Leon Turnbull Photography

In search of a new waterfall in northern California. I had read reports from kayakers of waterfalls on Patterson Creek, indeed the description was so precise that I was absolutely certain of finding a 30 ft waterfall on this creek.

I arrived at the trailhead at dawn. There was a huge cat with a big fluffy tail running around. Except that it did not move anything like a cat. It was jumping around, and zipping back and forth, up and down, like a cat possessed. Cats do not move like that. That is because it was not a cat, I realized! It was a fisher! Wow, I have never seen a fisher in the wild before. Neato mosquito. It was still too dark to take any pictures, but I grabbed my Go Pro video camera hoping to get some footage of the little monster. But for some odd reason, when I turned it on, it was on the camera setting, not the video setting, so I thought I was taking video but I was not! Oh that just figures.

Well after the fisher disappeared up the mountain, I started on my hike. There was snow on the ground, and it was very hard packed, which made for a fun hike. But a long one and a tough one. It should have been only 3 miles to the creek confluence of the north and main forks of Patterson, but it was 4 miles at least, and along the way the road led up a steep mountain I had to climb up. All this happened awhile ago at Christmas when my back was still recovering. Going on a tough hike like this was really stretching it for my back.

I arrived at the confluence which is where the waterfall should be. No waterfall. I descended to the north fork of the creek, crossed it, and ascended the ridge between the two creeks, thinking the waterfall would be right on the other side of the ridge. No waterfall. I continued up the ridge as far as I could possibly go, which was quite a distance. No waterfall. This did not make any sense. There definitely should have been a waterfall here. The kayaker’s description was very precise, and now I realize: very wrong! Well that was a big bummer. I think there actually are waterfalls on Patterson Creek, but much further up. It would have been at least two more miles one way on the road in order to get up to them, and my back was already well past its limit. There is no way I could have continued any further. So I hiked back to the car. Very bummed.

It is a very very long drive up to Patterson Creek in the northern part of the state, and all for nothing. Well, not quite all for nothing. I stopped at Shackleford Falls on the way back. It was about noon but still in shade, as I knew it would be. It was not flowing as beautifully as it was the last time I was here, but it was certainly a very nice consolation prize after a very long hike.