Leon Turnbull Photography

 

This would likely be my last backpacking trip before Fall (though I may possibly do one more in June). I had this trip on my list for this spring but I did not think I’d get to it. I did not really want to drive back out to Yosemite for a third time this spring (it is not Yosemite actually, it is Emigrant Wilderness which is just before Yosemite but essentially the same amount of driving). However, rain was in the forecast for the weekend. Quite a bit of rain. But for the Yosemite area there was no rain in the forecast or very little anyway so going back to this area seemed like the best bet for the weekend. Yeah right. More on this in part 2.

 

It was Saturday. It was raining on Saturday. What did the forecast say? ZERO PERCENT chance of rain on Saturday. I don’t know about you but to me ZERO means ZERO. Nada. Nothing. Zip. No possibility of any rain whatsoever. If the stupid weather forecasters have any doubts why don’t they say 10 percent. Zero means NOTHING! Anyway, it was not raining very much but I did need to get out my rain jacket. I did bring my rain jacket but I did not bring much else. It was only a 20 percent chance for Sunday after all. Again, more on this in part 2. (it’ll be a good one)

 

There were a lot of cars at the trailhead including one that I was pretty sure belonged to kayakers. Cherry Creek is a popular run for expert kayakers but I thought it was a bit late in the year for them to be doing this run. Well I hoped that no one would be camping down in the canyon where I was going. I suppose it was unlikely because there is no trail and it is very difficult. Still it was possible.

 

After you climb up to the top of the ridge on the trail you need to go off trail down into the canyon. No trail. Very brushy. It was a lot harder than I remembered. I made it down to camp by 2PM. There was no one else down here. Fantastic. I had the entire place to myself right beside the Middle Falls. It is a gorgeous campsite and a very large sandy beach like area to put up my tent. There were very few mosquitoes at this spot. It was perfect!

 

Thankfully it was a cloudy day. It was also still very early. My plan and hope was to go to all four waterfalls today. That way I could sleep in a bit and not have to go to any of them in the morning.

 

When I was last down in this canyon I failed to make it to Cherry Bomb Falls. My planned route turned out to be much too steep and I could not figure out a way to get up above the cliffs at the Middle Falls for the life of me. So what do you do when you fail the first time? Give up! No! The madman does not give up but when it comes to waterfalls he certainly may need multiple attempts before success is found.

 

I had a different route this time and a better one. I was able to make it above the cliffs without much difficulty. Once you get above the Middle Falls the scenery is absolutely outstanding. Wide open granite. It is an easy walk over to the edge where you can look down into the Cherry Bomb gorge.

 

Maybe only kayakers will appreciate this view. Cherry Bomb Falls is not really much of a waterfall. It has a 20 ft. drop at the top and then it continues into a long cascade in a very tight and steep gorge. Of course I knew this beforehand but I still wanted to come here. It was certainly worth it! I really loved this spot and this beautiful cascade. The scenery is incredibly magnificent!

 

Now it was onto the next three waterfalls, the last one being the Middle Falls at my campsite. When I finally got back to my camp I found that I had company. The kayakers had made their appearance. I missed seeing them go over the waterfall as they had already done that and set up their camp. Thankfully they were camping on the other side of the river. I don’t know if they planned to do that anyway or they saw my tent and decided to go on the other side to give me space. Either way I am grateful because they had a large group and if they were camping right beside me they would have been invading my space and been too loud and keeping me awake in the night. I was so glad to have my peace and quiet at my campsite on the beautiful sandy beach. Part 2 is on the way.

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As of March 1, we have a snowpack at 60% of average (northern CA), 67% (central Sierra), 64% (southern Sierra). Rain is at 89% (north), 77% (central), 72% (south). After two months of no rain we have gone from way above average to way below average and once again we are in desperate need of a miracle March. Please pray!

 

The plan this weekend was to return to Big Kimshew because I really wanted to attempt Frenchys Falls. I have been in this area before but it is 10 miles one way. You cannot drive in here any longer (which, by the way, is stupid and annoying – but that is a topic for another day). Last time I went here I biked in but I did not want to do that again. It is very tough! Plus, my bike is currently out of order. Twenty miles as a day hike is just a bit too much (I did think about it, however). Doing it as a 2 day backpacking trip would be quite do-able and not too difficult and I would have time to get to other waterfalls as well. Sounds like a plan, madman!

 

The entire hike is on dirt roads so it is a very boring hike. I tried to keep myself entertained by taking funny video clips (wait for the madman video!). There was not much snow on the roads but there was a little bit. I saw an inordinate amount of animal tracks in the snow. Deer, squirrel, rabbit, bear, and bobcat tracks. A lot of bobcat tracks. A huge amount of bobcat tracks! In this one particular spot there must have been 20 or 30 bobcat tracks all over the place. Maybe it was just one bobcat gone bonkers, or a lot of different cats, I don’t know, but I have never ever seen so many tracks in one place before. I was certain I was going to see one, there must be a lot of them around, but I never did. I also saw quite a bit of poop including bear and bobcat. The cats seem to do their thing on top of rocks in the middle of the road. Have you ever noticed this? They don’t leave it in the dirt, they leave it on top of rocks. Why do they do this? I think they need to learn some leave no trace principles.

 

I arrived at my intended campsite at around 2PM or so. Camping in this area is difficult. There is little water (a necessity for camping) and where there are creeks flowing there is not any camping. I had mapped out a couple potential campsites on Google Earth beforehand but when I arrived at these spots I found that these are NOT good camping locations at all! In fact it was impossible to camp at these spots. What do I do now? It is late and I did not want to go back on the road to find something so instead I continued forward on the road to where it crossed Breakneck Creek. I set up my tent right on the roadside beside the creek. It was not very scenic and probably the worst location I have ever camped but it was the only possible option! At least I had water and does it really matter what else? I am only going to sleep here for one night.

 

After eating dinner I went to try to find the waterfall on Breakneck Creek. The name of this creek is rather interesting. Indeed it is a bit ominous. It is a very steep descent (about 500 ft.). It is ominously steep. Surprisingly, however,  I was able to get down to the waterfall. It is about 60 ft. high and is a very lovely cascade. Photographing it was a big challenge. I could not find any decent angle that I liked. There is another drop just below this but I could not get down to it because it was too cliffy and brushy. One out of two is not bad (so far). I returned to my beautiful campsite and went to bed.

 

I woke up early and packed up. The plan was to head down to Middle Big Kimshew Falls and Frenchys Falls. I have been to Middle Big Kimshew Falls seven years ago. A lot has changed in seven years. The road is now completely overgrown. Seven years ago it was perfectly fine. Now it is horrible and I came really close to turning around. (and I suppose I should have). Just when I was about to turn back it seemed to get a bit better. I thought that if I could get down to the ridge road it would be much easier. Umm, nope. When I finally got down to the ridge road it was much later than I hoped so I decided to skip Middle Big Kimshew Falls since I have been to it before and decided to focus on Frenchys. The ridge road was not better. It was worse. Far worse! The brush was essentially impenetrable and there were three landslides I had to cross over. What I should have done is turn back but then I would have to climb 1000 ft. back up to the main road. I did not want to do this so I pressed on. I was already very tired from all this bushwhacking. The road finally opened up by the time I reached the point where I needed to drop down to Frenchys. The planned route down did not work. I got about halfway and then got cliffed out. Once again it was too brushy and too cliffy to continue. I suppose it was not too surprising but I was disappointed that I had to retreat. At least I made it to one waterfall on this trip. One is better than none.

 

My planned route now was to continue on the ridge road back to the bridge over the West Branch Feather River making the hike a big loop. I certainly did not want to go back up the mountain through all that brush with a 1000 ft. ascent. This route “should” work. After all that brushy-ness earlier on the road I was a bit concerned but now the road has opened up and it should be fine for the rest of the way. If I had to retreat now I would be in huge trouble. I was well past the point of  no return. I would not be able to get back to the car before dark if I had to do that and I had no food left to spend another night camping. (not to mention that I was extremely tired and also I had to work the next day). The road was perfect and easy hiking … until … I completely missed a turnoff. I walked almost a mile on the nice road past my supposed turnoff. But there was no turnoff! I surely would have seen it. This road I was walking on now was not on my map at all. I went back to where the supposed turnoff was and found a very old road that was completely overgrown. It was literally impassable. I was already well past the amount of bushwhacking I could do (or wanted to do) on a single day. I was not going to bushwhack down this old road for 3 miles. I could not retreat (as I already said). My biggest fear was realized for this trip. I sat down and thought about it. The other road that was not on my map was a good wide maintained road. It must go back to the main road eventually. It logically must go back! It might take a while but it must take me back to where I need to go. I decided to continue on the unmapped road. Indeed, it did take me back to the bridge and the main road. I don’t even think it was that much longer but I did lose a lot of time and added two miles or so to my hike. I ended up hiking 17 miles in total for the day. I finally got back to my car at 3PM. Of course I stopped at Jake’s in Oroville for a burger. It was an interesting trip into Lassen National Forest with one waterfall seen.

 

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To be honest, I have had a big struggle getting motivated for day hiking in the last couple months. I think the lack of rain has a lot to do with it – it is very depressing and so lately I have preferred sleeping in on the weekends. On the other hand, I am super excited about my upcoming spring backpacking trips. I have five really good ones planned for the spring, maybe six. They are going to be awesome with many new and amazing waterfalls (just so long as we get a good amount of snow melt this spring).

Apart from all this day dreaming I figured I should probably make a better effort to get out on a day hike this weekend. Force myself out of bed. I have not done this hike in the town of Paradise before but it has been on my list for awhile. I decided that this would be the day! Why not.

It is actually a pretty easy hike and even though it is 8 miles round trip it only has 400 ft. of elevation gain. I felt like I just wanted an easy hike, nothing too difficult this time. Clear Creek Falls was the ticket. It was a very enjoyable hike, very pretty, and very scenic. Part of it involves hiking along the canal and on the flume which is quite interesting indeed.

Clear Creek Falls is a gorgeous one and is a bit higher than I expected but not quite 20 ft. high (it is 18 ft.). Do you see a phantom in the waterfall? For some people I guess it is very apparent. For me I am struggling to see anything. My wife even tried to point it out to me. I see something that looks more like a bison than a phantom. Anyhow, I had a very enjoyable time hiking in Paradise to visit the so called phantom of the water.

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I had grandiose plans for the day. I got half of it done. Not too bad.

I forgot to mention on my last post that they have made a lot of changes at Table Mountain this year. There is a new paved parking lot and there is a lot more fencing and signs. The way they have done the fencing and signs is very confusing and makes you think you would be trespassing if you continued past them but that is not the case: you are not trespassing if you stay on the trails.

Continuing past Hollow Falls I stopped at Crevice Falls first. I love this angle, looking down the “crack” where the stream pours off the cliff. It is incredibly cool. There is another viewpoint but I did not go over to it. Instead I went over to Ladder Falls and Upper Ladder Falls. Yes, there is an Upper Ladder Falls. No one knows about that one. It is very well hidden. It was discovered by my friend Mike. I had not been to it before but I wanted to finally check it out. I have been waiting for the right day and lots of rain. (I’ve had to wait a long time). It is not a big one but it is pretty. This was the first of the two things I had planned. After I was finished with the upper falls and the main Ladder Falls the wind had picked up enormously and the rain from the next storm was just starting.

The second part of my plan was to go to Ranch Falls and try to get down to it. However, I decided to skip that one on account of the storm coming and also the lack of water flowing on Table Mountain. I returned on the same trail and had to navigate far around all the cows again on the way back. By the time I got back to the car the storm was in full force and I was getting a good wet soaking. It was a great morning on Table Mountain. The cows agree.

 

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December was a great month for California. As of Jan 1, we are now at 158% of normal for rain in northern CA, 156% (central Sierra) and 145% (southern Sierra). Even better is the snow pack: 135% (north), 148% (central), 160% (south). All this came from just two big storms in December including the last storm that dumped about 10 feet of snow in Tahoe! We went from 10% of normal to over 135%. A lot of people are saying that this is too much! But you are wrong if you are thinking that. The overall snow pack (for the year) is only at 50%. If it does not snow for the rest of the winter then we will still be in a bad drought situation and after a huge December it looks like January is going to be dry (at least the first half). We still have 3 more months of winter though so hopefully we will get a lot more snow and end this mini drought for good.

Anyhow, we arrived home from Canada on Sunday. Since I had Monday off work I decided to go hiking. I was tired from the long drive but the conditions seemed perfect and irresistible: a cloudy day with lots of recent rain. Table Mountain in Oroville should be fantastic. Right?

I arrived at the trailhead at 7:30AM. I was the only one there. I only saw one other couple on Table Mountain the entire day. It is funny. In the spring the parking lot is completely overflowing every day of the week but in the winter? No one! The cows are a different beast, however. They were in angry mode today. They were all standing in the middle of the trail defiantly blocking my path and peering furiously at me the entire time. I had to go way off trail to get around them, through the mud in some cases. I probably walked an extra mile to get around them. As I walked by they would start trotting towards me. I thought one of them was going to charge me. Seriously. Crazy killer cows. In the words of George Castanza: The cows were angry that day, my friends. My wife laughs at me. She says why are you afraid of cows and not afraid of bears? Well … I’m not totally afraid of the cows, only slightly afraid of them. Ha ha.

I stopped at Hollow Falls first. I have to admit I was quite disappointed in the water flows on Table Mountain. It was only about 7 days since the big storm and the flows are already down significantly. I was expecting a lot more. This is going to make me re-think my hiking plans for the next couple weekends. I was even more upset about another thing: some idiot left their poop (from their dog?) in a plastic bag under a rock right at the base of the waterfall right in the middle of the foot path, in the perfect place for everyone to see and have to step over as they visit the falls. Argh … who does this????? It is so annoying. Almost as bad is that no one else bothered to pick it up. It was obviously there for a long time and you literally could not miss seeing it if you went to Hollow Falls. Well don’t worry, it is not there anymore.

After visiting Hollow Falls I continued on my hike to see more waterfalls. Where would I go next? Phantom? Beatson? Something else? Stay tuned to find out …

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