Leon Turnbull Photography

I was hoping to find a nice winter waterfall this weekend, though I wasn’t sure where to go. With a big storm coming in, I didn’t want to go over the passes to Tahoe, or I might get stuck over there for the weekend. I decided to try snow shoeing in to Bassi Falls, though I knew that waterfall probably wouldn’t be flowing too great.

I think God must have wanted me to get up and go out on Saturday morning because when I woke up it was not raining in Folsom. If it had been raining, I would have most certainly gone back to sleep. But since it wasn’t, I thought it might not be too bad up in the mountains, so I decided to head out. Of course, as soon as I got to Placerville, it started raining and raining hard. Well, it was too late to go back to bed, so I figured I would just continue on and see what I could see.

Once I got up on Ice House Rd., the rain turned into snow, but it wasn’t too bad yet. A snow plow had gone on ahead of me, clearing the road. The last time I went to Bassi Falls in the winter, there was no way to park along the road. I was a bit worried about that today, especially with the snow storm. I didn’t want to get stuck, or have a snow plow block me in somewhere. However, I was pleasantly surprised to find a large clearing directly opposite the turnoff to Bassi Falls. Perfect! I put my snowshoes on and started the long slow trudge up the road to Bassi Falls. In the summer, it is an easy 0.5 mile hike to the falls. But in the winter, it is a difficult 2.5 mile snowshoe, all uphill for the first 2 miles. The snow started falling more heavily on the way up, but it was definitely beautiful.

I knew that Bassi Falls would not be flowing all that great, and I knew it needs a lot of water for it to be even decent, but I did think there would be a lot more flow than there was. The waterfall was non-existent, and there was just a small amount of water flowing in Bassi Creek. I tried to find some kind of composition showing some water flow. There were not many options. In fact, I just found one small little cascade on the creek, and that was it. I crossed over to it carefully, wondering if I would sink through the snow into a deep pool of water. I didn’t. I setup my tripod, took the photo, then began the long slow trek back to Ice House Rd. At least it was mostly downhill on the way back, but it is still a long snowshoe and I was quite tired.

By the way, if you are thinking of heading out to Bassi Falls in the early spring, beware. There is a fallen tree across the road. In fact, it just fell while I was up at Bassi Falls. It was not me who did it! But I came across it on the way back and was quite sure I did not climb over it on the way up to the falls. Good thing it did not fall on me while I was crossing there. Anyway, you might want to bring a chain saw or something if you come up here in the spring before the forest service people get up there.

Well I do like this photo quite a bit, but it is definitely not the photo I was seeking.

The weather forecasters screwed me up again. We had a big cold winter storm come in yesterday, calling for snow even in Folsom of all places (we very rarely get snow in Folsom). I was thinking I really should get out and photograph the snow, but I thought Auburn would be a better choice (they would get more snow there). On Sunday the forecast was saying that it would not snow in Auburn until Monday during the day and afternoon. So I figured that Monday after work would be a great time to go up to Auburn.

But … it snowed Sunday night instead! Even on Monday, the forecast was still saying that more snow would be coming in Auburn during the day. But it never happened. By the time I got up to Auburn after work, most of it had already melted. I was totally bummed about that, as I was hoping to get a great shot of the North Fork American River with snow on the trees and all around. If I had gone up to Auburn on Monday morning, it would have been perfect. Ah well, c’est la vie. I still managed to get a nice shot with a little bit of snow and some nice fog and clouds hanging over the river.

And the kids had fun as well. I brought the family up with me so they could play in the snow while I was photographing. We did have a bit of snow overnight in Folsom, but it was just a tiny amount. There was just a bit on our cars in the morning, only enough for my wife to go out and make a couple snowballs and throw them at the kids (fortunately not me, but the kids managed to get me quite good later in Auburn).

Just a simple sunset along the American River.

On Black Friday, while Tara and her mom were shopping, I had fun with the kids. I told them they could do anything they wanted in the morning, but in the afternoon, we were going to go somewhere Daddy wanted. So in the morning, they chose to go play at the local park, and we had fun there.

After lunch, I took them to the Sacramento National Wildlife Refuge, about an hour south of Red Bluff. This time of year is interesting there, because of all the birds that spend the winter here. Especially snow geese. We saw thousands upon thousands of them flying around. It is really amazing how many of them there are, which you realize when they fly around like crazy, which they did a couple times. It is pretty cool.

It is my tradition now to go out hiking on Black Friday. It is my favourite day of the year to go hiking. While everyone else is out shopping, I go out into the wilderness. It is beautiful and peaceful, and no one else is out (no matter where I go), so I have it all to myself.

This year, however, the weather did not fully co-operate. I had plans to do an epic hike on Friday, but the forecast was calling for heavy rain on Friday morning. Actually, I looked at a number of different weather forecasts, and there was a huge difference, ranging from light showers to heavy rain. I couldn’t decide if I should go out or not, so finally I determined it would be better to go hiking on Saturday instead of Friday. I let my wife go out and brave the shopping crowds on Friday while I stayed with the kids. On Saturday, it was my turn to go out. I chose Wagon Creek Falls at Mt. Shasta City, a 6 mile hike which shouldn’t be too difficult. ha!

I woke up at 4AM, ready to start my day with a good Dutch Brothers Coffee before the long drive up to Mt. Shasta. But it was closed! This place is supposed to be open 24×7! I was thoroughly upset. Not to mention tired! How was I gonna drive 1.5 hours without any caffeine in my body! Well, I did it, but it really made me very tired for the entire day.

Anyway, I arrived at the trailhead and it was still dark. I wasn’t exactly sure of the route and not confident of hiking it in the dark, so I figured it would be all right to start hiking once it got a bit lighter out. It was also EXTREMELY cold and windy, reminding me of the Black Friday hike I made a couple years ago, which was the coldest day I have ever hiked. Not quite so cold today, but I still had to wear my winter coat.

The hike to Wagon Creek Falls starts out with a shotgun blast to the heart. You have to climb 1000 ft. to the top of a small mountain, in less than a mile of hiking. This trail does not fool around. It goes straight up the mountain. And I mean straight up. It was relentless and grueling. Finally I made it to the top of the ridge. It was just past sunrise now. There were great views of Mt. Shasta from the top, but I did not take out my camera because I was a bit late for sunrise, plus it was so darn cold, and there were no clouds in the sky anyway. I think it would be a good spot for sunrise if the conditions were better, but I don’t think I’d want to climb up that hill ever again.

Once you finally make it to the top, you get more bad news. The trail starts descending on the other side! That means I’d be coming back up this other side on the return trip. Fortunately, the descent wasn’t quite so steep as coming up. But it wasn’t all gentle and flat either. In fact, there were no flat spots on the trail the entire hike. I was either going up or going down. What a crazy hike! After a couple miles of hiking, I got to the turnoff for Wagon Creek. Here was another killer steep ascent up a ridge. Then at the top, it had a killer descent down to Wagon Creek. Holy macaroni! There was quite a bit of snow on the ground, and as I made the descent to Wagon Creek, I was following in bear tracks in the snow, heading down to the creek to get his morning drink? Hmmm … aren’t these guys supposed to be hibernating now? Fortunately, they were not fresh tracks.

Wagon Creek is nestled in a steep little gorge. I could see the waterfall from the lip of the gorge, but how to get over to the waterfall? I started bushwhacking up towards the falls, looking for a descent route to the creek. I found one, and was able to make my way down to the creek without too much difficulty. But I still could not make my way up to the falls on this side of the creek due to all the brush. It seemed easier on the other side, so I hopped the creek, and climbed up the bank on the other side to find this nice overlooking ledge of the waterfall. The waterfall was flowing ok for this time of the year, about what I expected. It would of course be a rushing torrent in the spring, but it may be a lot more difficult to get to the falls in the spring as well.

After enjoying the waterfall, I made the long slow hike back up and down and up and down the mountain. The uphill parts weren’t too horrid (except for a couple of them), and I thoroughly enjoyed the downhill sections. But that very last steep descent, I had to take quite slowly, as the steep downhill is very hard on the old knees. All in all, it was an enjoyable November morning hike.