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.
It was Sunday afternoon. Super Bowl Sunday. I had no desire whatsoever to watch it. I wanted to hike. So did Journey. I heard it was a boring game anyway. Good choice, Madman.
We went to Canyon Creek Falls at Quintette. It has been 16 years since I was here. I knew the last part would be difficult but I thought Journey would be able to do it. The hike starts out easily enough on a dirt road for 2.5 miles. It crosses one of the branches of the creek that the waterfall is on. Bone dry. Ugh. I was not expecting this. What if the other branch is dry as well? That would really suck the bone. I would be very unhappy. Maybe I should have gone somewhere else. We continued on. Worst case scenario is that Journey gets a good hike.
We got down to the creek below the waterfall. The creek was not dry. Yay! It seemed fairly decent flow. About as good as I could expect after a month and a half of dry weather. Now the hard part. There are two paths, one on each side of the creek. My notes said to go on the south side. The north side path does not go all the way up to the waterfall. The route we took was extremely difficult. It was very brushy. It was very steep. I really wasn’t too sure about doing it and thought about going back. It is a short distance though so I kept going. Journey did not really want to do it but she is such a trooper. She followed me up the whole way, through the brush, over logs, up very steep terrain. I am so proud of her. She did so awesome. Finally we made it to the base of the waterfall and relaxed and ate a snack. I took photos.
Canyon Creek Falls is very gorgeous and is 83 ft. high. It was so refreshing standing at the bottom of the waterfall.
On the way back we took a MUCH EASIER path. I had to lift Journey over a huge log but that wasn’t really a problem. We crossed the creek and then it was very easy following the path back to the road. I should have gone that way in the first place though that log was a big obstacle for Journey. We hiked back up the mountain, getting back to the car just before sunset. It was a fantastic hike on Super Bore Sunday in Eldorado National Forest.
When going to new waterfalls it is difficult to know if I should take Journey or not. I have no idea if there is going to be too much brush or if it will be too cliffy for her or something else. Well, I had my eyes on a new waterfall in Oroville area and I thought she might be able to do it. The waterfall is basically beside a dirt road. It should be all right, I hoped. We did not get very far. The road was completely washed out. If I was by myself I think I could have gotten by it but there is no way Journey could do it. Well, that was a washout. (pun intended) We did end up hiking 8 miles so she was happy at least that we had a good hike.
Two days later. My birthday. I took the day off work and wanted to get a good hike in with Journey. We would be getting to a waterfall this time. 100 percent.
My initial plan was to go back to Oroville area but I wasn’t so keen on it. It would be a good hike for sure but the waterfall was just a little one and I have been to it before. For my birthday I wanted something better. But I could not think of another option. I woke up Monday morning and considered it. What if we go up into the snow? How about Rattlesnake Creek Falls? I looked at the satellite. There was not that much snow so it should be do-able and the creek should be flowing as well. This is going to be a much better hike for my birthday. And Journey gets to sleep in an extra hour. She’ll be happier. (she would be happy anyway)
We arrived at the trailhead at sunrise. The usual parking was all snowed in. There is no other legal place to park. I found one small spot that seemed to be legal enough. Off we went. It was 28 degrees.
They are doing construction work on the Fordyce Dam and they have the road entirely closed to the public. It is ok to go here in winter since they are not working but I had hoped to go backpacking up here with Journey in the spring. I don’t think I’ll be allowed to do that until 2029 according to the sign. That kinda sucks. Sigh.
Anyway, we stopped at the lower falls first for a quick shot. Then hiked up to the middle falls for a quick shot. Then continued to the upper falls (shown here). There was snow on the road the entire way but there have been people snowmobiling up here so it was very easy walking on the road in the tracks. There was not much snow either. Sadly. We need a lot more snow this winter. Please. The last part over to the waterfall is off the road and there were no tracks. There was more snow here and it was icy and hard but I was still post-holing a bit. Journey had no troubles with that. She is much lighter than I am.
We came to the viewpoint of upper Rattlesnake Creek Falls. It was very pretty covered in snow and ice. I am certain this picture is not going to be appreciated as much as I think it should be. I really loved the look of it. It was so gorgeous.
We took our photos and Journey had her snack, then we hiked back down to the car. We were home by 12:30PM. It was a fabulous and cold and snowy birthday hike in Tahoe National Forest.
