Leon Turnbull Photography

25 degrees. That was the temperature. Brrr. My primary thought was how I was going to wade up the creek to the waterfall. My toes would freeze off in three seconds at that temperature. Literally.

I had another surprise though. Snow! I was certainly not expecting to find so much snow still left from last weekend’s storm. Even down at river level there was still quite a bit of snow left. I was very pleased about that. I love going to snowy and icy waterfalls. But would I make it?

It would have even been better if I’d come here last weekend with all the fresh snow. It would have been awesome. Nonetheless it was fantastic today with the ice around the waterfall. I needn’t have worried about wading up the creek either. With the low water flow, I could easily walk up the creek bed, in fact the creek bed was completely dry. It seems the water goes underground just below the waterfall, which was weird. The prickly brush was easy to navigate as well with the snow covering it. The only real difficulty was climbing up over the rocks right in front of the waterfall, which was slightly tricky but not overly terrible. It was so gorgeous at the base of the waterfall. Definitely a worthwhile effort.

My back held up very well as well, this being the first hike I’ve done in a couple weeks. It was so great to get out in God’s creation again.

Please check out my latest Waterfall Madman Video (Episode 2 – Curtain Falls). Try to watch in HD 1080p if possible:

http://youtu.be/QoEdWdwupDA

We are still waiting for the big rains to start. The last storm only dropped about 1.5 inches, and less in other areas. We are going to need a lot lot lot lot more before the waterfalls start flowing again. I was disappointed again when the forecasters backed off on the rain that was supposed to be here this week. This is exactly what happened all last year. Maybe next week?

This is Pheasant Creek Falls in Oregon. It is not on Pheasant Creek. It is not on any named creek. There is another waterfall very near this one. It is on Pheasant Creek. That one is not called Pheasant Creek Falls. Are you confused yet?

My 2014 waterfall calendar is now available. Get yours in time for Christmas!

http://www.waterfallswest.com/gallery/cal-2013.html

A cold storm made its way into our area on Friday evening, so cold that we were supposed to get snow at our house, which would be an extreme rarity. We were all excited going to bed Friday night. It was such a sure thing!

Alas, I woke up Saturday morning. No snow. How disappointing! I was wanting to go to the Auburn confluence and take some pictures in the snow there. But that is about the same elevation as our house, so I did not think I would have much chance of seeing any snow, but I decided to go anyway. I had to get the kids to church for Christmas play practice so I did not have time to go anywhere else anyway. Plus, my back is still hurting so going on a big tough hike in the snow at higher elevations was out of the question.

I arrived in Auburn and found a bit of snow on the ground, but nowhere near what was forecasted. As I descended the hill to the Confluence, the snow quickly disappeared. It had snowed down there during the night but most of it was all gone. I made my way to Black Hole of Calcutta Falls, which I had hope would be in the snow, but obviously it was not. It was not flowing very well either. We need a lot more rain here, and I see none in the forecast. It seems we are in for another extremely frustrating and disappointing winter here in the Sierra. Let’s pray January 2014 will turn around for the better.

Speaking of 2014, my waterfall calendar is now available. Get yours in time for Christmas!

http://www.waterfallswest.com/gallery/cal-2013.html

Here is yet one more photo from Abiqua Falls, Oregon. I was basically flat on my back in front of the TV all of Thanksgiving weekend. Normally Black Friday is my favorite hiking day of the year, and I had plans to do three big hikes this weekend. However, I put my back out the previous week and it was still not recovered. I could not even drive up north to see my family, so I was home all alone. It was not very fun. It sucked to put it mildly. I don’t like being so negative on Thanksgiving, I have much to be thankful to God for in my life, most especially my wife and children. But the weekend sucked for me. Oh well, at least I did not have to eat yucky turkey. haha. I am hoping this next weekend to get in at least one small, easy hike.

Unfortunately, it has been a very frustrating start to the winter, and the weather seems to be continuing from where it left off last season, meaning it is not continuing at all. We had a little bit of rain today, and another little bit is coming this weekend and maybe next week, but I do not see any big storms in the forecast, and we need some big ones. At least six inches of rain is needed to get the waterfalls going again, these little bits are not really helping too much at all. Sigh.

In other news, I hope you are checking out my new Waterfall Madman adventure videos. Here is Part II of the Feather Falls video. It is really better to watch it in HD, I am not happy with how youtube compresses the videos. I’ll be working on getting them better in the future. Please subscribe to my channel and share with all your friends!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CDmSfhl93P0

Here is Part I if you missed it:

http://youtu.be/Vz7jeJa95ec

We received a much needed two inches of rain this week. This made me excited. Perhaps waterfall season is going to start here, finally. On Saturday, I made my way down to my favorite little waterfall, American Canyon Creek Falls. It is only 15 ft. high, but it is a charmer, and such a unique little thing, piping through an extremely narrow channel in the rocks. I love going here every year, and it is usually one of the falls I go to first thing in the season. It might be the last one I get to this season, as well.

It is an easy hike down to the waterfall, but you do lose 1000 ft. in elevation. When I got to the first creek crossing, I was a bit disappointed. American Canyon Creek was barely flowing. That two inches of rain did almost nothing to the creek level, and it was certainly the lowest I have ever seen it. The good news is that this waterfall does not need very much flow to look really nice. This is one reason I like coming here early in the season. In fact, if there is too much flow in the creek you may not be able to see it at all.

In order to see the waterfall, you need to cross the creek again at the base of the falls. This is very tricky or impossible at high flows, but definitely very easy at low flows. The water color in the pool today was a murky green, sometimes it can be a stunning vibrant green color, but I think it needs a bit more water flow for that. So … in order to create something a bit different than usual, I tried to create some long exposures, this one was two minutes long, I did some longer ones but was not happy with them. It really tries your patience taking such long exposures, but I had no where else to go.

After shooting the falls, I continued on down to the river, just for something to do. I did not find much, except for ticks. I have never ever seen so many ticks so early in the season. This is really bad news, and I think it means it is going to be a horrendous year for ticks.

Somehow, while down by the river, I tweaked my back. Oh my goodness. I don’t know how I did it either, I was not doing anything too strenuous. But now I had to climb 1000 ft. back out of the canyon with a tweaked back, and carrying a heavy pack. It was a SLOOOOWWW hike up to my car. In fact, I think it was a miracle I made it, by the time I got back home I was in agony and could not lift a thing, let alone stand up and walk. Next day it is still really bad. Just when waterfall season is beginning too. What bad timing. With Thanksgiving week coming up, I had three hikes already planned for next weekend. I might not get to do any of them now!

In other bad news, I lost my belt down on the trail. I took off my long pants for the hike back up with the belt attached to them, and tied the pants to my pack but did not secure the belt. I knew it but with my bad back, I did not want to stop and secure the belt, but I thought it would be ok. Guess what? It was not ok. Ugh.