Leon Turnbull Photography

Well we just got back from our summer vacation to Canada. No waterfalls seen up there, though not for lack of trying.

It was just me and the kids visiting my family up there, as my wife had to stay home this year, unfortunately. On one day, we decided to go up to the top of magnificent Old Glory, myself, my sister Tania, brother in law Lynal, son Jadon (13), and niece Hannah (13). It is the highest and most prominent peak in the Rossland Range area, 7800 ft. high. The hike is about 6.5 miles one way up, with a gain of 3200 ft. (actually 3700 ft. total elevation was hiked due to one annoying downward stretch). Jadon thought it was a lot more difficult than our recent Eastern Sierra hike, though I did not think so (but it is too difficult to compare the two hikes because they are not similar). Hannah, meanwhile, essentially ran up and down the mountain once she got going (she did not want to go at first). There were quite a few wildflowers still out on the mountain, though definitely past peak. It would be awesome when the flowers are in full bloom up there. I had a tiny bit of cloud cover so I managed to get this photo (handheld, no tripod – shame on me). Once at the top, we all enjoyed the glorious views around us: the ski hill on one side, Nancy Greene Lake on another, the city of Trail on another, and a huge cliff on the last side. Both Jadon and Hannah ran down the mountain together getting way ahead of the rest of us, which was highly disturbing to us, especially since they went the wrong way down. We were going to take a short cut, but they did not wait for us at the junction, and ended up going down the very long way. But we had no idea which way they went, so while Tania and Lynal went down the short way, I went the long way, running down the trail to catch up to them. I eventually caught up to them. I was not pleased, I had not wanted to hike 13 miles that day. Did they not know this was grizzly bear and cougar territory? Ah, teenagers. What can you do?

On the way down, I saw one old timer hiking up the mountain. He was not going the long, easy way around to the top (which is along the ridge on the south side). Instead he was going straight up the east face (the one seen in this photo). It looked crazy and far too cliffy to me when I examined it but he insisted there was a good route up that way. Yeah, right. Ok good luck with that old man. I think I might try it some day, though. Ha!

Old Glory was initially named (likely) by Americans back in the Gold Rush days in the late 1800s. In those days, Americans thought British Columbia was going to become part of the Union. It did not, of course. Nonetheless, I have always loved the name of this mountain. It seems so appropriately named, being the most prominent and magnificent peak in the region. It looks so old and majestic and alone. From 1944-68 it was the site of the highest weather station in the world. These incredible men lived up on top of the mountain year round. You can see some remains of the house, but not very much is left. I just cannot imagine being up there in the cold deep winter, or during a summer lightning storm. It is pure nuts. I am currently reading a book called (strangely enough) Old Glory, written by one of these men, Ron Walker. It is a fascinating and humorous history of the mountain, and highly recommended, especially if you are an old Rosslander, like myself.

Once we all safely (and without being eaten by a grizzly) got back down to the car, we were all very happy to go to the Colander in Trail for dinner. Simply put: the best spaghetti on Earth. Yumm!

Sunset at Horsetail Falls, Desolation Wilderness. This is just above the lowest section of the falls. As you can see, the water level was very low. Normally all that rock would be covered in water, in fact I have never before seen it otherwise until now.

Anyway, I had to wait around 30 minutes or so for the sun to set. I knew those clouds would color up, just not sure how much. It was not too shabby.

From here it is a 45 minute hike down the mountain, so for most of the hike I was hiking in the dark netherlands. No worries, I had my headlamp. No unruly critters were seen on the way back down.

My favorite summer waterfall destination is Horsetail Falls. It normally flows strong all through summer, but this year, however, the flow is as low as I have ever seen it. Nonetheless, that low flow did allow me to get up close to this particular spot, which has never been even remotely possible any other time I’ve been here.

I arrived at the trailhead after work and made the hike up to the falls. There were quite a few people on the trail, as usual. Don’t all these people have to work on Fridays?

When I arrived at the waterfall I saw a big group of kids (pre or early teen) coming down from the top of the falls, with one adult leader. They were coming down the wrong way. I have to say that I hate this place. Now now, I do not hate Horsetail Falls, obviously, I love it … but I do not like the terrain around here. When I was younger it never bothered me, but now it kinda freaks me out. Does that mean I am wiser now, or just an easily frightened old fogey? It is very steep at the waterfall, with big dropoffs, and the granite rock is slippery and very dangerous, even when dry. Many people have died here, and if you are not  careful, you might be next. Well onto my story …

Most of the kids went back up the mountain to come down again the proper way, except three: the adult and two of the kids. The two kids were just wearing running shoes, with no proper grip for this slippery granite. They came down, somehow, to the top of this 50 ft. section of the falls (shown here). I am not even sure how they got to this spot, but there is no way from there to continue down on that side. They then proceeded to JUMP across the creek at the top of the waterfall. Did I mention that this rock is very slippery? One mistake and you are a dead man (or kid). They all made it. I was holding my breath the entire time. The last thing I wanted to do was fish a body out of the water from the bottom of the falls. Once on the other side, they then had to scale down the cliff to the bottom of the falls. It is steep on the other side as well, and again very slippery with big dropoffs. At the bottom of the falls, they jumped back to the other side again, where there is another smaller waterfall. I watched as they cleared the wet section of rock on their jump by mere centimeters. Oh my Lord!

I was just sitting there watching them do all this from my (safe) vantage point on this side of the waterfall. I swear I was not going to say anything to him when he came up past me. I wanted to say a lot, but I was not going to. Really. It is one thing to put your own life in danger, but quite another altogether to put the lives of your kids in danger unnecessarily. I don’t know if any of these kids were his own children, or not, possibly one or two of them was, but it does not matter. He is responsible for all of them. I wanted to smack him over the head. But I was not going to say anything. When he came up to to me, though, he said something or other, like that was not a very good route to take down. The words just came out of my mouth, I had no control over them, whatever spirit was possessing me at the time said them. I said: It was pretty darn stupid if you ask me. Ok, that was harsher than I wanted to say it. Like I said, I had no control over what I said. Well perhaps it was not really that harsh, he agreed with me that it was stupid. Maybe he learned his lesson and next time he won’t be such an idiot, and he won’t end up with a Darwin award.

Anyway, after they left, I then proceeded to follow in the footsteps of their stupidity. I am kidding! I did, however, go down to the bottom where they had jumped back across, and then rock hopped up the bottom of the creek bed to the base of this 50 ft. section of the falls. There were a couple tricky spots to be sure, and some of the rocks were quite slippery. I was careful and made it without incident. I sat on a big rock in the middle of the creek, enjoying this magnificent spot. Even with a little bit more water, it would not have been possible to do this.

The clouds over the valley were looking quite promising, so I stuck around for sunset. It was not electric, like I thought it might be, but it was decently colorful. That picture is coming up next. Then I hiked back to the car in the dark. This time, I had my headlamp. No worries. As usual, I was the last one off the mountain.

Last day of the recent summer storms so I thought I would head up to Lake Tahoe again for a sunset.
It seemed like it could be a very good one as I headed up over the summit. There were plenty of clouds, and the sun was breaking through, but where would the best color be tonight, if anywhere?

I hiked up to Granite Lake where I thought there would be a good view overlooking Cascade Lake and Lake Tahoe (and indeed, there was!). I realized, as I started the hike, that I did not have my headlamp with me. Doh! That could be quite serious because I would be hiking back down in the dark. However, it is only a mile up to the lake, the trail is easy to follow, it would be all downhill coming back, and I had my iPhone flashlight with me (though it is not nearly as bright as my headlamp, and the battery level was down to 50 percent). Anyway, it should be no problem, right?

When I got up to Granite Lake, I passed by some campers at the lake, who were right in my path for getting to the end of the lake. They and their dog seemed friendly enough, but I took a semi-shortcut on the way back so I would not have to pass right by them in the dark – but I could smell their smoking on the way back nonetheless, and I assure you it was not anything legal.

I climbed up on the ridge behind Granite Lake, and worked my way to a viewpoint. I had to climb a bit further up than I anticipated to get a clear view with no trees blocking the way. From this spot, I could see the two lakes, as well as Fallen Leaf Lake, and I could also see Upper Cascade Falls (but not the lower Cascade Falls). Cascade Creek was just trickling, but if it was flowing strong then the view of the upper falls would have been a very sweet one.

It was about a half hour before sunset and things were looking good as far as the clouds were concerned. But then, about 20 minutes later, a rain storm moved in from the south, blocking the clouds that were starting to color. I thought it was going to drench me as well, but the rain did not come my way; nonetheless it seemed I was going to be skumped yet again by Lake Tahoe. Craning my neck, I could see lots of good color on the north shore of the lake. Of course. At the very end, however, the sun tried to make a comeback, and the clouds started to color up again. It was not overly impressive, but it was enough to get a shot. Not too shabby.

I packed up quickly and headed back down the hill. When I got to the main trail I jogged all the way down to the car. I probably did not need to do that, but it was good exercise anyway, and I did end up having to use my iPhone flashlight once it got too dark. I arrived back at the car 30 minutes past sunset. All was good.

This is the fifth waterfall on the Middle Fork San Joaquin River. It is perhaps the smallest, about 20 ft. high, but it is a purdy one and quite unique looking.

It is summer time, and in the drought not much is happening. The latest news about El Nino is that it continues to increase. It is almost up to moderate strength now, and we are still praying it continues to increase so by winter time it is up to strong strength. There have only been four strong El Ninos since 1950, three have resulted in above average precipitation for California, and the fourth one was an average year. I will take average after the last four dismal years, but let’s hope and pray this drought is finally busted this year.