Jan. 2018 – This is my day hike to Phantom Falls, Beatson Falls, Ravine Falls, and Hollow Falls at North Table Mountain Ecological Preserve in Oroville California – Waterfalls. It was a beautiful and fun 8.5 mile round trip hike. There are over 20 waterfalls on North Table Mountain in the winter, and in the spring the wildflowers are abundantly gorgeous. I think this is my best video yet. Please check it out!
July 4, 2018-Day hiking to Lyons Creek Falls (California Waterfalls), and Pyramid Peak, in the Desolation Wilderness, Eldorado National Forest. I had a epic hike up to the top of Pyramid Peak on July 4. It is a long, tough climb. The views from the top of Lake Aloha and even Lake Tahoe are worth it all. Join me on this grand adventure.
This is Silverlace Falls, about 30 ft. high. I camped here on my first night in the Yosemite Wilderness in June. It is a fascinating little slide on the Merced River but difficult to photograph because it is so wide. I did not have a super wide angle lens, which would have been nice. I still have not processed all my photos from the Yosemite trip, so you can still look forward to seeing more pics in the coming weeks.
This time of year (ie. Summer), I start to get very anxious about what the future may hold for next season. Will we have a good winter? Will we see another drought? It is already time to be praying for next year. In 2018, we had a weak La Nina, and as you know, we had a below average winter. The precipitation was about 80% of average for north and central California; the snow pack was only 50-60% of average in California. We also had a weak La Nina in 2017, but of course that was a huge year for us.
So what about 2019? It looks like we are going to have another El Nino next year, but before you get all excited (some people seem to always get excited when El Nino is mentioned), this will not be a strong El Nino. It looks like it will be a weak El Nino (possibly a moderate one). And what does a weak El Nino mean for snow fall next year? You should all know by now it does not mean anything! Remember that super strong El Nino we had a couple years ago and ALL the forecasters said we were going to have a huge year – but instead we only had an average winter that year (or just very slightly above average). Nonetheless, with that caveat in mind, I still like looking at historical events. We have had 11 weak El Ninos since 1950, and 5 of those were above average winters, 2 were average, and 4 were below average. Digging deeper, only one weak El Nino followed a weak La Nina event. That one was a below average winter. Six of the weak El Ninos followed a below average winter (what we just had), and four of those six gave us above average winters. For the moderate El Ninos, 3 out of 6 were above average. So as I said, it all means nothing! It seems to me, we have a 50 percent chance of a good winter in 2019. In other words, please pray!
Join me on this awesome 3 day solo backpacking adventure into the Yosemite Wilderness- California waterfalls. I hiked 20 miles up Little Yosemite Valley along Merced River to Triple Peak Fork Falls, an amazing place with an amazing 600 ft. high waterfall. Along the way, we hike up the Mist Trail to see Vernal Falls, Nevada Falls, and then many other beautiful falls on the Merced River, including Silverlace Falls, and others.
I am not one who normally likes to climb mountain peaks. Before this past week, I can only think of one mountain I have climbed in the past few years. I will climb up mountains, with or without a trail, with or without cliffs, in order to get to a waterfall. But waterfalls do not exist at the very top of mountains. Right? So what is the point in climbing a mountain? It is too much hard work!
Nonetheless, on July 4, I had a stupendously great idea: climb to the top of Pyramid Peak. At 9983 ft., it is the highest mountain in the Desolation Wilderness, and third highest in the Lake Tahoe area. Along the way, I would stop at a new waterfall that I had not seen before. It was going to be an epic day!
It is not an easy hike to the top of Pyramid Peak. There is no defined trail, and I would be going the long way up. There are three main “routes” to the top (no “trails”). The one I chose was the longest route, 6.1 miles, but also the easiest (supposedly), with the least amount of elevation gain (3300 ft. in total). The main reason I chose this route was because of the waterfall.
I started hiking before sunrise. I wanted to get to that waterfall first, before the sun. It was almost five miles to the falls. I hiked quickly. Thankfully, these five miles are somewhat tame in elevation gain (and this first 5 miles was also on a defined trail). The hard part would come later.
Along the way, I came across a bear. It was the first bear I have seen this year! Considering that I have backpacked in a number of wilderness areas this year, including the bear haven of Yosemite National Park, it is surprising I have not seen any bears yet. Technically, I was not even in the wilderness yet when I saw this one. But I was happy! A great start to my epic day. I got within 20 feet of the bear before either of us saw each other. Then he took off like a scalded cat. I only saw his big brown behind.
I came to the waterfall just a little before the sun. Not really a great waterfall but it was pretty and it was over the minimum 20 ft. high. I took some photos then psyched myself up for the upcoming tough part of the hike. I still had 2000 more feet to climb in about a mile. In case you are wondering, that is a lot!
From Lake Sylvia, there is, supposedly, an obvious notch that you need to climb up to get up on the ridge leading up to Pyramid Peak. It is, supposedly, not very difficult to climb up. I could see the notch. It looked horrifically steep and cliffy! Well, I worked my way over to the bottom of it. I could see a path going up a secondary notch. This must be the correct way. People have obviously gone up here before. The other notch would be far too cliffy. I started up. Before long, however, the path became incredibly steep, crumbly, and dangerous. But this must be the correct way! I hemmed and hawed for a long time, then decided to turn around and go back. It was too steep. A fall here could easily result in broken bones, if nothing worse. So now what? Do I go back home?
Before doing that, I decided to go over to the other notch, although I was sure it would be far worse. However, when I got over to it, I saw a well defined path going up the mountain. This was the proper trail! It was not too steep or dangerous. It was pretty easy (except that you are climbing up a mountain with lots of elevation gain). I got up to the ridge in short order. Now I just to climb up the ridge to the top. There was still 1400 ft. of elevation gain to go, now much less than a mile. It was very slow and took a long time. The last section was a jumble of huge rocks that you needed to climb up. I found it very fascinating, obviously volcanic in origin, but it was not easy to climb up (or down). However, the marmots sure must love all these rocks. There were a lot of them around, especially at the top. I got lots of video of them ( so watch for my upcoming video of this hike).
I was not the first one to the peak. In fact, there were a lot of other people climbing up Pyramid Peak on July 4. No doubt because it was a holiday, this was the reason. I would have liked to have some alone time on the peak for a while. If I had not messed around for 45 minutes trying to climb up that other notch, I would have been the first to the top. Ugh. Oh well. I took my time at the top, had my lunch with the marmots, and of course took some photos. There was a lot of haze from the fires in California (one big fire, anyway). I could see Lake Tahoe, barely, off in the distance through the haze.
A trio of East Indian guys came up while I was eating. It was a bit funny because they totally freaked out when they saw the marmots. They thought they were skunks, or some other dangerous animal. I reassured them that marmots were harmless, but just keep an eye on their food. Ha! After saying that, one of the marmots jumped on one of the guys’ head. Kidding! But seriously, did I ever tell you about the marmot that tried to kill my daughter when she was a baby? A story for another time. (ok, it did not actually try to “kill” her, exactly).
Well, time to go back down the mountain. It was a long 6 miles back to the car. The steep part down to Lake Sylvia I found to be very hard on my knees, but after that it was a nice gentle downhill. Except that I ran out of water three miles from the car. I had brought 3 liters, but it was all gone. I could have filled up in the creek in an emergency, but decided to just get back to the car as soon as possible, where I had plenty of water waiting for me. I was very tired when I got back to the car. Hopefully, I would sleep well that night, but it would be difficult with all the fireworks going off on our street. I still had to go to work the next day too, but it was an epic day in the Desolation Wilderness.
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