Leon Turnbull Photography

500 miles. Would you drive that far to see a waterfall on a day hike? What if there is a four year drought and there are no other waterfalls flowing in the state and this was a special weekend release on the river?

Oh did I mention that you needed to get up at 3am in order to arrive in time for good lighting conditions for taking photos?

Well the waterfall madman would. And in fact … did.

PG&E was having a weekend recreational release on the Pit River for kayakers increasing the flow from 400 to about 800 cfs. I do like to take advantage of these releases as well, especially in the summer, and with double the flow it would be amazing. Wouldn’t it?

The last time I was here the flow was about 500 cfs so I expected it to be utterly spectacular today. It was also the hike I badly twisted my ankle on. The trail hasn’t gotten any better. I think worse, probably. It is steep and very crumbly with many loose rocks. I can easily see how I twisted it before. Needless to say, I was extra careful hiking down this year. No close calls, but I went down the wrong way, thinking it would be a better way, but it ended up worse with more loose rocks to fall on, more brush to smash through, and more poison oak to rub all over my body with. Later when I went back up the mountain, I went the correct way of course.

When I got down to the falls it did not seem to be turned up yet. According to the website, the release was supposed to happen at 8am so I expected to see a much increased flow very shortly. The flow was definitely more than last time I was here but it did not seem to be double the flow for my good pleasure. I could tell it was more because last time I could get right down up close to the falls but if I did that this time I’d be having to walk through the water and get my wet feet. I didn’t dare go down today. It would be suicide (literally) if suddenly the flow was increased any more. I stayed in a safe place, I took some photos and waited. And waited. And waited. As it turned out the flow was actually increased the previous night. When I finally realized it wasn’t going to be getting any better, I made the hike back out of the canyon.

I stopped for one last gander from the falls overlook. Some kayakers came up to look at the falls and I heard them say it’s HUGE and they were all quite excited about it. Well I guess they would know but it seemed to me to be closer to 500 than 800 cfs. I guess I was just thinking the falls would span the entire River at that flow, though the kayakers’ comments definitely made me a bit happier that I made such a long drive up here to see it. But next time I come here it will be 1200 cfs at least.

Look ma, water! Is this Mars or is this California? What is your guess? If you said Mars, then I am sorry to say that you are incorrect (as unlikely as it seems that this would be California, and I can’t blame you for guessing Mars).

Of course, the big news from NASA a couple weeks ago was that they have apparently found tiny rivulets of water on Mars. I suppose that means Mars has more water than California right now. Sigh. But if they do have waterfalls like this one (or bigger), then I am wondering how can I get there to see them?

This is the South Fork Feather River and it is going right now at about 400 cfs. Obviously it is a controlled river, and every year they have a recreational release mainly for the kayakers. I really did not think they would have it this year, however, because of the drought. But surprise surprise, they did. I was here last year and despite the hecka long killer drive out to it and despite it being a small waterfall, I decided to come back again this year for a couple reasons: (1) I wanted to get down to it on the other side of the river where I would get a different (and possibly better) angle of the falls, and (2) There is nothing much else to see in California right now. (I’m serious: is there anyone that can take me to Mars?)

So it’s 4AM. Off we go … About 1800 hours later (give or take) I arrive at the dam and parking area. The water is flowing. That’s a relief. No kayakers in sight. I was a bit surprised about that but so much the better. I will have the waterfall all to myself today. I crossed the dam and scrambled up to the top of a ridge. I was thinking there would be a good trail traversing the ridge over to the falls. However, there really was not much of a trail and what there was was quite difficult to follow. Perhaps that is because I went off in the wrong direction, staying too high above the river. The route soon became far too brushy to continue. Dang. I was not expecting to have to do battle with the brush here. It was too late to try the other side of the river (where I went down last year). So, I backtracked my steps, and then tried a route further down closer the river, and fortunately I found a path through the brush and a slightly (only slightly) better trail too, which led all the way over to the waterfall. There was a big log blocking my way though. The only way past it was to go under it, and I had to shed my camera backpack to squeeze under, and as I did this I somehow managed to kick my backpack, which promptly started tumbling on its own downhill and towards the cliff, off of which it would promptly land in the river. It did not make it that far, fortunately, and stopped before it got to the cliff edge, but it did raise my anxiety level slightly. Needless to say, I was much more careful on the return trip, going back under that log. Once down near the falls, I found quite a lot of mist so I had to shoot from further back, but I had plenty of time before the sun arrived, and it was highly enjoyable. Such a long awful drive, but it was easily worth it to see some good water falling in California.

So what about El Nino and the big winter that is supposed to save us? I was really hoping we would have an early start to the winter this year, but it is October and we are still dry, and in fact was close to 100 degrees in late September and it still can’t seem to drop out of the 90’s (though maybe we are seeing signs finally that things will change in October). If we don’t get rain by December our reservoir will be dry (literally). It is currently 17 percent of capacity, and the 2nd lowest it has EVER been. And now for some more bad news: El Nino seems to be peaking already, or almost peaking. Remember what I said earlier about the two strong El Ninos that peaked early in summer/fall? Those two years of so-called strong El Ninos (1966, 1988) resulted in horrible winters in California. Now I am wondering if this so-called strong El Nino has peaked too early but hopefully it will still be ok, it has not quite peaked yet. Keep praying folks.

I was hoping my son would come along on my hike this weekend, but he was sick so he wimped out. I was sick too, but I am not one to wimp out so easily. I don’t blame him though. He was sicker than I was. In a way, it’s a good thing he didn’t come. The road to where I was planning to hike was blocked by a huge tree fallen across the road. Well that pretty much settled it. Plan A was out of the question. I could have still hiked to the waterfall, but it would have been 12 miles round trip, and I was not up for a long hike. Plan B it is then.

I drove into Lassen Volcanic NP. It was extremely windy and extremely cold. The thermometer was at 20 degrees. There was a large group of people getting ready to hike up Lassen Peak – at least I assume that is where they were going; it is somewhat popular in the winter to hike up there and ski down. But the snow was complete ice today, and with the awful cold and wind, it didn’t seem like a smart thing to do. Especially the skiing down part. That would be suicide.

Well after using the facilities, I drove back out to the Brokeoff trailhead where I found another early morning riser, this crazy one was planning to hike up Mt Brokeoff. My destination, however, was down, not up. There was quite a lot of snow at this elevation (6500 ft.), and of course it was all ice. I got on my snowshoes and followed the stream downwards, and with the snowshoes on, it was easy enough. There was just one unmarked drainage I had to cross that gave me a lot of trouble. Firstly, the slopes along the creek were steep and icy, and I could not find an easy way down to the creekside. When I finally found a spot to get down, I couldn’t see any way across the creek without getting wet, and I did not want to get wet in this icy cold weather. I took off my snowshoes and with much difficulty, I rock hopped across successfully. On the way back up later, I tried to bypass this creek crossing by going straight up, but it led in a wrong direction, so I eventually had to cross it again anyway, and also with much difficulty. However I did not take my snowshoes off on the way back – crossing on a big log with my snowhoes still on. That was highly entertaining (for the squirrels watching me). That little unnamed creek sure gave me a lot of troubles … but I shouldn’t be too upset with it, because it added quite a lot of flow to my waterfall.

And downwards to the waterfall. When I came to the steep section near the falls, the snow disappeared. That was good because there is no way I could have descended that part on icy snow, period. But without snow, it was easy to do. Unfortunately, I had my winter boots on instead of my hiking boots, and they have worse tread (why didn’t I wear my hiking boots – that was stupid, Leon), but I made it down successfully, without going over the cliff, and that was tricky because the cliffs are crazy steep around here, and the ground crumbly. You sure don’t want to get too close to the edge, but fortunately, there is a fabulous viewpoint of this waterfall that does not require too many crazy cliff hugging maneuvers. And it was gorgeous! I was not expecting to find such a beautiful vertical drop, and to top it off the flow was quite decent (thanks partly to my unnamed creek nemesis). I measured the falls to be 103 ft. high, which makes it the highest vertical drop that I have yet found in Lassen Volcanic NP (Kings Creek Cascades is a bigger falls, but is not vertical). I have to say this is perhaps the most beautiful waterfall in Lassen I have seen, and yet this is another one that no one seems to know about, and I did not find any trace of path or human activity down here. It is an unnamed stream, but it does have good flow in the spring. Winner winner pumpkin eater.

After hiking back up to the snow line, I continued on across the ridge over to West Sulphur Creek. I wanted to see if I could see the upper falls from this side of the canyon. I was not planning to do this initially, but I realized I was pretty close and so I decided to go for it. It was easy enough hiking over to the cliffs above West Sulphur but there is no view of the falls from there, so once again I had to find a way down.  I took off my snowshoes again and went down down down. Eventually, I did find a view of that waterfall, but the bottom of it was obscured. Perhaps if I went all the way to the bottom, I could find better views, but there was snow down there and it would have been dangerous, and both the upper and lower falls were already in the sun anyway. I will have to save that one for another time. It was a very marvelous and very cold day in Lassen.

It’s a very very long drive out to Stirling City. I don’t often go there. Like I think maybe only once before. But I’ve been wanting to check out more waterfalls on Big Kimshew Creek and this seemed like a good weekend to do it. We’ve been dry for a few weeks now. Bad news. But I thought Big Kimshew would have water and it turned out to be more than I thought. The West Branch Feather River was hovering around 200 cfs all week (downstream of the confluence with Big Kimshew), so I estimated Big Kimshew might have about 50, but I think it was probably closer to 80 in actuality.

I had heard from the kayaking community that the road was now gated by Sierra Pacific. Permanently. If so, it would be illegal for them to do that, this is public forest land. Anyway I anticipated having to bike and was prepared to do that. Nine miles one way biking followed by a two mile hike. Total elevation gain would be around 3000 ft. It would not be pleasant.

I left my house at 4:30AM, and after the very very long drive (did I already say it was a long drive?), I arrived at the gated road at 7AM. By the way, when I stopped in Oroville at the gas station along the way, I saw a bunch of hunters all decked out in their gear getting ready to go out and shoot some things. One of them was Uncle Si. I’m not kidding you. He looked exactly like Uncle Si from Duck Dynasty. If he was not Uncle Si then he must have been a long lost twin. It was very weird. Anyway, onto my epic bike/hike.

I turned on my GPS when I got to Stirling City. Lo and behold, I realized that my map for this hike was not loaded into my GPS. This was an utter disaster! The waypoints for the waterfalls were loaded but my map did not get loaded. I distinctly and positively remember loading my map, so I have no idea how it did not get loaded into my GPS, but this was catastrophic. There is no way I could know where to go without a map, and yet, I could not just go home after that awful long drive (it was a horribly long drive to Stirling City, if you didn’t know). Hmmmm, well, upon much thought, I decided to continue. I had studied this route at home extensively, and I thought I would remember how and where I needed to go. It was worth a shot and better than going home with nada.

The sign at the gate seemed to indicate that the road was only closed during winter. I hope that is true because I am sure I will want to come back here, and not biking next time. The sign also seemed to indicate that the bridge over the West Branch Feather River was out. That could be a big problem, but fortunately it was not out. I did not want to be getting wet attempting to cross a raging river (well, not exactly raging but it would be wet). In nine miles, I gained 1300 ft. of elevation, and it was a tough climb. I was worried about my ribs, which I had injured hiking over the holidays. I have not been biking since then, and I was hoping the ribs would not complain about this big climb. Thankfully, they did not. Everything seemed to be going well as far as finding the correct route to take. I did miss one turnoff near the end and ended up biking an extra 100 ft. in elevation over a quarter mile, but I determined my error before too long, and went back to the correct turnoff, where I parked my bike. Now the hiking would begin. I had a total descent of 1200 ft. down to the waterfall. The first part was easy enough, along a logging road, but I had to eventually get off trail and hike down through the forest to the falls. Without a map, it was tricky to know exactly where to go. I came to an open area where I could see the falls in the distance. I had to traverse across the mountain side over to a ridge. I felt very odd. My knees were wobbly and the terrain was making me dizzy. It was not awfully steep, I have hiked steeper stuff, but it was steep enough that a fall could definitely cause serious injury, and I did not like it one bit. The terrain was freaking me out. Most of it was due to the bike ride, being that I was very tired from that big climb. But I think the wide open and steep terrain was also contributing to my state of being. Well, fortunately there was a lot of brush and stuff to hold onto, so I was able to make it over to the ridge. (on my way back up, I bypassed that traverse – I did not want to do that again). Things got a lot more brushy as I descended the ridge. I could not see the waterfall any longer, and without a map, I was not sure where exactly to go. When I thought I saw it through the trees, I exited the ridge and made my way down the steep terrain to the creek.

And there was the waterfall. Except that something was horribly amiss. The kayakers claim this waterfall is 50 ft. high. Well, I know they exaggerate heights and I was not expecting to find a 50 ft. falls, but this one was too small. It was less than 20 ft. high (17 ft. to be precise). Surely I was in the right location and this had to be the right waterfall. There was no other waterfall to be found. But then I looked closer. The main waterfall was actually above this little 17 footer, and hidden out of view behind a cliff, with no way to get over to it. I came down at the wrong spot! I was already completely spent and I still had a huge climb back out of the canyon but I could not leave without at least trying to get down to the main falls, so I had to climb all the way back up to the ridge, and then continue along the ridge and try to get back down at the proper spot. It was very tricky to find any view of Middle Big Kimshew Falls, but finally I was able to traverse along the cliff, and this is the best spot I could find. There was no way to get any better view of it, and even this spot was very scary to stand while I took this photo. Fortunately, my knees had stopped wobbling by now. I measured Middle Big Kimshew Falls to be 35 ft. high, much less than the 50 ft. the kayakers claim, but much better than 17 ft. also.

The hike down to the waterfall and back up the ridge took much longer than I expected it to take. I initially hoped to continue hiking down river, but I was already at my limit physically, and even if I wasn’t, I would have risked having to hike back in the dark if I were to continue any further. The bike ride back down the mountain was fast and awesome. The dirt road was very smooth and I was able to go very fast. When I got back to the bridge over the West Branch Feather, I still had 3.5 miles to go uphill (but thankfully, a very gentle uphill). Yet, as soon as I crossed the bridge and started back up hill, I got a severe leg cramp. I was in agony, I dropped the bike and laid down on the road for five minutes. This happens to me from time to time after huge hikes. Eating bananas help with the cramps, but I had no bananas with me. Well, after walking it off, I was able to get back on the bike, and continue up the hill without further incident. It was an awesome day in the wilds of Stirling City.

This is Little Hollow Falls, 30 ft. high. It doesn’t really compare to all the big waterfalls on Table Mountain, but it is a nice little thing, and easy to get to.