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Post date: Feb 06, 2012 5:24:9 AM
Lower Jackass Creek Falls
A few minutes later we arrived in front of Bear Ranch Creek and quickly climbed up the northeast side of the creek. After the initial climb (which had us huffing and puffing, we need to get in better shape), the trail flattened and we arrived at Bear Ranch Creek Falls only ~1000' feet from the highway. This is a really nice 81' waterfall that drops in two steps. Since it was February, the creek was not running very high and we had no problem with spray which was great but the season had something come along with it that was not so nice (more on that in a little bit). After taking some pictures we started back to the car and walked past a couple from Grass Valley. Along the way Britt noticed a tick on Penny's paw and promptly pulled it off her fur. Back at the car, Britt continued to pull ticks out of Penny's fur as I quickly took a few pictures of Lower Bear Ranch Creek Falls. When I got back to the car Britt was a little put off by the ticks (October to March is tick season for the lower elevation parts of California). We left and headed towards Camp Creek to see yet another waterfall. Camp Creek Falls
When we arrived at this waterfall I was very impressed with the size of it. From the top of the upper tiers above the road to the bottom of the waterfall below the road this waterfall is over 200' high! I walked to the bridge and snapped a few pictures of one of the tiers and then made my way back down the road to find a place to photograph the main section. When I passed by the car, Britt was again taking more ticks off of Penny's fur. I found a place to climb down off the road and make my way towards the creek to a viewpoint. After snapping a few more pictures I climbed back up to the car. Britt reported to me that she had taken another 5-10 ticks off of Penny and adding this to the 7 or so she took off of her previously, Penny was up to around 15 ticks after only spending about 15 minutes at Bear Ranch Creek Falls (Penny stayed on the trail with us the whole time).It was now time to start heading back home, but on the way we stopped at a couple more views of waterfalls across the river from the highway (I found one last tick on Penny at one viewpoint). When we got back to town we stopped by a pet store to pick up some tick shampoo and tick collars (one for Oliver too). Penny enjoyed her bath and is now clean and fluffy. We haven't noticed anymore ticks in the meantime (shampoo and/or collar actually working?). All in all, I had fun checking out a few new waterfalls but I think Britt would have enjoyed it a lot more if not for the ticks (I agree with her). Here's a list of the waterfalls we visited (check out their pages):Lower Jackass Creek Falls
This past weekend, Britt and I took a trip to the North Fork Feather River Canyon to see some new waterfalls (and one that we saw last year). The first stop was along Jackass Creek (probably named for the thorny vines there, more on that later). Here, I was looking forward to revisiting Lower Jackass Creek Falls (sometimes referred to simply as Jackass Falls) and to seeing for the first time Middle Jackass Creek Falls. We arrived just above the waterfalls and the sun was shining on both of them (not surprising since we didn't arrive before 9:15a). We parked and let Penny out, who was predictably excited. We walked to the southeast along a ridge south of the creek. Quickly, we came to a side-view of the Middle Falls but we didn't stop to take pictures of it yet because I wanted to get down to the Lower Falls. We continued to walk along the ridge for a little while before descending down towards the creek and railroad tracks as a train passed by. After pushing our way through some bushes we made it down to the railroad tracks (Britt was not too excited thus far, Penny was having a good time). After crossing the railroad tracks I found that to get to the base of the Lower Falls I would have to scramble down a pretty steep embankment. Britt decided to stay up near the tracks with Penny while I went down. I quickly came to the base of the Lower Falls and was surprised at how big it looks up close (probably ~20' high). I took a few pictures and started to head back up to the railroad tracks when a second train began to pass us. When I got up to the tracks the train was still rolling by, so Britt and I passed the time by making faces at each other between the cars. Once the train finished passing us we made our way back uphill to take some pictures of the Middle Falls. On the way we walked right into a thicket of some pretty nasty and thorny vines (not sure what their common name is). After reevaluating our path (our legs were pretty beat up) we made it to a decent viewpoint for the Middle Falls. We next walked back to the car, but before we left I walked up the road a little further to check out a small waterfall on the drainage to the south (Tobin Ridge Falls). Finally, we left Jackass Creek, got back onto CA-70 and headed towards Bear Ranch Creek. Penny in front of Bear
Ranch Creek Falls
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