RATtreks

Flat Creek Falls (Panthertown Valley) – 9-18-2014

After being bitten by the Panthertown Valley bug on my first trip there about a week ago on 9-10-2014, I knew I would be going back there soon and often. My second trip was again with my friend Dave Aldridge who wanted us to see a very large and maybe one of the hardest to get to waterfalls  there called Flat Creek Falls. Luckily for me some fellow waterfall friends of mine had just been there a couple weeks before so I was able to get some very good information from them. You can read about their insane adventure on Jason`s blog here (scroll down to Monday, August 25, 2014). On this trip we would begin our adventure at a different trail head at the end of Rock Bridge Road which is on the other side of the valley from where our last trip started. The journey begins by crossing the Flat Creek right out of the car and finding the Old Trestle Road that was used back when the narrow gauge railroads were hauling logs out of the area many years ago.

We did not take the time to go see Hidden Falls which is on a side trail close to the creek crossing here as we knew it was going to be a long hard day to reach Flat Creek Falls and back. We will save those for another time. The trail is not that bad but you can tell that this is one of the lesser traveled trails in the valley. There are some intersecting roads and paths so it does help tremendously to have detailed instructions on how to reach these falls before you go. The trail is on the old trestle path and does have a few difficult places where the trestles are long since gone but, for the most part it is easy to follow and eventually comes out on a larger and much more open old forest road.

We did see plenty of fresh wild hog tracks where they had rooted up the road in places but, luckily we did not encounter any along the way. It is at least 2 miles or a little over to get to the top of the falls and you do have to find an unmarked side trail and walk out and down to them. This was the first time of several that I was happy to have been given details on how to get there beforehand. Once we found the side trail we soon found ourselves standing at the edge of oblivion high above the top of the falls. I can not stress enough how dangerous this part of the falls is. I do not recommend taking any children here or inexperienced hikers and even then would not suggest going anywhere out on the top of these falls other than the overlook above them. Even there I would exercise extreme caution as a fall from there would result in tragic results.

The top part of the falls is a long, steeply slanted, cascading type of falls with two significant drops before it reaches the top of the vertical part of the falls measuring some 200+ feet down where the falls then disappear from sight over that edge as seen from this vantage point. Have no worries though because there is an additional 200+ feet of falls that you will see IF you can reach the base which does include the 95 foot vertical part of the falls ! We hung out here at the top overlook while we waited on some clouds to hide the bright sun but, that was not going to happen on this day.

I did find my way down to stand on the actual bare rock of the top of the falls and checked out the first couple of drops there and I really wanted to explore farther as it was dry enough to do so but, since it was only Dave and I, it was far too dangerous to risk doing so as one slip or misstep here would mean certain death. I had Dave pass me his camera down so I could try and get a swirly picture there but, I was not very successful at it. We went back up the side trail to the main trail and continued following it to reach the base of these mighty falls.

This old road does go into private property for a short ways but is right beside the forest service boundary line so it is apparently ok to hike here. We could see a lake off in the distance and heard boats which I must assume is Bear Lake which Flat Creek eventually flows into. There is a significant amount of downhill to reach the creek below the base of the falls along with a couple of right hand turns so it does help to have detailed directions and a good map to which I must thank my friend Jason Horton for providing both for me.

Once we reached the creek again, it is a ways upstream to get to the base of the falls which will include a few creek crossings, some blow downs, and some apartment sized rocks once you get to the falls. I knew it was going to be a long, uphill hike back but once I stood at the base of the falls, I knew it was so worth it. The sun was still blistering bright so getting any good pics was not going to be possible although we stayed there a lot longer than we should have in hopes of maybe a passing cloud or two.

I was itching to climb up to the vertical part of the falls but with only Dave there I could not chance it as it would definitely be a risky venture to do so and I would want to have others with me that are able bodied and stupid as I am to do such a thing ! I will definitely be coming back here in the future.

We hung out there as long as we could waiting on the sun to give us a break before heading back out the way we had came. I did manage to get a decent swirly just below the falls which was not there on the way in. This proves my theory that the water flow is constantly changing.

We took our time going back up all the hills we had came down to get there taking several breaks along the long route back but I was happy when we reached the old trestle road and we were able to get back to the car before it got too dark.

The best part of all was that we made it to the Hawg Wild Bar B Que joint just a few minutes before closing (8pm) and they let us in and locked the door behind us so we were able to get our post hike grub on before the long drive back home. What a long and hard hike this has been but was a most awesome adventure to a most awesome waterfall that I will definitely be coming back to as soon as I am able.