Leon Turnbull Photography

Yeah this one would be awesome if there was more water in the river, but I was still really really pleased to find it. Actually, I thought there would be a lot more water flowing in the river. Indeed, I was sure of it. Last weekend, the river was flowing very well, and we had some more rain during the week, so I was sure it would still be flowing. I’m really not sure what happened, but the flow was way down.

This is Emigrant Gap again, and it is the third weekend in a row I went here. The road will be snowed in for good pretty soon, probably even by next weekend, so I do like to get up in this area when I can. There were no hunters this weekend. In fact, I did not see anyone at all (just one truck, and that is all for the entire morning). This time my goal was the East Fork of the North Fork American River, specifically the upper reaches of this river.

I was not sure there would be any waterfall up there at all, but after thoroughly examining my topo maps and Google Earth, I thought there would be a possibility of a small waterfall, and it certainly was worth trying, especially if the river was flowing, which of course I figured it must be, based on how it looked last week. I also figured it would be a very easy hike, which also sounded good to me after the killer one last weekend.

Well you know me, the Waterfall Madman does not end up doing anything easy, and this was no exception. The hike started off easy enough, a simple 1 mile jaunt on a logging road over towards the East Fork. It was cold too, 32 degrees when I started out. And the wind was crazy wind. It was very brisk and cold, but it felt terrific. It made me feel alive. It was a splendid day to be out in the beautiful creation, and I needed to be out there this day. I absolutely needed to be out in the wilderness. Then the road ended.

So what do I do now? Do I cut down to the river and try to work my way upstream? Or do I attempt to traverse the ridge, and then hopefully find a way down the cliff when I get to the waterfall (if there even is a waterfall). I chose the latter, and it was a good choice. At first, though, it did not seem so. The manzanita brush was thick along the ridge, much thicker than I expected. It seemed so open on Google Earth. This brush could be a show stopper for sure, but I continued on, hoping for a path through it, and indeed I found one. It was tough going but finally the terrain became more open, more like what I saw on GE. I saw no trace that any human had ever been up this way before. That’s the way I like it. The only thing I found was a bear path leading me through that brush. They are good at trampling through that stuff. Thank you, bears. I love you.

The ridge came to an end at the start of the gorge, and fortunately not too cliffy. I made my way down to the river, and there it was: a beautiful 34 ft. high waterfall dropping over a rock ledge into an icy pool. The Madman was very happy, the first to find and document this waterfall. It was quite a lot bigger than I expected to find (actually I didn’t think I’d find anything), and all in all, it really was not all that difficult to get here. I love it when a plan comes together. I will certainly come back when I know the river is flowing well (which will probably not be until the spring), and it will be awesome.