Leon Turnbull Photography

To be honest, I have had a big struggle getting motivated for day hiking in the last couple months. I think the lack of rain has a lot to do with it – it is very depressing and so lately I have preferred sleeping in on the weekends. On the other hand, I am super excited about my upcoming spring backpacking trips. I have five really good ones planned for the spring, maybe six. They are going to be awesome with many new and amazing waterfalls (just so long as we get a good amount of snow melt this spring).

Apart from all this day dreaming I figured I should probably make a better effort to get out on a day hike this weekend. Force myself out of bed. I have not done this hike in the town of Paradise before but it has been on my list for awhile. I decided that this would be the day! Why not.

It is actually a pretty easy hike and even though it is 8 miles round trip it only has 400 ft. of elevation gain. I felt like I just wanted an easy hike, nothing too difficult this time. Clear Creek Falls was the ticket. It was a very enjoyable hike, very pretty, and very scenic. Part of it involves hiking along the canal and on the flume which is quite interesting indeed.

Clear Creek Falls is a gorgeous one and is a bit higher than I expected but not quite 20 ft. high (it is 18 ft.). Do you see a phantom in the waterfall? For some people I guess it is very apparent. For me I am struggling to see anything. My wife even tried to point it out to me. I see something that looks more like a bison than a phantom. Anyhow, I had a very enjoyable time hiking in Paradise to visit the so called phantom of the water.

I did not sleep well. It was about 27 degrees which is the coldest I have ever backpacked but I was not cold in my tent and I did not even need all my layers. I had two sleeping bags. I wore my long underwear and three tops. Nonetheless I only got about 4 hours of sleep and I am not sure why. It was quite a bit windy all night long but I don’t really think that was the main reason.

Anyhow I woke up early, packed everything up and then hiked up to Bunnell Cascade. It is only about a mile further up the canyon. The snow was hard packed and I did not even need snow shoes. I made it to the falls in short order. It was quite a bit colder up there so I was all bundled up (or bunnelled up?) in my warm clothes while I took my photos. It also seemed that there were better camping spots (remember that for next time).

I like Bunnell Cascade a lot more than Merced River Falls. Even though it is slightly smaller (53 ft.) it is much prettier. I took my time, took many photos, had my breakfast, then scooted back down to collect my gear back at Merced River Falls. It was 9AM when I started back down the trail for home.

From Nevada Falls down to the bottom it took 2 hours and 15 minutes (compared to 4 hours hiking up!). As I already mentioned there were a ton of people and many had improper footwear. Considering the horrible icy conditions I was very surprised there were so many people. It was like a typical summer day on this trail! I made it back to my car by 2PM, very tired and very sore. I was home by 5:30PM. It was a fantastic winter trip to Yosemite National Park.

January was a bust. I think we basically received zero precipitation in the entire month. As of Feb 1, the snow pack is at 100% of normal (northern CA), 98% (central Sierra), 100% (southern Sierra). Rain is at 117% (north), 103% (central), 95% (south). That may seem ok but all the bonus accumulation we received in December is now all gone and February is starting off as dismally as January. I just pray we get a lot more in the next couple months.

In the last few years I have tried to go on one winter backpacking trip each year. Most waterfalls do not flow in winter but this year right from the start I had my eye on Yosemite National Park. To be specific: Bunnell Cascade and Merced River Falls on the Merced River. These would definitely be flowing and the hike should be do-able in the winter. I have been to them a couple times before but I did not have any good photos of them. It is a long hike from Yosemite Valley.

I was planning to go a couple weeks prior but unfortunately the COVID bug hit our household. I did not get very sick but the rest of my family did. Essentially all I got was a cold for a couple days (just a stuffy nose). I am 100% sure I did not get very sick because I had the booster shot (whereas the rest of my family did not have it). My wife does not agree with me but that is what I believe. Anyhow the first weekend I did not hike because I thought I might get sick (I did not). The second weekend I had the cold so I did not feel like hiking. By the third weekend we were all recovered and I was going hiking. No matter what. Yosemite here I come.

According to the Yosemite National Park website if you are backpacking from Happy Isles in winter you must get your permit from the visitor center in person. They don’t open until 9AM. So … I planned to be there by exactly 9AM. I needed to get as early a start as possible as it is a long hike and there is not much daylight in winter. When they opened at 9AM the ranger told me it is all self permit issuance in winter (even from Happy Isles). Ugh. I could have arrived earlier and started hiking much earlier. Oh well.

I was on the trail by 9:30AM. Of course the Mist Trail is closed in winter due to icy conditions but even the winter route is fairly treacherous. There is a lot of ice on the trail. Without spikes or crampons it is extremely dangerous. I had figured that since a lot of people would be hiking this trail every day it could not possibly be so bad. Wrong. Fortunately I did bring my spikes and it is not hard or dangerous at all if you have the proper footwear. However, I was following a couple other people up the trail who did not have any spikes. They wisely turned back when we got to the first bad icy section but the next day coming back down I could not believe it. It was a Saturday and there were a ton of people coming up the trail and many of them did not have proper footwear (and they were NOT turning back). The conditions were even worse on Saturday than Friday (a lot more icy). All these people who went up the icy sections did not even think to wonder how they were going to get back down later? (frankly I wonder how they even got up these sections in the first place – but going back down is 100 times worse). I would be surprised if not one of these people broke a bone (or worse) coming back down the trail. People really need to use their brains more. Is it really worth the risk going on this hike in winter without proper gear?

It took me FOUR hours to get to the top of Nevada Falls. It has never taken me that long before. I figured there were a couple reasons: 1. I had a very heavy pack carrying all my winter gear, including extra clothes, spikes, snowshoes, etc. (it was about 38 pounds). 2. I had not hiked at all in a couple weeks because of the COVID thing and not much more since Christmas so I was quite a bit out of shape. I was completely spent by the time I got up there and I was not even close to being done yet. I still had 4 or 5 miles to hike from the top of Nevada Falls. At least it is flat from there.

Flat does not mean easy. I had to break out the snowshoes before I even got to Little Yosemite Valley. Not a lot of people had been up this way past Nevada Falls. (which I thought was surprising). Once I got past Little Yosemite Valley there was no one at all. I was breaking the path. It was so incredibly beautiful walking up the valley in the late afternoon and being the only one who has been up there this winter. But it was also very tiring.

It was 4PM when I finally reached the first waterfall: Merced River Falls (58 ft. high). With only one hour until sunset and also the fact that I was so incredibly tired I decided to camp here instead of going on to Bunnell Cascade as originally planned. I setup camp, took my photos of Merced River Falls, made my dinner, and then went to bed. Could I get to Bunnell Cascade in the morning?

I had grandiose plans for the day. I got half of it done. Not too bad.

I forgot to mention on my last post that they have made a lot of changes at Table Mountain this year. There is a new paved parking lot and there is a lot more fencing and signs. The way they have done the fencing and signs is very confusing and makes you think you would be trespassing if you continued past them but that is not the case: you are not trespassing if you stay on the trails.

Continuing past Hollow Falls I stopped at Crevice Falls first. I love this angle, looking down the “crack” where the stream pours off the cliff. It is incredibly cool. There is another viewpoint but I did not go over to it. Instead I went over to Ladder Falls and Upper Ladder Falls. Yes, there is an Upper Ladder Falls. No one knows about that one. It is very well hidden. It was discovered by my friend Mike. I had not been to it before but I wanted to finally check it out. I have been waiting for the right day and lots of rain. (I’ve had to wait a long time). It is not a big one but it is pretty. This was the first of the two things I had planned. After I was finished with the upper falls and the main Ladder Falls the wind had picked up enormously and the rain from the next storm was just starting.

The second part of my plan was to go to Ranch Falls and try to get down to it. However, I decided to skip that one on account of the storm coming and also the lack of water flowing on Table Mountain. I returned on the same trail and had to navigate far around all the cows again on the way back. By the time I got back to the car the storm was in full force and I was getting a good wet soaking. It was a great morning on Table Mountain. The cows agree.

December was a great month for California. As of Jan 1, we are now at 158% of normal for rain in northern CA, 156% (central Sierra) and 145% (southern Sierra). Even better is the snow pack: 135% (north), 148% (central), 160% (south). All this came from just two big storms in December including the last storm that dumped about 10 feet of snow in Tahoe! We went from 10% of normal to over 135%. A lot of people are saying that this is too much! But you are wrong if you are thinking that. The overall snow pack (for the year) is only at 50%. If it does not snow for the rest of the winter then we will still be in a bad drought situation and after a huge December it looks like January is going to be dry (at least the first half). We still have 3 more months of winter though so hopefully we will get a lot more snow and end this mini drought for good.

Anyhow, we arrived home from Canada on Sunday. Since I had Monday off work I decided to go hiking. I was tired from the long drive but the conditions seemed perfect and irresistible: a cloudy day with lots of recent rain. Table Mountain in Oroville should be fantastic. Right?

I arrived at the trailhead at 7:30AM. I was the only one there. I only saw one other couple on Table Mountain the entire day. It is funny. In the spring the parking lot is completely overflowing every day of the week but in the winter? No one! The cows are a different beast, however. They were in angry mode today. They were all standing in the middle of the trail defiantly blocking my path and peering furiously at me the entire time. I had to go way off trail to get around them, through the mud in some cases. I probably walked an extra mile to get around them. As I walked by they would start trotting towards me. I thought one of them was going to charge me. Seriously. Crazy killer cows. In the words of George Castanza: The cows were angry that day, my friends. My wife laughs at me. She says why are you afraid of cows and not afraid of bears? Well … I’m not totally afraid of the cows, only slightly afraid of them. Ha ha.

I stopped at Hollow Falls first. I have to admit I was quite disappointed in the water flows on Table Mountain. It was only about 7 days since the big storm and the flows are already down significantly. I was expecting a lot more. This is going to make me re-think my hiking plans for the next couple weekends. I was even more upset about another thing: some idiot left their poop (from their dog?) in a plastic bag under a rock right at the base of the waterfall right in the middle of the foot path, in the perfect place for everyone to see and have to step over as they visit the falls. Argh … who does this????? It is so annoying. Almost as bad is that no one else bothered to pick it up. It was obviously there for a long time and you literally could not miss seeing it if you went to Hollow Falls. Well don’t worry, it is not there anymore.

After visiting Hollow Falls I continued on my hike to see more waterfalls. Where would I go next? Phantom? Beatson? Something else? Stay tuned to find out …