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.

I took Monday off work to go hiking after the latest storm. Now I’ll probably have to take more days off work. And it won’t be for hiking.

I went up to Hwy 70 north of Oroville with big ideas in my head. Those waterfalls should be flowing nicely after the rain, ya think? Well so I was actually going to go on a bike ride first off, but there was a big huge rock in the middle of the road, and I was not able to drive as far as I wanted to, and then I had troubles getting my bike ready to go, so by the time I was ready it was getting very late and I decided I did not want to go on a much longer bike ride now, so I decided to skip it and go to a different location.

This hike was supposed to be very easy and short, so I did not bother to transfer my camera gear to my normal and proper backpack from the backpack that I would use for biking. I did not think it mattered. Big mistake. It was not such a short and easy hike. Indeed, it was incredibly steep, and I ended up climbing a mountain that was steep and quite icy. It soon became clear this was not going to work out, and I decided to turn around to try a different path. One missed step on the way down, and there goes my back. Ooh the pain. I am sure that this would not have happened if I had been wearing my proper backpack, which had proper support for my back. So there I was laying down on the side of a mountain in pain, in the middle of poison oak, and unable to get up. Ten minutes later, I figured I should do something to get off this mountain. I stood up, gingerly, slowly. I was on my feet. I still had to get down. I could not wear the backpack, so I dragged it down the mountain, through the poison oak, and slowly made progress, finally getting back to the car. It must have been a miracle that I was able to get down.

Okay so I still had a long drive home, and so far no waterfalls to show for it. I was able to walk a bit still, so I went to two roadside waterfalls, then I went to this one: Bear Ranch Creek Falls. It is an easy half mile hike to this waterfall, but it was tough for me with my back in so much pain, and by the time I got back to the car I was quite worn out. I probably should not have done that little hike, but I am glad I did because it would have been such a waste to drive all the way out there and have nothing to show for it. Of course I stopped at Jakes in Oroville for lunch on the way back and after that it was a very long and uncomfortable drive home.

So what now? I am definitely going to be out of commission for awhile. And I see now there is a lot of rain in the forecast through Christmas. You can thank me for that, since I will be in bed at home and not able to go out and enjoy it.

I did not get to anything new on this day, but it was a fun day to play in the snow.

Actually, I was hoping to get to one new waterfall but as soon as I arrived I knew it would be impossible. There was too much snow on the ground, the waterfall would be completely covered, but I knew Rattlesnake Creek would be flowing.

There was about 9-10 inches of snow on the ground at Cisco Grove. That was a bit less than expected from the last storm, but still too much to hike in. Unless you have snowshoes, which of course I did, and which of course I used. I trudged through the snow for a half mile, without too much difficulty, but it was tough sledding. After that, I came across snowmobile tracks from the previous day, going up the mountain. That made things a lot easier for me to just walk in the already laid out tracks. How far would they go? Not far enough, apparently. The snowmobiles had turned around about a half mile from the Middle Falls, and so I continued trudging on through the almost but not quite one foot of snow. I arrived at the Middle Falls, and it looked pretty, but how to get up close to it? That was definitely a challenge, but a fun challenge. I got off the main road, and worked my way over to the creek. It was much deeper snow through here, and I had to descend a steep bank, over a few logs, cross a mini creek, over some more logs, not knowing what exactly is under my feet (in other words, am I going to fall through and into the freezing cold and deep creek?), carefully, ever so carefully, and finally I arrived at the base of the Middle Falls. I got out my camera, had to climb over some more logs, this time I could see the huge hole under my feet, but I kept my snowshoes placed carefully on secure logs (I hope they are secure!) in order to not fall through into the freezing creek (and henceforth die), then finally got in front of the falls, I set up my tripod, planting it through the snow and into the creek, while I sat down on a snow covered rock, with my snowshoes still securely planted on the logs. Does that sound like an adventure to you?

Anyhow, all that done, I turned around and did everything in reverse, finally getting back to the main road in one piece. I decided to skip the upper falls, as that would have been a heckuva lot more effort, another four miles of snow hiking. I still had time to get back to the Lower Falls before it got in sun, so that’s what I did, making it down there just in time. With the increased amount of snow, I found it a lot harder to get up close to the Lower Falls, and even had to (literally) climb straight up the lower cascade in the creek, in order to get up to it this time. That was rather hair raising. I also fell through a huge hole climbing down to the creek. As I fell, my mind was racing, wondering just how far I was going to fall through, and if I would ever see the light of day again. I only fell through to my waist and no injuries, but I suppose it could have been worse. I will share that photo later.

The storms we have had this year so far, including these last two big ones, are still not El Nino related. The storms this year so far have been pounding the Pacific NW, and California has just been getting the last remnants of their stuffings. As usual, that always seems to be the case for us. We are still well below average for the year thus far. In an El Nino pattern, the Pacific NW will be dry, and southern California will be hit hard. I am still anxiously waiting for us to get into that El Nino storm pattern, but now it looks like that may not happen until mid January, which is very late for such a strong El Nino. Sigh. I saw one news article saying that El Nino is destroying the Polar Vortex this year. It is true that the Polar Vortex is nowhere to be seen in the east this year, and the east has been very dry thus far, but I am not sure that El Nino has anything to do with it. Nonetheless, for all you easterners, I say too bad so sad. You have had four good years in a row, while we have been suffering in a horrendous drought. It is our turn this year, so deal with it (and hopefully, much more than just one year too). Can I hear an Amen?

This was my favorite of the five waterfalls I found on Grayhorse Creek last weekend. It looks drop dead gorgeous in the snow, and is 66 feet high.

From the lower falls it is a steep and tough climb up the canyon, and the further I gained in elevation the more snow I found. By the time I got to the upper waterfalls, there was quite a lot of snow and ice in the creek, making for some gorgeous scenery. Strangely, I found an old sign on a tree near the upper Falls which said “State game refuge”. It is hard to imagine that anyone had ever been up so far in this remote canyon before, let alone would put a sign up here on a tree. Yet I did see an old Trail up here, following it here and there, so obviously people have been up here before at some point in the distant past, but it is not one that anyone likely knows about these days.

This beauty is not the biggest waterfall on the creek however. Just above this 66 foot falls is a massive waterfall, perhaps 400 feet high, not far off the magnitude of Horsetail Falls. The lower section is easily seen, but it gets very steep very quickly, and viewing this monster is going to be a challenge. It is one that is going to look a lot more impressive in the spring time and I will be back here then for sure, but I am not sure what kind of views I will get of it.

Well it was getting late in the day, the sun was out now, and I had to make my way back down the canyon and then back up to the car. I saw no one, absolutely no one the entire day. Even back at Hell Hole reservoir I saw no one, and no cars on the road either. It was not until I got back on the main highway to Georgetown, and hearing the song that came on, the first words of which Don Henley sings “nobody on the road”. Ironically, immediately after he says those words, I see the first car on the road. If you know which song that is without looking it up, then you are awesome and you get 10,000 points.

When I discovered this waterfall on Grayhorse Creek at Hell Hole Reservoir last spring, I could not get down to it because I was backpacking and did not have a rope with me. I thought it might be possible to get to it with a rope, so it was high on my list to return here. I made it just in time. One more storm and this area will be closed for the winter.

The forecast for the last storm was 4-8 inches at this elevation. I was definitely thinking it a good possibility that I would not make it there. Eight inches is about the limit for my SUV. My next vehicle is going to have much more clearance for sure, but it’ll be a few years before I can afford another one. I had hoped to be at the trailhead by 6AM, but the drive was very slow going due to the snow on the road, not to mention that it was very icy. Ending up in the ditch would not be a good idea. Or even worse, off a cliff. As it turned out, other cars had driven the road the day before, and there was only 4-5 inches of snow. So it was on the very low end of the forecast, which in a way is disappointing because we need that snow, but I might not have made it there if there was more than 8 inches of new snow. I arrived at the trailhead at 6:30AM, 30 minutes late. It was going to be a stretch to make it to the waterfall before the sun got to it. Well I had to try.

Off I trampled through 4 inches of snow, following deer tracks and coyote tracks. Those coyote tracks looked pretty darn fresh, I wondered if I was going to catch up to him or not. But alas, I saw nothing but a friendly squirrel (at least, I assume he was a friendly squirrel). It was a beautiful crisp morning, perfect for a snowy hike, and a pretty nice sunrise overlooking Hell Hole Reservoir with fresh snow on the mountains (I did stop to take a photo). Unfortunately, Hell Hole Reservoir is looking pretty sad, but we are still praying that will change this spring.

I reached the creek above the falls a bit after 8AM. It seemed to still be in shade, but not for much longer. I got out my rope to begin the descent, but it was snowy and icy, and felt much too dangerous, a lot more dangerous than my recent trip to Patterson Creek. Uh, what should I do. Well I thought, what if I went further downstream, and then came back to the falls along the creek bed. The water flow was much lower than in the spring, indeed I had thought it would be flowing a lot better after this recent storm. It was easy enough to get down to the creek downstream, no rope required, and then it was very simple to walk up the creek bed. I did not even get my feet wet. I got up to the waterfall, and it was spectacular, a lot bigger than I had previously estimated: 69 ft. high, just falling a foot short from the 70 ft. marker. The flow was low, but it was still gorgeous. It would certainly be amazing in the spring if you can get down to it. I was ecstatic to make it here, but it was still early, and I was hoping to find even more waterfalls on this creek. And indeed, I did. And they were even more amazing than this one. Come back soon to find out.