THORNS
I headed back up to Emigrant Gap this weekend with much determination on the agenda. The snow was gone of course, and traffic was less on Emigrant Gap road in the early morning hours but there were still other drivers out and about. This is crazy, I thought. Only I am this crazy! I even saw a couple hunters, but since deer hunting season is over, they should not have been out here. I was a little annoyed about that. Where are the deer police when you need them?
Well I ran into a mud pile before I got to my selected trailhead. I decided to walk the rest of the way instead of getting myself stuck in a bucket. This added four miles to my hike and about 1000 ft. of elevation. Oh boy. I already knew that my hike was going to be a tough one. From the trailhead, I would drop 1000 ft. down to the river. Now I would have to climb back up 2000 ft. instead of 1000 ft. I was not exactly prepared for that.
I also decided to carry my big heavy lens on this hike, bad back and all. I did not want to, believe you me, but I knew that most likely the only view of this waterfall I would get would be from far across the canyon, and I would need it. I did need it, after all, as expected, but my back sure did not thank me for it.
The North Fork of the North Fork of the American River Canyon has been a thorn in my side more times than I can count. There are multiple waterfalls in this canyon, and some dandy big ones too, but getting to most of them is ridiculous. Impossible. Deadly. Just give up already, madman. No sir, I cannot give up. But I have been turned back on multiple occasions. (last week, for instance was one such occassion).
This week, I was hoping to get a good solid view of Middle North Fork Falls from across the canyon. I Google Earthed this potential route. Getting down to the bottom of it is totally out of the question, but all I really wanted was a good viewpoint. However, it did not look promising on Google Earth, due to the forest tree cover. I could not see a good potential unobstructed viewpoint. But I hoped for one anyway. Surely there would be.
From the “trailhead” at the end of the road (where I would have parked if there had been no mud piles), I descended into the forest. Down down down. 1000 ft. down. From time to time, I caught glimpses of the big waterfall across the canyon, but no viewpoint materialized. There were a couple spots where I would have had an amazing view of it, except for one or two trees in the way. If I could just cut those trees down, I thought. Huh. I kept going down. I was getting close to the cliff. The point of no return if I was not careful. Maybe from the edge of the cliff, there would be an unobstructed view. I came to a particularly steep section and the ground was rather crumbly, and sat down wondering how I could get down. Do I need to get out my rope here? Then I looked beside me and there was a rope. It was as though it magically appeared. I don’t think the bears put that there. Obviously someone had been down here before, but the rope ended and did not go all the way to the bottom. Then I saw it. There was a rock outcrop directly across from the falls, and it looked open. Could I get to it? I made my way over, climbed up onto the rock, and voila, I had my viewpoint. The sun was starting to get into my scene, unfortunately, since it took so long for me to get down there. But I had my viewpoint. It was indeed, basically, right on the edge of the cliff, directly across from the top of Middle North Fork Falls. The picture here is only the top part of the waterfall. The total height of the falls is 231 ft., and the top section shown here is about 100 ft. It continues for another 131 ft out of view. I did find a viewpoint of the entire waterfall, but it was a partially obstructed one. This was the best I could do for this waterfall but this was a sweet sweet place, and even though I couldn’t see the entire falls from here, I was a happy camper. I also got a long distance view of Burnett Canyon Falls, another waterfall in this crazy drainage that is impossible to get to.
Well enough of all that, it was time to head back up the mountain. My back was killing me when I got back to the car, but I survived. I wish I had brought my lunch though, it was noon and I was starving. I was not expecting this hike to take so long. It was an hour drive back to Auburn, where I re-fueled with a triple Western bacon cheeseburger. Yes, you heard that right. Triple. It was a very good day.