is pretty cool. You may say that it was a bad day to hike to Phantom Falls: too foggy, you can’t see anything, boring, etc. Not me. It was the perfect day! Why go there on a day when it is just the same as any other day you’ve ever been there. “That” is boring to me. Today it was different and unique. It was fantastic.

I would have liked to stay at Phantom longer but I wanted to try to find another waterfall as well. The flow in Phantom Falls (not that you can tell from the photo) was quite high after the 4 inches of rain. I had to hike far upstream from the top of the falls in order to cross the stream this time, usually I do not have to go so far upstream. Unfortunately,  I could not find anything else today. I got down where I wanted to, and found plenty of poison oak to trample through, but no waterfall. Well, darn it anyway. I got the stupid itch (on my neck this time) for nothing at all. By the time I got back to Phantom Falls, the fog was gone, but it was too sunny to take more  photos. The fog photo works very well  for me.