Leon Turnbull Photography

Backpacking trip #4 of the spring. One more to go before the waterfalls all dry up for this dismal year. This one did not turn out so successful. I made it to just two waterfalls, and only one good photo (this one). I had hoped for much more. Let me explain!

It was my 22nd wedding anniversary. My wife and I were in Red Bluff for the weekend at her mom’s house. We went out to lunch and then got some ice cream and went down to the river for a pleasant afternoon. In the evening I drove up north to the Trinity Alps Wilderness at the end of Coffee Creek Road.

I had read horror stories about this road and they all turned out to be fairly accurate (much to my chagrin). It is a very rough road littered with sharp rocks for the entire length of it. I tried my best to avoid getting a flat tire on these rocks (I have had that happen before on a similar road). 20 miles of slow driving at about 20mph. You do the math.

I finally reached the end of the road at the campground. There was still enough light so I went down to the first waterfall: South Fork Salmon River Falls (pictured here). It is about 60 ft. high so that is quite a bit bigger than I expected. It was a bit too steep to get all the way down to the river but I found a great viewpoint on a rock at the edge of the cliff. One waterfall in the bag. It was a great start to the trip.

I slept in my car at the trailhead. I slept in until 7:30! That is very late for me and a bit later than I wanted to sleep. Oh well, I guess I needed it. My plan was to hike up to Caribou Lakes and beyond. It did not exactly turn out that way.

There were an enormous number of deer at the trailhead (and also up at Caribou Lakes). They were all over the place, wandering around the campground, hanging out in the meadows, it was crazy. There were more deer here than I have seen in the last three years combined or more (no exaggeration).

There were also quite a few cars at the trailhead for Caribou Lakes. This was a surprise. This trail in the Trinity Alps has become rather popular in the last few years. Too popular. I think the Trinity Alps needs to start implementing quota on some trails (including this one) because they are becoming over used. Nonetheless, I was not expecting to see anyone this weekend because it is very early season. It was definitely not even possible to hike up to the lakes just two weeks ago so I was hitting this trail in the first one or two weeks of the season.

The trail is 9 miles long with 2000 ft. elevation gain. The grade is fairly gentle with no big steep sections. It is a steady climb the entire way. Nevertheless, it took a long time to hike up to the lakes and I was beat by the time I got there. I totally underestimated this hike. I had plans to continue past the lakes and down the other side. It did not matter anyway. There was still way too much snow on the other side and it was impassable. I knew there would be snow (and I brought my spikes) but it looked far too treacherous to attempt it. I did not have any energy to continue regardless.

There were two big groups camped at the lakes that I saw. One of them was camping in the spot where I had hoped to camp. Argh. Well, I found a different spot beside the outlet stream from Snowslide Lake opposite a pretty little waterfall dropping into the lake from the cliffs on the other side. Snowslide Lake is well named I suspect, it looked like there would be plenty of avalanches into the lake in the winter. My camping spot was away from the other groups and I did not see them at all for the rest of the day. The only bad thing is there was almost no shade. It was very hot in the sun. But it was very cold in the shade (what little shade there was). It was a tale of two extremes. I could not find a happy medium.

After dinner I hiked up to the Upper Caribou Lake. There was still plenty of snow up there, and still ice in the lake. It was incredibly gorgeous.

I had one more waterfall to see. There is a huge waterfall below Lower Caribou Lake. Getting down to it is a big problem because it is far below the lake. One thousand feet below the lake, to be precise. I was expecting that the descent would be extremely sketchy the whole way down. Actually, it was not too bad (a few tricky spots) but it took a full hour to get down. I made it all the way down to the precise spot where I had planned. There “should be” a terrific view of the waterfall from this spot. There “would be” a terrific view of the waterfall from this spot. EXCEPT for a bunch of trees beside the falls that were obscuring the view of it. ARGH! I would have been very happy if there was a clear view of the waterfall from here, however it was pretty much a wasted effort. I won’t be sharing the photo on this blog but it will be loaded on my website. There was no way to continue further to the bottom. It is just cliff and more cliff below me. Nothing more I could do but climb back up to the top and to my campsite.

The next morning I packed up and retreated down the mountain to my car. Along the way I had a cool sighting. There was a long traverse which I thought would make a good video clip so I setup my camera as I do and walked back along the traverse. As I was doing this a pine marten came down to my camera walking right in front of it as it was recording video. When he noticed me walking back up the trail he scooted up into the bushes above the trail. So cool! And I got it on video! Well anyway, it took a long time to hike the 9 miles down and I was exhausted by the end of it. It was a good and very tiring trip in the Trinity Alps Wilderness.

 

 

 

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What is this on the horizon? A large cloud cover came in overhead blocking out the sun and it looked like it would stick around for awhile. Maybe I should try going to the bottom of Beatson Falls after all. Should I? I should indeed!

Getting down to the creek below Beatson Falls was much easier than expected. From there I was a mile or so below the waterfall and there was a good path going up the creek. I was feeling optimistic. However, I think perhaps it was just a cow path and before too long it disappeared. The poison oak came out in full force. I tried to continue up along the creek, avoiding the oak as best I could. This was not working. I was still more than half a mile away and the oak was now insurmountable. I have never seen this much poison oak. Seriously. There is no way in you-know-what that I was going to beat my way through all this oak for a half mile.

I decided to try something else. I would wade straight up through the middle of the creek to the falls. I was smart to bring my water shoes (I had considered not bringing them), so I put them on and left my hiking boots along the creekside. Hopefully the cows would not steal them.

There were obstacles galore. Fallen trees across the creek that I had to maneuver around (which meant going through the poison oak). Deep pools that I had to get around (again, via the oak). Rocks that I had to climb over. Wading through spots up to my waist. In some places the creek was rushing quite fast making it difficult to navigate upstream. Climbing across loose rocks on steep terrain. It took a long time. Now the sun was back out. I was still not to the waterfall yet. This is not worth it! That is what I was thinking pretty much the entire time. It is just not worth the effort to get to the bottom of Beatson Falls. Should I turn back? I continued on. I figured I should at least get to the end so I can say I’ve done it. I was sure I would not be back here ever again.

Finally, I could see the waterfall. Lo and behold, it was still in the shade. It is a miracle! I did not think it would still be in shade, especially the top part of it. The last part to get down to the bottom was steep and dangerous and for this I did use my rope for safety. I made it down. Now I had another problem.

It was so incredibly misty! Beatson Falls drops 100 ft. into a small amphitheater with towering cliffs on each side. It is a stunning place but there was absolutely no place out of the mist to photograph the waterfall on either side of the creek. It was incredible. The falling water created a strong wind that was blowing the mist everywhere. Essentially, it was raining on me the entire time and I was cold and shivering by the end. I tried to photograph the waterfall as best I could. At least I got something decent.

Now it was time to leave and get warmed up as I hiked back down the creek. Do I still think it was not worth the effort to go down to the bottom of Beatson? Hiking back down the creek seemed to be a lot easier now that I knew exactly where to go and I made it in pretty good time back to the spot where I had left my boots (the cows did not take them!). It was very tough but I would not say NO to going back there, however I think I would do it with less flow in the creek. It was only at a medium flow when I was here but I think a low flow would be a lot better.

There were quite a few people around when I got back to the Beatson Falls viewpoint. (again, I’ve never seen anyone at Beatson Falls before). However, when I got back to Hollow Falls, there were literally hundreds of people on this stretch from Hollow Falls back to the parking lot. The parking lot was completely packed and cars were parked all the way down the road. Table Mountain is at over capacity. This is really bad, actually. Firstly (and worst), with all the people going onto Table Mountain there is now a lot of litter. I had to pick up quite a bit. Secondly, people are trampling all over the wildflowers. That is not ok. If one or two do this it is not so bad, but if (literally) hundreds of people do it? Thirdly, I saw a lot of people going off into private property. This area is not all public land but these people do not care about going off into other people’s property and trampling all over it. Fourthly, there is a fee to go here. Did all these hundreds of people pay the fee? I doubt it. In my opinion, it would be a good thing if they had an attendant here (on the weekends) making sure everyone has paid their fee and to limit the amount of people. Otherwise they are going to be forced to close Table Mountain to everyone. (I can already see this happening – and this would be so incredibly upsetting).

Anyway, it was a very grand adventure to the bottom of Beatson Falls on Table Mountain in Oroville.

 

 

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One of my primary goals for this year was to get to the bottom of Beatson Falls. I only know of two others that have done it, and they both describe their horror stories: huge cliffs, horribly steep terrain, poison oak, whatever else you can think of. Well, I could not let these usurpers get the better of me. I am the only madman around here. I’m kidding of course. Both of them are good friends.

Anyway, this past weekend seemed like a good time to go. We have had very little rain this winter and I have not felt that it has been worth it to visit Table Mountain this year, but this past week we had a couple inches so the big waterfalls at least should be flowing quite decent. The flowers would be out. So would all the people. I figured I had to get up at 4AM to accomplish my goal of getting to the bottom of Beatson Falls on time. I did not think I’d be able to do this, but I did. I arrived at the trailhead at 6AM. There were already people here!!! I have literally never seen this before. I knew there would be a lot of people on this Saturday but not like this (and it was much worse later). I have been to Table Mountain before sunrise many times before and I’ve never seen a single soul. Only the killer cows are out this early (and they don’t like being disturbed before sunrise – believe me).

It is difficult hiking on Table Mountain in the dark. There is no trail, or so I thought. A lot has changed on Table Mountain since I was last here two years ago. My route to Beatson takes me to the bottom of Hollow Falls. I’ve always gone down to Hollow Falls on the west side of the creek and so that is what I did this time of course. I found out later there is now a very good trail down to the bottom of the east side of the creek. It would have been much faster. Well, it took quite awhile to get down to Hollow Falls on the west side in the dark, much longer than I expected. From there the new trail continues all the way to Beatson Falls. I did pick up this trail easily in the dark but by now it wasn’t so dark. I arrived at the Beatson Falls viewpoint at 7:30AM, thirty minutes late and past sunrise. When I arrived there were no people around but there were two killer cows standing at almost the exact place where I needed to take my photos of Beatson Falls. I could not get by them and I did not want them to charge at me right off the cliff (or vice versa). I gently coaxed them to move away and up the mountain. Thankfully, they listened to me. Just call me the cow whisperer.

I took my photos of Beatson Falls from the viewpoint. Now what should I do? There was certainly no possible way to get to the bottom of Beatson in less than 30 minutes (which is what I needed to do in order to beat the sun). It would be pointless to go down there now. I decided I should just cut my losses and head on back to the trailhead. At least I got a photo from the viewpoint.

But wait! What is this coming on the horizon?

Part II is coming soon …

 

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A lot of people were excited when we got our *first* big storm of the season this week. I mean, it is good to be excited about that, but people were saying all our seasonal woes were solved by this one big storm. Now everything is fine and back to normal. Ummm, not even close. What are the facts, man? As of Feb 1, the snowpack is now 66% of average (northern CA), 73% (central Sierra), 58% (southern Sierra). Rainfall is at 51% (north), 60% (central), 46% (south). The snowpack did go up from this storm, but obviously we need a lot more *just* to get back to average (4 more big storms at least). The second big storm that was supposed to happen on Feb 1 looks like it is turning out to be somewhat of a bust, and now we are going back to a dry period again. Pray it does not last long.

Enjoy your week everyone. Here’s a pretty waterfall for you. Mill Creek Falls, Lassen Volcanic National Park.

 

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It was only about 33° at night and not very cold at all. I woke up in the morning after having a pretty decent sleep. I packed up, had my breakfast (without coffee), then I started the big hike back up the hill. I was still incredibly tired. I really had quite overdone it the previous day. Would I have enough energy to get home? Without coffee?

The photo is from Kings Creek Cascades. As you can see, it was mostly frozen also. If you look closely, you can see animal tracks going down to the creek where the water is flowing. It is one of the very few places one could get down to get some water. I have no idea what kind of animal, but I saw a few tracks similar to this along the creek. Perhaps deer, but I did not see a distinctive hoof print in the deep snow.

It is a big ascent from Kings Creek Falls back to the road and I had just enough water to make it. I filled up with water, going down the same steep and sketchy section to the creek. Now I would have enough for the rest of the hike. After this first ascent, most of the hike back to Mill Creek Falls was downhill. From Mill Creek Falls, however, it’s another two and a half miles with a lot of up and down hiking. When you are very tired, it’s a very hard hike. You feel every little up. In painful agony. It took quite a bit of time. But at least now, the trail was very well trodden. A lot of people had been here in just one day.

I saw a quite a few hikers on the trail. None of them seemed too friendly and did not say much to me, even when I tried to say anything to them. Is it because of COVID? Well, at least all the tracks in the snow made the hiking a bit easier. I finally arrived back at the parking lot at 3PM. The parking lot was completely full. I couldn’t believe how many people had come up for the day to Lassen. Every one was hanging out (too) close together in the parking lot, and not wearing masks. Compare that to the people I passed on the trail. They were wearing masks and freaking out when I passed them (so it seemed). Shouldn’t it be opposite? It was an interesting and difficult backpacking trip in magnificent Lassen Volcanic National Park.

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