New One
I love finding new waterfalls. Have I said that before?
Well, here is a new one that I found today. I had heard about a waterfall on Panther Creek near Tiger Creek Reservoir, off Hwy 88. I had no idea where it was exactly, or what it was like, or if it could be accessed. So off I went in search of the truth.
As is my custom, I get up bright and early, get a quick breakfast, make some coffee, and set off driving in the dark. About 30 or 60 minutes into the drive, using the restroom becomes somewhat of a necessity. Thus, I stopped at the Shell gas station in Sutter Creek to use the facilities. A sign on the restroom door, however, said “Restroom is for employees only”. Crap! Is there no public restroom here, I thought? I turned around to go ask the clerk, and that is when I noticed a hunter dude standing by the counter. He gave me a nod and a wink, and pointed back at the restroom, indicating it was perfectly fine for me to use the restroom. He sure didn’t look like an employee, but he did look like he was in the know, and that gave me assurance it was okay, so I turned around and went back inside. After I came out, I went to go buy a drink, and I noticed two boys come in the store to use the facilities as well. The hunter dude was still standing there, and did the same thing for them, giving them a nod and telling them it was okay to use the restroom. I wondered if he just stood there all day doing this. Anyway, I went up to the counter to pay for my drink. The clerk was an East Indian man, very friendly, and after giving me my change he told me, “You have a wonderful day, and God bless you.” Wow, I just thought that was so incredibly nice, and it totally made my morning.
Anyway, onto the waterfall. I drove up to Tiger Creek Reservoir, and continued up Tiger Creek Road, to the place where I anticipated the waterfall to be, after my study of the Topo maps. For once, it was in the exact spot I anticipated, and it was even visible from the road. Getting down to it, however, was quite another matter entirely.
A very steep drop-off from the road made it impossible to get down to it. I tried scrambling down a gulley, hoping I would get a view of it from lower down. It was treacherous, the slope was crumbly, and I made my way down incredibly slowly and carefully. Getting to the bottom was out of the question as I came upon the top of a cliff. I made my way over to a possible overlook, but I found it would be much too dangerous to get right up to the overlook. I also saw that even if I could get there, I would not get any decent view of the falls. Dang! I came all this way and cannot even get to see this waterfall. I took a quick snap of the obscured waterfall view, and made my way back up the steep slope to the road.
Once back at the top, I went back down the road a short distance and that is when I saw another possible descent, much gentler than the first one. I made my way down and found that I could pretty much get all the way to the bottom. I came to this fabulous unobstructed view of the waterfall. I measured it to be 78 ft. high. A stunning waterfall in a remote location. I think it would have been possible to get even closer, and possibly all the way down to the creek, but I decided that I would save that for another day, as there were more spots I wanted to try to get to, and the sun was already close to shining down into the canyon. So back up I went again, and back to my car.
My second quest for the day was to try to find a waterfall on nearby Tiger Creek. But this time I struck out. I really had no clue where this one would be. I was hoping to see it from the road, or possibly try hiking up the creek from the powerhouse. However, access at the powerhouse was all closed off, so that was out of the question. So instead, I opted for a different sort of hike. Following a trail from the powerhouse, I climbed up to the Tiger Creek Forebay, which is a little reservoir that PG&E has created. Why would I do this? I just do not know. In fact, it was kinda crazy cuz it was an incredibly steep hike up there, and took me a full hour to climb the mountain. At the top, there were no views at all of anything (except the uninteresting little reservoir). It also required some very agile footwork to avoid the hundreds of ticks I saw along the trail, just hanging off the grasses, waiting to attack an unsuspecting traveler. I think I could be eligible for some sort of dance trophy, because I managed to avoid getting any ticks on my body whatsoever.
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