Leon Turnbull Photography

Because of my back I was not sure we were going to get to go on our Christmas vacation to Canada this year. On Monday of Christmas week my back hurt so much I did not go to work and I was laid up in bed all day. On Tuesday I hobbled into work, and hobbled is the key word. It was extremely uncomfortable driving. But Wednesday and Thursday the back improved immensely, and I was able to drive up to the in-laws in northern CA after work on Thursday. So at the last minute on Christmas day, I decided that we would go to Canada. My wife was not able to come this time, so it was me and the kids only, and it was me that had to drive the entire trip, all 900 miles of it. The back was quite sore after the first long day of driving, but it got much better after that.

The roads were quite icy most of the trip, especially driving through Oregon and Washington. The low temperature we encountered was -14°F, somewhere near Mount Shasta. We did not get out of the car to test it (it was even colder on the return trip). The second day was cloudy and overcast, perfect for waterfalling and I had plans to make some stops on the way up to Canada. We did not drive through Spokane as we usually do, but instead drove up Highway 213 North. That highway was particularly bad for driving, and thus quite slow going.

So finally, way out in the middle of nowhere land, we arrived at Chamokane Falls, which I have never been to before (mostly because it is way out in the middle of nowhere land). There was a lot of snow and I did not want to get stuck way out here where no one would find us for a couple months, so we hiked down the last part of the road to the falls. Along the way, we encountered a large splotch of blood in the snow. It was a very big splotch. Human? Animal? Sasquatch? I suppose it was an animal, I would guess a deer that was shot, but who knows. We got to the falls without further incident. Plumb indicates in his book that this waterfall is 25 to 35 feet high, but I only found this small 13 foot waterfall. It was pretty yes, but still disappointing. I did not have proper maps with me, and I was not positive about the waterfall location. In fact, I was so sure the waterfall should be bigger than this, that I looked around trying to find another bigger one. Much to the chagrin of my children, I went much further upstream trying to locate another waterfall. But alas, there was no other. This was it. How Plumb could think this was 25 feet high is a mystery to me, but I suppose if you included the lower small cascade, it would be 20 ft. high.

Ah well, onto the next one. We did make one more stop on the way at Douglas Falls in Colville but it was so late and getting dark so that was all we could do. We arrived in Canada after dark, my back was still intact, and my mom had her specialty lasagna dinner on the table just waiting for us. Sweet.