Our entire family got the evil COVID as a Christmas present this year. We had to delay our trip to Canada because of it. I wasn’t happy especially because I think it could have been avoided if a certain unnamed person (not me) hadn’t gone out to see my wife when he was sick, although we probably would have gotten it somewhere else since it seems to be going rampant again.
Needless to say I was quite sick last weekend and did not hike. This weekend, however, I felt much better. I was definitely going hiking. The last hike of 2023. The last waterfall of 2023.
I tried this one a few years ago by going straight up the creek from the road. That did not work. I came fairly close and got a glimpse of the waterfall but there was no way to get up to it. My next try would be to attempt it from above, but in the meantime the Dixie Fire of 2021 raged through the area, destroying everything in its path, and in 2022 the entire canyon (along with nearby Murphy Creek) was washed out in a flood.
Now it is the end of 2023 and time to try again. On Google Earth everything looked burned out and desolate but I did not see that on my hike. In fact it didn’t really look like anything had burned. It has all grown back now, and that includes the poison oak. There was a lot of that.
I got to the creek and parked, got all my gear out, locked the car, and started my hike. Something was wrong. I could feel it. In my bones. What is wrong? I knew I forgot something. I had my water. I had my backpack. I had my hiking pole. I had my camera. Doh! I did not have my tripod! I forgot the darn tripod back at the house. Argh! The reason is because I took my wife’s car this time and did not transfer it. Normally I just leave the tripod in my car. I transferred my hiking pole but not the tripod. Darn it. What am I going to do now? Well I would figure it out once I got up to the waterfall. I probably wouldn’t make it anyway.
It was not too difficult climbing up the mountain or too brushy. The biggest problem was the poison oak. It was steep and there were a lot of loose rocks. I had to be very careful but as I approached the waterfall from near the top I could see a way down to it. It was not cliffy as I feared. I was not able to get all the way down to the creek but I made it to a fantastic viewpoint of the waterfall. Opapee Creek Falls is 103 ft. high and it is very lovely indeed. At high flows it will be spectacular. I am sure I will be back here some day. With a tripod. Thankfully there was a nice spot where I could put my backpack down and set my camera stably on it and this allowed me to take good photos of the waterfall with no tripod. Sweet.
Initially I had planned a second hike in the afternoon but decided to skip it for four reasons: (1) my trek to Opapee was so successful and also harder than I thought it would be. (2) no tripod. This was the biggest reason. I was lucky for a spot to set up the camera on my backpack but probably would not have such luck at additional spots. (3) poison oak. I needed to get home and wash up before it was too late. (4) still recovering from COVID. not really a big problem as I felt pretty good but still it was probably smart not to push it too much.
It was a great morning in Plumas National Forest with yet another new waterfall discovery.
