Kitsap Waterfall Survey: Tin Mine Creek Revisit 12/13/15

The week prior to December 13, the Kitsap Peninsula had enjoyed a thorough and much needed dousing of steady rain. The creeks predictably swelled in response, and I knew exactly where I wanted to go first. It had been nearly eight months since the last time I visited "Tin Mine Falls" back in March, and it was time to go see the survey's largest waterfall again.

Tin Mine Falls 12/13/15
Photo by Micah K.

Hiking up the dampened GM-1 road, it became quickly apparent there was going to be a lot of water in the creek. Every little side gully and low spot had water in it, and the branches were still dripping. 40 minutes after parking the car, My hiking partner and I finally arrived at the creek. When my friend Spencer and I had first discovered Tin Mine in January 2015, it was full of water, crashing through the basalt canyon. I didn't think it would be possible for the creek to get any more filled, but apparently it is; the swollen spectacle that greeted us on December 13 was nothing short of astounding. The creek was absolutely thundering through the canyon. Arriving at the best spot for viewing I like to call "The Overlook" I came face to face with the entire display.

It became readily apparent to me that we weren't going to be able to make it to the bottom of the largest tier, which requires scrambling up and over the lowest tier of the falls. The amount of water made it nearly impossible, if not downright dangerous. So after watching and photographing "Tin Mine Falls" for a few minutes, we moved towards "Echo Falls," and got another shock.

Usually I access "Echo Falls" by rock hopping across the creek about 50 feet upstream of the falls. This is no longer possible. It appears one of the many windstorms that has slammed the peninsula recently caused 3-4 large pine trees to fall into the creek, shattering and creating a natural dam. The creek has pooled up 3-4 feet deep behind this dam, inundating the once perfect crossing, it's now wade across, or cross a log a little bit more upstream.

Once we successfully crossed to the other side, we scrambled down to "Echo Falls". For the first time I have seen, It was completely full. Words can almost not do it justice.

Echo Falls 12/13/15
Photo by Micah K. 

Kitsap Waterfall Survey: Making breakthroughs and finding traction.

This week two large things happened involving the Kitsap Waterfall Survey that I felt the need to write about. The first being that three of the waterfalls on Dickerson Creek have made it onto the Northwest Waterfall Survey  and the World Waterfall Database. While obviously not standing in the spotlight out of the thousands of falls logged in those sites, just seeing Kitsap County on the map gives me a profound sense of accomplishment. And part of the whole reason that this survey was started was to help "fill in the blank" that was Kitsap County, so I guess you can say that was a success. The man in charge of the Pacific Northwest Waterfall Survey has also told me "Tin Mine Falls" is on the cue to be added to the two databases as well. How exciting!!!

Largest Tier of "Tin Mine Falls," on Tin Mine Creek.
Photo by Micah K. 

The second item of the week is a discovery of mine that can help move this survey along incredibly. It is a fish habitat report for the entirety of the Kitsap Peninsula, included in this report are detailed maps of different sections of Kitsap County, these maps show streams, rivermiles, logjams, beaver dams, manmade dams, and most importantly; Cascades and Waterfalls!. I was not expecting the sheer goldmine this report was. Not only has it marked these water features, but it has also color coded the cascades and waterfalls that are impassable to fish, allowing me to pinpoint where I want to investigate. Now as exciting as this find is, I am almost certain more than half of these "impassable cascades" could be ephemeral, small streams or possibly even dry watercourses that would be nowhere close to meeting the criteria of my survey. Still this is an amazing jump pad to future investigations, and should be a huge help in my continuing search for waterfalls in Kitsap.