Yosemite is alive and kicking in the Spring, so we did a little road trip. One day, after kayaking the Merced River, we decided to jam up to Yosemite Valley to do a quick evening hike at Yosemite Falls.
Here's a shot of Dave on the Merced - notice that he forgot his drytop. Brrrrr. I wasn't any better at remembering things, and realized (once at we were at the trailhead) that i had lost my shoes somewhere back at the river. So i had to hike in flip-flops.
I guess Dave felt bad so he hiked in his Tevas. Here's a shot at the top of the falls:
To avoid all the crowds on this classic hike, start in the evening with about 2 1/2 hours of daylight left! You'll pass only a few stragglers - and hopefully you'll elude the captain-safety-know-it-all hiker dressed head to tow in brand new REI techy gear, who cant resist giving you the scolding glance for starting the hike so late. Or maybe it was the flip flops?
The hike is about 7.2 miles round-trip with 2,700 feet elevation gain. Its not too long, but certainly steep. I highly recommend hiking shoes.
Here's a shot looking straight down the upper waterfall:
This is what the National Park says: "One of Yosemite oldest historic trails (built 1873 to 1877), the Yosemite Falls Trail leads to the top of North America’s tallest waterfall 2,425 feet (739 m) above the Valley floor. Do not stray off the marked path, as you will find steep drops adjacent to the trail. Enjoy spectacular views..."
Here's the webcam to check conditions before going.
Every winter and spring, we see this contagious stoke, this perma-grin, apparent on all the faces that come back from Brush Creek outside of Kernville. Finally Dave couldn't take it anymore, he had to go check it out. Thanks to Geno, who showed him all the lines, he got the most air time of his life! He couldn't really articulate the intensity of the experience... just all this stuff about "the ultimate freeride park" and something about "paddling up to the edge of an infinity pool and seeing the earth drop out before you..." He's got the Brush Creek fever.
Thats Dave and Geno peeking over the top of the Triple Drops. For some perspective, check out the picture below. Its the same picture...just zoomed out. You can just barely see them (the size of dots) at the very top of the rapids.
The scenery was magnificent, even though its the middle of winter.
Brush Creek is considered a classic in the boating world, and often called a "freak of nature." Even though its a steep narrow creek and there are nonstop drops and waterfalls, it is relatively safe for this type of kayaking.
On our way north this summer, we couldn't avoid the attraction of that prominent feature in the distance: Mount Shasta. In the most northern region of The Sierras, the 14,000 ft volcano's glaciers glimmered for miles.
Until the 1920's, the mountain was called Mt Sisson. But, that was just too wimpy of a name.
All the glaciers, valleys, thriller trails and ultra-scenic whitewater make it quite the adventure destination. So we spent a couple days exploring this area - which was clearly not enough!
We filled up one day with some superb mountain biking. A big 'Thanks!' goes out to the adventure girl from Israel that helped out with a shuttle. Here's a quick clip of one of the many the trails in this northern region:
The diamond in the adventure ruff is McCloud River, however.
Its gorgeous, fun, and always changing....but ICE cold. The river flows through a gorge surrounded on all sides by the immense and private Hearst estate; completely inaccessible to the public except by boat. We couldn't believe that this run inst more popular...it just felt like a classic.
The shuttle is kind of a hassle if you don't have 2 cars; its not exactly on a main route. We lucked out though! After parking our camper at Lake McCloud, the take-out, we found some nice local fisherman to give us a ride in the back of their truck all the way to the put-in! This saved us one loooong bike ride to get back up to our boats, which were hidden in the bushes near the river. In hindsight, this hitchhiking ride really saved our day. We paddled back to our camper right at sunset. With the additional bike ride shuttle, we would've been kayaking hours after dark.
The water was flowing super low...less than 200cfs... so we started at the lowest put-in near the border of the Hearst property. The McCloud is basically a narrow lush creek at this point, and there's definitely a lot of maneuvering and sliding over rocks for the first couple miles.
But all of a sudden you hear a roar, and the little creek changes! Big Springs, several pure natural springs gushing out of the hillside, adds 1000-1500 or so cfs to the flow. Immediately the creek turns into a river! And coming from the land of drought, this was truly amazing!
We were also stoked that you can just drink the purest coldest water right out of the springs; no water bottles needed on this trip. We stopped and drank our fill at a few large springs along the way.
So once we passed Big Springs, we were immediately in a 3 mile long class 3/3+ rapid! There wasn't even one pool in this section, just continuous whitewater!
We passed lots of play spots and waves, but the water was just too cold to roll very often. I'll certainly be wearing gloves and a hood next time.
During the last few miles of the run, the river mellows out and some of the most odd sights appear. We came around a bend, and there was a neighborhood of Old European-style mansions lining the water....out in the middle of no-where!
Some of the houses where Medieval dungeon-looking, some were like giant Danish cottages painted with mythological frescoes, and one was A GIANT castle-replica that went on and on in size. It was situated on a peninsula, where the entire river rapped around it on almost all sides. It was too big to get a picture of. Just the pool situated on the edge of the river was too big to take a picture of! The strangest thing was being able to float RIGHT under their windows and peak in!
After passing all these places, a glacial creek comes in and turns the crystal clear water into a milky aqua color.
Then the river, which is dammed far below, slowly widens and becomes the scenic McCloud Lake. Just as the sun was about to set, we paddled a couple more miles on this lake to the edge of public land, where our camper was parked and Charly was eagerly waiting.
What a day!! Here's a short clip of Big Springs near the top section of the river, and the Hearst Mansions toward the end of the run:
Its been a pretty sad year for whitewater in California. The lack of snow this winter really hurt the river levels this year. BUT, there's still some decent water to be had on the lower Kern River below Lake Isabella! Water is released from the lake and the Borel Canal above the 11+ mile section of class 4 from Miracle Hotsprings to Democrat take out. (The run can be cut in half by taking out at Delonegha boat launch.) Lately the flows seem to be ranging from 700 cfs -1150 cfs. I'd say 1,000-1,100 cfs is the most fun, with the most play spots throughout the run. I am constantly surprised that this run isn't completely packed with boaters. There are tons of great waves, play holes, class 3 and 4 rapids, and great scenery with an easy shuttle.
Here's a short video of Deadman's Curve, a class 4 rapid above the Delonegha Bridge, at about 1,000 cfs:
What's all this about? We will be blogging about our adventures throughout the Sierra Nevada mountains as we explore this vast region via mountain biking, hiking, climbing, backpacking, kayaking, backcountry skiing, and whatever else we can think of!
We're motivated to spread our love of nature, photography, and outdoor sports as we sojourn in the Sierras.
Sierras: (n.) Some of the most amazing and rugged mountains in the world, ranging from Oregon to Mexico.
To Sojourn: (v.) To journey, abide, inhabit, travel, vacation, adventure.
