Leon Turnbull Photography

On Good Friday our church was having an all night prayer vigil. They wanted people to sign up throughout the night to come to the church for 30 minutes to pray. I signed up for 4AM. I know what you are thinking. I am nuts! But I had a plan, and it was that afterwards, I would drive on up to Lake Tahoe to catch the sunrise at Eagle Falls. It was a great plan! But as usual, God had a different plan in mind for me. His plan started out with heavy overcast clouds in the forecast over Tahoe and snow/rain showers. I could see during the day on Friday that my great sunrise plan was not going to work out too well, so I nixed that idea, and decided that instead I would just go on a hike after the prayer vigil up on Ice House Rd. And since it was overcast, I would not need to worry about hurrying up there to get there before sunrise. And in doing so, I would be able to spend more time in prayer at church. Exactly what God wanted! Funny that.

Anyway, Jay Bird Canyon Falls was my first destination of the day, and I ended up arriving not too long after sunrise. It had crazy flow! Although it is a very tall waterfall (173 ft. high), the creek is small, and usually the waterfall is just a nice, pretty, dainty, thin flowing waterfall. Today it was a 173 ft. high monster! The entire amphitheatre where it drops into was full of mist from the falls. There was not a dry spot to be had to take a photo. I got completely drenched as I approached closer to the waterfall, and the mist was freezing cold from snow melt as well. I could not find any place to take a photo (even up on the ridge opposite the falls was full of mist). Well, it was certainly an awesome experience, and I take it as a very good sign for things to come this spring. If this small waterfall (in terms of creek size) had such a powerful flow, what are other waterfalls (such as Yosemite) going to be like this spring? They will certainly be amazingly awesome for sure. I suppose you are wondering where I did take this photo. Perhaps especially if you have been here before and do not know where this spot is. Obviously it was taken from further back. Not from the road. It is kind of a secret, so I’ll leave it to you to figure out.

More info on Jay Bird Canyon Falls:
http://www.waterfallswest.com/waterfall.php?id=218

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This is Lower Pennyweight Falls in Colfax, 22 ft. high. I went here after work last week. With the flow in the creek so much reduced, it was pretty easy to rock hop across the creek and up to the falls. It certainly would be nicer with a bit more flow. However, it was still very nice, and I enjoyed my time and solitude at these falls on this particular evening.

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The following was sent to me, and I would like to pass it along to all my readers. If any of you wish to send a letter, please do so before May 10.

ACTION ALERT

CDFG Suction Dredge Mining Regulations

Threaten the North Fork American River

Regulations Threaten Fish, Frogs, Water Quality,

and People In The Sierra Nevada!

The California Department of Fish and Game (CDFG) has released new proposed suction dredge mining regulations for California rivers and streams and is seeking public comments. Here’s a link to the DFG website:   http://www.dfg.ca.gov/suctiondredge/

You have the opportunity to speak out for the protection of our river, fish and wildlife, water quality, and public health! May 10 is the deadline for submitting comments.

Please write a letter TODAY. See sample below.

Background

Up until recently, suction dredge mining for gold has been pervasive on many California rivers and streams, particularly in the Sierra Nevada. This form of mining uses a powerful motor and pump, attached to a hose that is used to suction up gravel from the stream bottom. Gold is then sorted out from the gravel and the remaining sediment-ladened water is flushed back into the stream. The adverse impacts of this mining are well documented by scientists. Suction dredging can harm habitat for sensitive, threatened, and endangered fish and frogs, as well as release toxic mercury left over from the Gold Rush into the stream.

Previous state regulations failed to recognize these impacts and a lawsuit filed by Indian Tribes and other organizations forced the agency to develop new regulations. In the meantime, the California Legislature approved a moratorium on suction dredging that has been in effect since 2009. But if the new proposed regulations are adopted, destructive suction dredging will return to many of the Sierra Nevada’s most sensitive rivers and streams.

The new regulations are a hodge-podge of some good but mostly weak and non-existent restrictions that fail to fully protect endangered steelhead, salmon, frogs, and other species. The new regulations fail to ensure that mining does not harm water quality and human health with sediment and mercury. Special areas like Wild & Scenic Rivers and Wild Trout Streams are not protected in the regulations either. The regulations even permit suction dredge mining in Yosemite Valley, in violation of federal law! In addition, the regulations will depend on active enforcement from CDFG, which like other state agencies, is suffering from severe budget cuts.

North Fork American River: This truly wild river was formerly off limits to suction dredging. The new regulations allow year round suction dredging upstream of Big Valley Canyon and seasonally (September) from Big Valley downstream to Iowa Hill Bridge. Opening this river to suction dredge mining would be harmful to sensitive foothill yellow-legged frog and wild trout.  Adding insult to injury, the proposed regulations will allow the use of larger suction nozzles on the North Fork. This stream is both a state and federally-designated Wild River and a state-designated Wild Trout Stream. Neither of these facts seem to have been considered by CDFG in the development of the new regulations. Mining will harm the rivers exceptional water quality and clarity, as well as its extraordinary scenic, recreation, fishery values. Also, experience shows that the miners bring lots of equipment and supplies down to the river but leave their trash behind (including batteries and fuel containers). Even with a 14 day limit on camping, many stay much longer. Due to the narrow canyon, disposal of human waste is a problem; it accumulates in few spots and leaches into the river.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Jim Ricker

President, North Fork American River Alliance

P.O. Box 536

Alta, CA 95701

530-389-8344

http://www.nfara.org

SAMPLE LETTER (please personalize, paraphrase or plagiarize)

Mark Stopher

California Department of Fish and Game

601 Locust Street

Redding, CA 96001

Regarding: Suction Dredge Program Draft SEIR Comments

Dear Mr. Stopher:

Please consider this letter an official comment letter on the draft SEIR prepared for the draft amended regulations that have been circulated.

The North Fork American River, like other California rivers and streams, must be protected from the adverse impacts of suction dredge mining. The proposed regulations do not provide sufficient protection for the fish, wildlife, and water quality of our rivers. DFG must analyze each individual river, and its tributaries, for adverse impacts from proposed regulations. A statewide basis for evaluation is inadequate and will lead to major adverse impacts on some streams.

Please revise the regulations to prohibit suction dredge mining in all rivers and streams that provide critical habitat and future recovery areas for threatened and endangered fish and wildlife. Please close all mercury-impaired rivers and streams to suction dredge mining to protect water quality, human health, fish, and wildlife.

Please ensure that the extraordinary and outstanding values of the North Fork American, a state and federal Wild & Scenic River and a Wild Trout Stream, are fully protected. Suction Dredge mining is incompatible with such designations and was prohibited in the W&S North Fork American under previous regulations. Mechanized or motorized equipment does not belong in a W & S River. In addition, portions of the North Fork and Middle Fork are proposed Wilderness and their wilderness qualities must not be compromised. You cannot put obstacles in the way of the land managers (Forest Service, BLM) nor add to their enforcement load as a result of your regulations. Rivers and streams should be closed to mining if budget cuts result in insufficient wardens in the field to enforce the new regulations.

Suction dredge mining will harm the North Fork American River’s exceptional water quality and clarity, as well as its extraordinary scenic, recreation, and fishery values. In addition, experience shows that the miners bring lots of equipment and supplies down to the river but leave behind piles of trash (including batteries and fuel containers) that leach into the river. Even with a 14 day limit on camping, many miners stay much longer. Due to the narrow canyon, disposal of human waste is a problem; it accumulates in a few spots and leaches into the river. Trash and human waste does impact water quality, the fisheries, and human health.

Recreational and commercial mining is not a legitimate activity in California if it is done at the expense of the state’s fish, wildlife, water quality, human health, and state-protected beneficial uses of our rivers and streams. Suction dredge mining is completely inappropriate in the North Fork American River.

Thank you for your consideration.

Sincerely,

(your name, address)

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Saturday morning I ventured out on yet another incredibly crazy and difficult hike.

In a certain rafting book that I have, it mentions a “beautiful waterfall” in Blind Canyon on the Middle Fork American River. Rafting or kayaking is not my cup of tea, and so I have always wondered it was possible to hike to this waterfall instead of raft/kayak. I decided to find out. And the answer is yes. But it is certainly a very difficult hike.

It did not help that I went down the wrong way. Namely, straight down a cliff. You see, there is a mining road leading down to the river from Mosquito Rd near Foresthill. Unfortunately, it crosses private property. The last time I tried that a few years ago, I saw plenty of no trespassing signs indicating that you could not continue on the road. I do believe it is a public road, so I do not really understand how it can cross private property like this. Anyway, I needed to look for an alternate route, so I decided to park along Mosquito Rd and descend the ridge into the canyon. Unfortunately, it was very very steep, much steeper than I thought it would be. I had to be extremely slow and careful. It also seems like this is the place where everyone dumps their garbage over the cliff. I had to walk by a lot of trash, appliances, even a couple very old cars. Humph. I finally made it down to that mining road. From there, I just followed it down and then cut over on another trail over to Blind Canyon. This other trail was surprisingly well traveled. I was not expecting that due to the difficulty of the hike. There was also a lot of poison oak and ticks down near the bottom. Eck. And double eck. But on the bright side, there were some nice wildflowers along the trail too.

The waterfall turned out to be only a small one, 16 ft. high. I was hoping for something quite a lot bigger. But the book was right. It certainly was a very “beautiful” little falls, stair stepping down the rock. And I think it would be even more impressive with a lot more water flowing in the creek.

On the way back up, I decided to keep going straight back up the mining road all the way to the top, instead of trying to scale that cliff back up again. I was much too tired to try doing that. I was just hoping I would not run into anyone crossing over private property. However, I did not need to do that anyway. As I climbed up the road,  I saw another “trail” on my map, leading up to Mosquito Rd. where my car was. It was overgrown, but it was much much easier than the cliff and it bypassed the private property as well. This was the way I should have gone down in the first place. Well, now I know for next time.

More info on Blind Canyon Falls:
http://www.waterfallswest.com/waterfall.php?id=458

2 Comments

When we were at the Coast last month, we went one day to the Elkhorn Slough in Moss Landing. We walked around there, and saw plenty of bird wildlife. Afterwards, we stopped at the beach there for lunch and to let the kids play on the beach. They had a lot of fun playing in the waves. Daddy had a bit of fun too taking pictures. These little sanderlings were running along the beach while we were there, scooping up little tidbits to eat that they found on the shoreline. They let me get pretty close to them, until a jogger came running along to the beach and scared them away. All in all, it was a very fun day.

2 Comments