Water Day
We had a pretty big rain storm here this past weekend. A much needed and much welcome rain storm, and not something we normally get in the month of May. On Sunday night, I was looking at the water flow over North Form Dam (Lake Clementine). North Fork Dam is the best measurement of how the water (and waterfalls) are flowing in the greater Sacramento area because the water is not controlled. It is a dam, but they don’t control the water there on the North Fork American River, they just let it flow right over. The flow was over 8000 cfs, about 5 times the normal flow. I knew that meant that ALL the waterfalls in the area would be ripping and roaring like crazy. (with all the increased flow, Folsom Lake has gone from 80 percent up to 87 percent capacity in just a few days – and that is with all the increased water they have been letting out recently). Anyway, I said to my wife, I gotta take tomorrow off work and go out waterfalling. I said that only half jokingly. If I could have taken the day off work, I would have. But there was just no way I could do that. I went to bed depressed.
But what could I do, I wondered? Maybe I could go somewhere AFTER work on Monday? How about Bassi Falls? I emailed my friend, Rob, to see if he was interested. He was, and met me at my house at 4PM when I got home from work. I dragged my son, Jadon, along as well. He came, unenthusiastically. Jadon, in his own words, is more of a Lego kind of guy, than a hiking kind of guy. He’d rather stay home and make cool looking Lego designs. He is very talented, artistically. But I want him to enjoy the beautiful outdoor world as well, so he came with us.
It is an easy hike down to Bassi Falls, about a 10 minute walk. You could easily hear the falls roaring from the parking area. Little streams were pouring down the hills over the trail. Jadon had fun splashing through them. When we finally came into view of the falls, it was indeed ROARING. When I was here last year, it was roaring incredibly. This year, there was even MORE water roaring over the falls. Did I say Bassi Falls was roaring? It was an overwhelming sight to behold. I think even Jadon liked it. Rob was overwhelmed trying to find a way to photograph the falls. He eventually gave up and took photos of the creek and trees instead. It is definitely a daunting task to photograph such a powerful waterfall. How can one possibly convey the feeling, the power, the immensity of such an awesome waterfall in one little photograph?
After awhile, it started to rain again and was getting cold. Rob had gone off somewhere, apparently attempting to cross the roaring creek. We could not see him. But it was getting late now too, and Jadon and I decided to head back to the car and wait for Rob. Jadon was worried Rob would fall in the creek and drown, or something. We had to cross a deep part of the stream on the way back, and although Jadon had rain boots on, the water got in them. That made his feet cold and very wet. It was all my fault, dragging him through the deep water instead of lifting him. I had taken my boots off earlier, so I could maneouver around the area to photograph. The water was dang cold! I gave Jadon my dry socks to put on, and we walked back up to the car. Shortly after we got back, Rob rang me on my cell phone. He was on his way back. It is amazing that you can get cell phone reception out here.
It started raining quite hard on the way back home. The amazing thing is, if we had gone to Bassi Falls on Tuesday instead of Monday, there would have been even MORE water roaring over the waterfall. Hard to believe that would be even possible. Did I say Bassi Falls was roaring? I wondered if I could take Tuesday off work?
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