Although not an ascent into great elevation, nor a descent
into the depths of the earth, this was one of the more physically and mentally
taxing outings that I have been on.
The goal was to begin at the Brewer Creek trailhead and hike
south, skirting the edge of the mountain until we (Alyssa and I) arrived at Ash
creek. However just getting to the trailhead was difficult and confusing, in
fact, we didn’t even make it there. The whole ordeal made me wonder about the
value of paper maps, GPS units, and Google Maps. The car GPS unit which seemed
to contain every road ever made, fictional or not, was calculating based off
this and the shortest route possible. By following this, we ended up turning
onto some ridiculous forest road, which eventually led us to an impassible
creek. The problem with the Google Maps and the paper maps was that the road
names did not match up. We eventually found the right roads, which were
confirmed by signs every now and then that continued to point us in the right direction.
Soon we hit another inevitable barrier, although much sooner
than we would of liked. SNOW
After driving over a few snow drifts, each one getting
progressively deeper, when the next one had no end in sight. We were 5 miles
and 1,400 feet short of the Brewer Creek trailhead.
With grey skies, a temperatures in the mid forties, and a
slight breeze I was beginning to doubt whether we should try for the falls at
all, but it is hard to turn back having come so far.
But I was nervous. Nervous like when giving a speech, which
one has only rehearsed in their head before. I had never navigated with a
topographical map before, and we didn’t even make it to the trailhead that I
envisioned us being at. We were lost before we started, and without a compass.
By comparing shape of the road on the car GPS unit to the roads on the map we
were able to find where we were, and the general direction to head off in.
We began a beautiful snowshoe marathon. It really was a
beautiful journey. It is not very often that one finds themselves in complete
wilderness, without even the day old tracks of another human being for miles.
By trekking in a southern direction while always heading uphill I knew that we should be heading in the right direction, and eventually we
would hit a significant ravine with Ash Creek at the bottom.
……….
3 hours and 34 minuets later, with a net gain of over 1,500
feet, via 4.82 miles of arduous snowshoeing we arrived. The falls were
beautiful, and our exhaustion did not prevent us from appreciating the beauty
of the scene before us. The canyon opened up as if God had drug an enormous
pointed hoe down the mountain slope creating a 3-mile long trench that was at
least 2,000 feet wide and must have been around 500 ft deep. The walls of the
canyon were fraught with talus slopes, scared by the frequent rock and snow
avalanches. It was raw.
Ash Creek flows down the east slope of Mt. Shasta out of the
base of the Wintun Glacier, the third largest in California. The falls are a
two step fall with a total distance of about 300 feet. The creek flows yearly,
and depending on the snow pack one is typically able to cross the creek above
elevations of 8,000 ft via a snow bridge until mid summer. We approached and
viewed the falls from the north side, however a better view of the falls and
canyon would be from the southern rim. Maybe next time, we still had quite a
bit of snowshoeing for the return trip.
Instead of retracing our exploratory steps back to the car,
I was able to use the Go To Location function
on my Garmin Forerunner watch. Once set, it provided us with a compass, a
heading, and a distance. We cut as straight of a line as possible in a
northeastern direction following the guidance of the watch. Kudos to Garmin,
the watch worked great. With combination of knowing where we were going as well
as the downhill, we were able to cut off a full mile of meandering distance,
and do those 3.86 miles in only 1 hour and 47 minutes.
8.86 miles and 5 hours 17 minuets of snowshoeing… the car
was a very welcoming sight.
Another successful adventure well worth it. And Praise for
my friend Alyssa, there are not many people willing to follow shoddy directions
into the wilderness, and even after 4 miles of rough hiking with no end in
sight, still be willing to continue. It was wonderful to have her along. I
would not have done it without her.
No comments:
Post a Comment