Leon Turnbull Photography

Black Friday hiking … I woke up not knowing where I should go hiking (again). So many possibilities, so little time. I quickly decided on a destination: Oroville. I thought I could snag a few waterfalls up in that area, the first one being on Empire Creek, but…

The first issue was the road: it was rough! For some reason, I had thought this road was paved. Not so much. It was dirt and very rough. The ruts in the road were so deep they were up to my kneecaps! (slight exaggeration – but not by much). I starting driving down it, but before very long decided it was just no good for my SUV with little enough clearance. I parked along the road and decided to walk. This would make for a very long and difficult hike, instead of a quick and easy hike. It would be 10 miles round trip, and a total elevation gain of about 2400 ft. Yikes! Well, I had all day, and I was in no hurry, so I decided to go for it. I am definitely glad I decided to walk and not drive, because the road seemed to get worse as I descended down to the river. The scenery along the road was disgusting as well. People here just dump all their garbage off the side of the road. I saw everything you can think of, including an old boat. Absolutely awful and stupid.

I was not alone on this Black Friday hike, either. It was quite the busy road. Much of this area is private property, and people live down here, not so much in houses but in shacks. Someone even got a big camper down here, I’m not sure how, and it probably won’t ever be going back up that awful hill. I think these are more like summer homes, but it is winter now, and I still saw a lot of activity down here on this day. I figured I would be leaving all the homes and private property behind as I crossed the river and climbed 1200 ft. up the other side.

However, as I approached the creek and near the top of the waterfall, I found more private property. Way up here? Isn’t this public land up here? Not only was it private, but the owners were out and about. I was not sure if I could continue or not, or if I would be going through their property to the falls. There was a big large Keep Out sign. That is not a good sign. However, and very fortunately, I saw some of the people along the road, and asked them if I could continue to the falls. They said, yes I could. No problem. All righty then!

My Google Earth route told me it would be very easy to get down to the waterfall. It lied big time. It was extremely brushy as I approached the falls, and the worst part: the poison oak was absolutely and incredibly awful! There was no way around it. I was in the stuff up to my eyeballs. Literally. Empire Creek was striking back at me with a vengeance. It did not want me here. But I had come all this way, and there was no turning back now. I finally got down to the creek at the bottom of this beautiful 38 ft. high waterfall. It was marvelous.

Th rest of the week, however, was not a very happy one. It was about 6 hours from the time I was in the oak until I got home and scrubbed down. That’s a long time. I only got one rash spot on my body (which is pretty amazing in itself), however it was in the worst possible location: my eye. Ugh. My eye was all blown out like a puffer fish. Was it worth going through all that oak to see this waterfall? Humm … humm … well yes I suppose it was. It is certainly a real beauty. Nonetheless, I won’t likely ever come back here.

By the time I got back to the car, I was very very tired and certainly did not have the energy to go on another hike. So I only got to the one waterfall on this Black Friday, but it was a terrific hike. Except for that darn oak.

So this year, once again, REI has stolen my idea to go out and hike on Black Friday, instead of shopping. Opt Outside they call it, this original unique idea of theirs. Not! I have been doing this for many many years now, long before REI thought of it. Black Friday has always been my favorite day of the year to hike. Oh yeah, you say, cry me a river. Well all right, fine, I know that I did not invent the idea of hiking on Black Friday, and I am sure others have done it before me. But REI sure didn’t invent it either, and they are the ones getting all the credit and publicity. When I started hiking on Black Fridays, no one else was out on the trails. Everyone was shopping (or sleeping). That was the thing to do. Not so much anymore. I suppose that’s a good thing.

Actually, I have started something new in the last few years. That is, hike on Thanksgiving Thursday in addition to Black Friday. I can go out for a morning hike on Thursday, and be home in time for the family festivities in the afternoon, then I get the whole day on Friday. My wife lets me do this, amazingly. She is a good wife. I do give her Saturday for her thing. Shopping or whatever. I am nice that way. ha ha.

Okay so anyhow, my choice for Thursday morning was Big Mosquito Falls. I have been here before, more than once. I went right to the bottom this time, but I could not find a good viewpoint from down there, as it is very steep and cliffy at the bottom and the top of the falls is blocked by trees. I did not want to spend much time trying to find one either because I wanted to explore further downstream.

So down the mountain I went. And down. And down. It is quite steep, the descent. The ground was covered with fallen leaves. Very slippery leaves. Slick as ice, leaves. It is a good thing I know how to ski, because essentially that is what I was doing. Skiing down the steep mountain in my hiking boots. No joke. Thankfully, it was not cliffy. Otherwise … you get the picture.

I came to the top of a ridge beside the creek. I could see a waterfall far below me at the bottom, and it looked like a good one too. It is not exactly where I expected a waterfall to be, but this works for me. Even better, there was a path down to the bottom. This was very surprising. Who would have ever thought to come here before? The only thing around way down here are bears. It was very steep but not cliffy (and no slippery leaves), and I made it all the way down to find this gorgeous 42 ft. high piece of magnificence. Very awesome.

I spent quite a bit of time down at this waterfall, taking my sweet old time, searching out different compositions. It seemed to me that the best one involved me standing in the middle of the creek. It’s been awhile since I have done this, standing in the middle of a freezing cold creek to take a photo, but hey, it seemed the right thing to do. Am I right?

It was a rainy rainy weekend. It is tough to get motivated to go hike in the rain, but I figured I should get out hiking on the weekend anyway. Still, I could not decide where to go. Should I go up I-80 or Hwy 50? When I woke up in the morning, I still did not know. Even as I left the house, I figured I would go up Hwy 50, but I had not decided where. There were a number of possibilities but it was pouring rain. I kinda wanted to just go back to bed, but I could not turn the car around now. Finally, I decided on Ice House Rd. I thought this would be an easier hike than the other ones, and I definitely was not motivated enough to do a tough hike in the drenching rain.

My plan was to go back to Middle Bassi Falls but via a different route. It should be easier. It should be less brushy. The flow should be good enough to get a better photo angle on it this time, too. I drove past the main Bassi Falls turnoff. No snow there. I was a bit surprised, but before too much longer, I hit the snow level. There was only 1-2 inches on the ground when I started the hike, and the conditions were about perfect here. I was high up enough that it was snowing, not raining, and that makes for a more pleasant hiking scenario, and with only a small amount of snow on the ground, it was very easy going as I hiked along the dirt road.

Well, that is until I came to a couple creek crossings. The first one was a surprise, and although not great flow, I could not find any way to rock hop across it, so that meant I had to take my boots off. It is not pleasant to have to take off your boots when it is snowing or raining and it is cold. Just saying. Then I came to Tells Creek crossing. This is a bigger creek, however I was actually able to rock hop across this one, but with a big cost. I had to scramble through some wet brush on the other side, and thus got my hiking pants thoroughly drenched. Ugh. I would regret that later. On the way back, I waded across that creek instead.

There was more brush to come also. Once I got off the main road, the rest of the route was cross country, and some of that involved going through more of that wet brush. More ugh. Should I go back? I could not go back now. I followed the Google Earth route that I mapped out precisely, and I was rewarded. The brush disappeared, and I continued on my way down to the waterfall. Thank God for Google Earth. If it was a sunny day, it would have been very pleasant hiking. If it was a sunny day, I would have been able to take a better photo.

The first time I was here, the flow was far too strong to get across onto the big rock in the middle of the creek. This time the flow was much reduced, as expected, and I would have no trouble getting over to the rock. However, getting up on the rock was extremely treacherous. It was wet with snow on it, and slick as all out. I tried to get up multiple times, but I could not. There were no footholds, and I literally would have slid right off the rock into the middle of the creek. I tried to get some other angles, but could not find any. I tried to cross the creek, but it was too deep. I finally decided on this one and only possible view of the falls. Next time I come here, I have to make sure that not only is the creek flow reduced, but it is dry as well.

Meanwhile, it started snowing. Hard. I had 5 miles or so back to the car, I was already very wet and soaked, and my tracks through the snow were already completely disappeared. It was a blizzard! I would not be able to follow my tracks back to my car. Good thing I had a GPS that was working. I would not want to get lost out in a blizzard. I made it back to the car, cold and wet and tired, but it was a good day hiking in the snow.

Clearly … going to North Fork Falls was not my plan for this weekend. I have been to this waterfall many times before and have multiple good shots of it. I did not want to or plan to come back here … However …

My planned hike, which was in the same general area, did not exactly pan out. It started out well enough, following an old logging road down into the canyon. But before too long, the road ended, and all that followed after it was brush, thick, thick, manzanita brush. Darn I hate that stuff. I could see no way through it or around it, and believe you me, I tried hard enough. Dang! I was certain that I was going to be able to get down to this other waterfall. No such luck. This was my first big strikeout of the season. I’m sure it will not be my last, but I will be back to try this one again, sometime. All I accomplished on the hike was picking up some trash that someone left behind. Actually, it was an old helium balloon that landed here via some kid that let it go probably a hundred miles from here. I sure hate finding these things out in the wilderness.

Anyway, back at the car, I realized it was still pretty early. Perhaps I should go to North Fork Falls. That way, at least, it would not be a complete wasted morning, and I would have more accomplishments than just picking up trash. I did not think the falls would still be in shade, but nonetheless it is a very easy hike, and so I carried my camera down there anyway. When I arrived, I saw that amazingly, it was indeed still in shade, so I quickly (but very carefully) scampered down the cliff onto my usual photo-taking ledge. No snow or crazy treacherousness was encountered today, as I have had in the past. The ground was solid and dry. I quickly setup and took a photo. That one photo is all I had time for as it turned out, because the sun came out immediately afterwards. Well at least I got something this morning. Nothing new or spectacular, but something. It was a good day.

(The title is not a political statement – in case you were wondering – ha ha)

From the first waterfall on Jones Fork Silver Creek, I continued cross country up to Lower Gertrude Lake Falls. I have been to this waterfall before, but the light was horrible, and I was hoping *this time* to arrive in time for good lighting. However, I was 30 minutes late getting to that first waterfall. It was not looking good for the second one either.

The Desolation Wilderness is a very special place. One of the best things about it that makes it so special is the wide open granite terrain that one can hike cross country on. No trails. Beautiful mountain scenery. The fast rushing creek flowing near by. It is spectacular. Please tell me you have done this in the Desolation Wilderness. Of course, you also have that deathly thick manzanita brush but that is a story for another day. I did not have any of that awful stuff in this area. It was beautiful and awesome, and I made good time up to Lower Gertrude Lake Falls, but I still did not make up any of that lost time, and I was 30 minutes late arriving at the falls. The sun was already shining onto the upper section of the falls and down into the canyon, however the lower section was still in shade, so I setup my tripod behind a big tree to block out the sun and took some photos. At least the light was much better than the last time I was here. The creek was also flowing fairly well. Normally, it would be pretty much dry at this time of year, but thanks to all that rain and now some snow melting, voila, we have waterfall.

After this, I made my big mistake. I should have just called it an easy day and hiked back to Wrights Lake from here. Rong! Instead, I decided to hike up to Maud Lake and beyond, having never been up there before, and hoping to perhaps find another waterfall. First, I had to cross the creek again (the 3rd out of 4 crossings on this day), and this time it ended up being tough going, as there was quite a bit of brush to hack through. I eventually made my way up to the Maud Lake trail. From there, the going was easier up to the lake. There was now snow on the ground, though not much, and I was the first one heading up to Maud Lake since last week’s storm, and thus had to break ground for all the others that would be following me on this day (and there were plenty). Maud Lake was pretty, but it was the beyond part that got far too tough for me, and I eventually called it. I was very tired, much more hiking then I had initially intended to do, and I still had to hike all the way back. It was also very warm, and I was not expecting that. It was 26 degrees when I started, now it felt like summer. I even got sunburned on the hike back to the car. Lovely.

Surprisingly, I met quite a few backpackers going up the trail, heading up the pass to Lake Lois and beyond. I got to thinking about this … Backpacking in November, camping in snow, with temperatures at around 20 degrees. I’m really not sure about that extreme cold at night, but if I could handle that somehow, then I think it would be awesome. Especially this year, with the water we had in October. Normally, the waterfalls are not flowing at this time of year, but this year they are, and with not much snow yet, the passes are still open. What an awesome trip these guys would have, but 20 degrees, I just don’t know about that. Brrr!