MUD
Mud Creek lived up to its name this past week. A large section of the Konwakiton Glacier on Mt. Shasta broke off sending huge muddy flows into the Mud Creek drainage, and flooding over a road miles below. The event only lasted a few hours, but it got me thinking about visiting Mt Shasta again. I figured that with melting glaciers, plus the recent rain and snow we had in California, that the waterfalls on Shasta might be actually flowing quite nicely, and perhaps even quite strongly.
So after work on Friday, I packed all my weekend gear into the Gator (that would be our pet name for our SUV), braving the crazy busy traffic, and headed up I-5 all the way to Mt Shasta, finally arriving there well after dark. Mud Creek was not the only waterfall on Mt Shasta that I wanted to visit this weekend. I had high hopes of finally seeing Whitney and Coquette Falls. Surely these creeks would also be experiencing good decent flow from the melting glaciers and recent rain. The area got 2.5 inches of rain at the end of this past week. But alas, as I stopped to examine Whitney Creek with my head lamp that night, I found it bone dry. Huge disappointment. Whenever I have ever driven by here, no matter what time of year, Whitney Creek has always been dry. I am certainly beginning to wonder if this waterfall ever flows at all.
I drove on back to the McCloud campground and set up shop there for the night. And promptly froze half to death that night. My weather app told me it would be in the mid forties that night, and it said the same thing in the morning. Wrong! It was 34 degrees when I woke up in the morning. Even though I was in my (supposedly warm) sleeping bag and wearing layers of clothing, I was freezing the entire night, and slept very little.
The next afternoon I drove up to the Clear Creek trailhead. Before the hike I tried to get a little nap in the car. That did not last long before a couple drove up to the trailhead and parked right next to me. I could hear them talking as they prepared to start out on their backpacking trip. So much for sleeping. The girl was having a major ordeal getting ready. Apparently, there was a huge spider living in her hiking boot, and she was freaking out, and trying to get her husband/boyfriend to get rid of it for her. I am guessing you do not get out hiking much if you have spiders living in your hiking boots. After much time and consternation, they finally left. I am not sure where they were backpacking to, but it was certainly at a much higher elevation, and it would be well below freezing that night. Good luck to them in surviving. Well, I definitely was well past being able to nap, so I ate my lunch and started off on my own hike. No spiders in my boots, guaranteed.
At the viewpoint, you are 1 mile away from the 100 ft. high Mud Creek Falls. It is a magnificent waterfall, with an even more magnificent backdrop, 14,179 ft. high Mt. Shasta. The only way to photograph it is with a long lens, and that is why I lugged my very heavy 100-400mm lens up the mountain with me, which is not something I would normally do. One of these days, I will get up closer to this beauty. I think I now have an idea how to do it, so that will certainly be in my future plans. The waterfall was flowing fairly decently, and I think most of it was from snow that was melting from this past storm. No major glacier events today. It certainly would have been amazing to be up here during the event last week. Of course, it happened during the night so it would have been tough to see it then. Ha ha. From the viewpoint, I could also see that Clear Creek had some water flowing as well. There is a waterfall on this creek as well, and I wanted to try to get to it if possible.
I continued hiking up the trail and caught up to the spider couple, resting ahead, and no doubt clearing out more unruly creatures from their hiking boots. Just before I got to them, however, I cut off the trail and headed down down down. I found a bear path traversing along the mountain side, but eventually I had to leave it because I guess these bears do not like waterfalls. I went straight down the mountain. It was steep, but not cliffy or dangerous. In a surprisingly short amount of time and without too much difficulty, I found myself at the Clear Creek drainage with a glorious view of the 144 ft. high waterfall on Clear Creek. It was not flowing too well, but considering this creek was no doubt dry as a bone a week ago, it was not bad. It would be an awesome waterfall to visit in the spring, and I am sure I will be back here. I will be sharing that photo next, but in the meantime enjoy spectacular Mud Creek Canyon Falls.