[loofus]

...we're in for a bone dry summer. I decided the wisest thing to do this weekend was to give my recently sprained ankle some time to heal. Therefore, I determined not to do any real hiking. Instead I took a friend, who is recently transplanted from Florida, up the Fall Creek drainage above Lowell, Oregon. We ended up at a small waterfall on Portland Creek that I wanted to re-photograph now that I have a decent tripod. I know it has been a mild winter and that it will be a dangerously dry summer, but what I saw really drove these facts home. There's some old cliche about pictures, words, and some relative worth, so I'll refrain from being typically longwinded and just say, "look at the pictures." They are both of the same waterfall and I shouldn't have to tell you which one is from this March and which one is from last March. I can't seem to go anywhere without some sort of SNAFU. This trip was no exception. After a very nice day dinking around in the woods and the customary post-hike fare of McMenamin's Rubinator and tater tots, we headed home. I quickly discovered that the top pouch of my pack was unzipped and my camera was missing. PANIC. To make this really short, after tearing my pack apart and scouring the trunk of the car, we made the 45 minute drive back to Portland Creek at 9:00 PM. We retraced our steps by flashlight, navigating the dangerously slick rock bank to no avail. The camera was gone. Exhausted, we headed home and arrived shortly before 11:00. I was devastated but decided to make one last-ditch effort to find my camera. I pulled everything out of the trunk of her car. There was my camera. I was as ecstatic as I could be considering the extreme fatigue. Even though the camera was in the car the whole time, I didn't regret making the long drive back to look. I guess I've really grown attached to that little camera. It's almost like a member of the family

Waterfall on 10 March 2004.

Waterfall on 13 March 2005. Notice the usual curtain of water to the left is reduced to a mere dribble. This about 1/3 of normal August flow.

[jenjen]

Dude! McMenamin's ROCKS! Every single place I've eaten that's owned by them is just plain awesome. Yeah, the water picture is downright scary right now. Even up here near the border. Our well goes down 200 feet so we should be ok. Our neighbor's well only goes to 60 feet, tho, so we might need to run a hose over there if we don't get some serious rain/snow.

[Sore Feet]

Dammit, something better be flowing next weekend, or I'm gonna bust some heads. That fall looks a bit bigger than I thought it'd be. What are we talking here, 20 feet?

[loofus]

Nah, I'd say 12 feet, 15 at most, but very scenic. It is the lower of the two "falls" marked on the USGS quad. I didn't do a very good job of showing the two circular plunge pools. Together they look like a pair of goggles. The upper falls is around 20 feet and is a little more impressive. The falls on Logan Creek are around 40 or 50 feet, but they may completely dry up this summer along with the 20-footer on PK Creek (which isn't worth the effort, anyway). I wanted to keep driving up to Elephant Rock to check out the falls near the quarry. These are well over 100 feet, but the stream is VERY small. It will most likely dry up this year, if it isn't already. Haven't found the falls on Nevergo and Gold Creeks and I don't think this is the year to do it considering how small most of these drainages are. I'm worried that pretty soon everything is going to look like this. Might be a bummer year for waterfall photography. I'm heading into the North Fork Middle Fork on Thursday and Friday and then I'll head up Salem-way on Saturday. I'll call you when we get closer.

[Sore Feet]

Yeah, this year could either suck, or be a really wet summer, and suck in an entirely different way. Nice thing about being in Washington is that if it gets too dry, there are enough waterfalls fed by glaciers around here to see. I'm planning on spending the vast majority of my summer in the North Cascades or on Rainier.