Leon Turnbull Photography

Traverse Creek Falls is one of my stand by waterfalls. What I mean is, it is easy to reach, and is close to home, so I pretty much come here at least once per year. It varies greatly in form throughout the year: from a wide torrent of water during the rainy season, to a beautiful double falls in the spring, to a single segmented waterfall in early summer, and then completely dries up by late summer. As you can no doubt see, it is currently a single segmented waterfall. I was actually extremely disappointed to see it is already in its early summer form. So much so, that I wasn’t even going to take a photo of it, but I ended up taking one anyway (heck, I was there and I had my camera with me).

I wasn’t really too much into hiking this past weekend, but I forced myself to get out. I’m still not feeling so great. But I did get out, and I found this new waterfall in Bear Creek Canyon, near Placerville. It was a lot of effort to get to it, but definitely worth it. It is 40 ft. high, and definitely much better than I expected.

My original plan was to hike down into Bear Creek Canyon from above. However, it is all private property along Bear Creek Rd., and there was no access down into the canyon. So as I was leaving to go back, this guy came up to me. Here was our conversation (pretty much exactly):

him- what are you doing here (rudely)
me- just out for a morning drive. do you know if this is all private property around here?
him- yes, it is all private property. you need to get the F*** out of here. you have no F***ing business being here.
me- well, sir, I am leaving now. But I am on a public road and not trespassing.
him- I don’t give a F***. you have no F***ing right being here on this road. Leave the F*** now.
me- yes sir, that is what I am doing. Have a Happy Easter.

Actually, I wish I had said Happy Easter – but you get the general idea. What a total jerk.

Anyway, so I decided to go to Traverse Creek Falls instead, so the morning would not be a total loss. I’ll post that photo for you later. But once there, I decided to go downstream in an attempt to find the Lower Traverse Creek Falls. I’ve known about this lower falls for awhile, but I’m still not sure exactly where it is. This was my first serious attempt to find it. But I did not end up going far enough downstream. It is apparently much further downstream than I had thought. So that waterfall remains a mystery for another day. On the way back, I debated about going up Bear Creek to find the waterfall there. I was not really into it, but in the end I decided to go for it, as I was not sure when I would ever be back down there. So off I went. Scrambling up Bear Creek was not easy. It was quite overgrown, there was plenty of poison oak, and it involved criss-crossing the creek several times. On my way back out, I slipped and fell into the creek, hitting my jaw hard onto a log. The jaw is not broken, but it is badly bruised. And now I have a nice red mark on my jaw and neck. Good times. Anyway, after what seemed like forever (it took a full hour to hike up the creek a half-mile), I finally was rewarded and came upon this beauty of a waterfall, dropping 40 ft. down into a deep pool. Whew! It was one heck of an effort to reach, but I’d definitely have to say it was worth it. One of my favourite things is finding new waterfalls that not very many people know about or have been to. I also know there are more waterfalls above this one too. I’m not sure how to get up to them, but that’ll have to be a trip for another day.

I’m still recovering from my illness. Eleven days and still counting. Needless to say, I haven’t been out hiking recently (hopefully this weekend, I will get out).

Anyway, there’s a really interesting new waterfalls book out. If you can get your hands on it, I really recommend it. It is called “The World’s Hundred Greatest Waterfalls” by famous Japanese photographer Yoshikazu Shirakawa. It is written in Japanese (with a small amount of English thrown in for good measure). But who needs to understand the words, when pictures tell so much. And his photos are amazing, including the most awesome waterfalls photographed all around the world.

What is in the book? Of course, the good old stand bys: Yosemite, Niagara, Iguazu, Victoria, Angel Falls. Also worth mentioning are these falls from North America: Bridalveil Falls, Wapama Falls, Nevada Falls, and Feather Falls in California. Plus, Helmcken, Hunlen, and Takakkaw Falls in BC.

What is not in the book? I found it interesting that there were no falls from China or Russia. Every other major region in the world was pretty well included. Or how about Della Falls in BC, the highest waterfall in Canada?

Yours truly is credited in the book for helping Shirakawa out with my waterfall suggestions and information. I received a free copy of the book in the mail as well. I was surprised and grateful to receive this because I did not think I really helped him out that much. But he must have taken some of my suggestions to heart. I definitely recommend it, but I’m not sure where you’ll be able to find a copy of it. It is not available in the USA as of right now.

I have been laid up in bed all week long with illness. I haven’t even wanted to look at a computer, let alone touch one. It started out as a nasty cough/cold. Then it turned into the flu. Now, just as I am getting over that, I think I now have an ear infection. I’m gonna have to go back to the doctor today. Argh. When it rains it pours.

This is a different viewpoint of Shingle Falls from a couple weeks ago. I had to climb over the fence to get the angle I wanted here, but it was quite safe enough.

It was a tough weekend in the Turnbull household. Our 12 year old family cat, Jordie, had to be put down due to severe kidney failure. He had a tough life, but at the same time a wonderful life, mostly thanks to my wife Tara. She found him on the street when he was a baby, almost dead. He had everything you could imagine: worms, fleas, covered in dirt, pneumonia, infection in eyes, malnourished. Yet he purred the whole time when she picked him up and took him home. That was his signature in his life, his purring no matter what the situation. Tara nursed him back to health. I “inherited” him (or vice-versa), when I married Tara in ’99, and although not a cat person, I became one because of Jordie. He was a very loveable cat. In later years, he developed kidney problems. Twice Tara nursed him back to health again, but this third time was just too much for him. He will be missed.

Now on top of this sad news, I also learned that I will be losing my job in a few months. Our entire team and most of the I.T. department in our company, will be outsourced, and we all will be losing our jobs. I will either be laid off outright with severance, or possibly offered a job with the oursourcing company (which I will not likely take). This whole situation is troublesome. We employees have worked hard for 10 or more years, to make the company into a great company. And then they turn around and do this to us, treating us like crap. They are making billions in revenue each year, and they only want more. I’m not too concerned about getting another job. God has always provided for myself and my family, and I believe He will continue to do so. Nonetheless, this is all very upsetting.

And to make matters even more grand, I have an extremely bad cough and cold this weekend, and really feel crappy. Ah, yes, what a weekend. Hope yours was MUCH better.