Winter is dead. Spring snow melt is in full swing and it will not last long. The snow pack in northern California is only 28% of normal and it is only going down. April 1 is the key date for end of winter. We have had no storms in March. There is no miracle March.
What this means is that the snow melt is about one month ahead of normal. Northern California is past peak flow (indeed, I don’t think we really even had a peak this year). Southern California has not reached peak flow yet but it will soon. The waterfalls are flowing right now, a month early, and waterfall season will not be long. It is going to be a very bad summer.
I had planned this backpacking trip for mid April but I had to move it up a month because of the early snow melt. My plan: Upper Pauley Falls in Tahoe National Forest. You may know about Pauley Falls in Downieville (pictured here) but probably had no clue there is an Upper Pauley Falls (and a middle one as well). I have had my eye on these waterfalls for quite awhile and I wanted to bring Journey here on a one night trip. It would be a very long day hike so an overnight backpacking trip sounded perfect to me.
My route would be 8 miles one way on the Second Divide Trail with 2000 ft. of elevation gain. This would have been all right for us except for one thing. Firstly though, we stopped at little 15 ft. Pauley Falls in Downieville. It was early when we arrived. The flow was strong, about 120 cfs. Snow melt was in full force on Pauley Creek. It was a very quick stop then we drove a couple more miles to the Second Divide trailhead. The road is very narrow with steep dropoffs and few turnouts. I hate these types of roads but I saw no other cars. At the trailhead, there is essentially only room for one car to park. That car was me. There was no one else here yet on Saturday morning.
We started up the trail. At first the going was very good. A nice gentle grade. Before too long we came along the first of MANY tree blowdowns. Some of them were extremely difficult to get by, especially for Journey. This was very tiring and made the hike 10 times more difficult than it should have been. I was worried we would come to an impassable section and we would have to turn back. After the intersection with the Third Divide Trail, however, there were not any more blowdowns (or maybe only a couple). By this time, however, we were dead tired and only half way through the hike. We stopped for lunch and took a big rest along Pauley Creek. Journey flopped out on the dirt ground after she ate. We still had 1000 ft. to climb from here and no more gentle grade either.
At least there were no more blowdowns. That made the hiking a bit easier. We were only hiking about 1.5 miles per hour so it was taking longer than I expected. Eventually though, we made it up the bridge over Pauley Creek near the upper falls. I thought there would be a camping spot here. There was no camping spot and no access to the water either. I could continue to the top of the falls where I was certain there would be camping but that was another 300 ft. or so of elevation. We were too tired for that. Instead we retreated back down the trail about a quarter mile to where I had seen a camping area along the creek. This was the perfect choice. It was a fantastic wide open area. We setup camp and ate dinner. By now it was late. We would go up to the waterfalls in the morning. I read some of my book. Journey was completely puckered out. We got into the tent and went to bed. It was a tiring but fantastic first day in Tahoe National Forest.
