Leon Turnbull Photography

Three times is a charm, right? Big Springs Falls on the McCloud River has been a thorn in my side for awhile, but I was finally able to get to it this weekend. It was not a cake walk, however, and I almost did not make it.

The thing is, getting to this waterfall basically requires crossing the McCloud River, and McCloud River is basically uncrossable for most of the year. It is far too brushy on the north side of the river, which I found out big time on two prior attempts trying to get here. There is a potential route on the south side which does not require crossing the river but it is too long. However, when I was here a couple weeks ago, the river flow was low and I thought it could be done. So this was my plan, cross the river and hike down to the falls on the south side. It would be a short and mostly easy hike and I would have plenty of time to reach the falls before the sun got there, which was of course, very early in the morning.

Things do not always go as planned, do they. Certainly not with the waterfall madman, anyway. I arrived at the parking lot in the dark. I could tell right away something was awry. The river was quite a bit higher than two weeks ago. How is this possible? The only thing I could think of was snow melt from the storm we had a couple weeks ago. When I arrived at the spot where I was planning to cross, there was just no way. The river was flowing too deep and too strong. Oh boo hickey. Here comes strike three.

Well what to do, what to do. I decided to walk down river and see what could be done. At first there was a path, but eventually I ran into that deadly brush and no way to continue. Still no possibility of crossing the river. However, I decided on an alternative, and that is get in the river and wade along the shore down to the falls. Now here is where I pat myself on the back big time. The temperature in the morning was 35 degrees. Wading in the river, even for just a simple crossing, would be foolishness at best, and frostbite at worst. I do not have waders, they are too heavy to carry on hikes. But I anticipated this coldness would be coming, and I went to the scuba shop beforehand and picked up some wet socks (or whatever you call them), in order to keep my feet warm while I was in the river. This was one of the best purchases I have ever made. The river was freezing, but my feet were toasty warm in the sock booties (or whatever you call them), and I was in the river wading down stream for quite some time. The going was very slow. The river was shallower on the edge, but there were a lot of slippery rocks big and small that I had to walk over, and I had to be very careful I did not slip and fall. When I came to a little rapid, I decided to try to get out of the river and go around it. Through the brush. That was a big huge mistake. After much distraught-ness, I got back into the river below the rapid. The rest of the way was uneventful, and I made it down to the waterfall, and still had time before the sun got here. I was able to stand in the middle of the river thereabouts to take this photo.

Big Springs Falls is a real beauty. It is much like Mossbrae Falls, a spring flowing right out of the side of a hill, though it is smaller than Mossbrae (25 ft. high), and much harder to get to as we found out. It also flows year round, and even in this drought year, it was flowing like a charm.