Leon Turnbull Photography

January was a bust. I think we basically received zero precipitation in the entire month. As of Feb 1, the snow pack is at 100% of normal (northern CA), 98% (central Sierra), 100% (southern Sierra). Rain is at 117% (north), 103% (central), 95% (south). That may seem ok but all the bonus accumulation we received in December is now all gone and February is starting off as dismally as January. I just pray we get a lot more in the next couple months.

In the last few years I have tried to go on one winter backpacking trip each year. Most waterfalls do not flow in winter but this year right from the start I had my eye on Yosemite National Park. To be specific: Bunnell Cascade and Merced River Falls on the Merced River. These would definitely be flowing and the hike should be do-able in the winter. I have been to them a couple times before but I did not have any good photos of them. It is a long hike from Yosemite Valley.

I was planning to go a couple weeks prior but unfortunately the COVID bug hit our household. I did not get very sick but the rest of my family did. Essentially all I got was a cold for a couple days (just a stuffy nose). I am 100% sure I did not get very sick because I had the booster shot (whereas the rest of my family did not have it). My wife does not agree with me but that is what I believe. Anyhow the first weekend I did not hike because I thought I might get sick (I did not). The second weekend I had the cold so I did not feel like hiking. By the third weekend we were all recovered and I was going hiking. No matter what. Yosemite here I come.

According to the Yosemite National Park website if you are backpacking from Happy Isles in winter you must get your permit from the visitor center in person. They don’t open until 9AM. So … I planned to be there by exactly 9AM. I needed to get as early a start as possible as it is a long hike and there is not much daylight in winter. When they opened at 9AM the ranger told me it is all self permit issuance in winter (even from Happy Isles). Ugh. I could have arrived earlier and started hiking much earlier. Oh well.

I was on the trail by 9:30AM. Of course the Mist Trail is closed in winter due to icy conditions but even the winter route is fairly treacherous. There is a lot of ice on the trail. Without spikes or crampons it is extremely dangerous. I had figured that since a lot of people would be hiking this trail every day it could not possibly be so bad. Wrong. Fortunately I did bring my spikes and it is not hard or dangerous at all if you have the proper footwear. However, I was following a couple other people up the trail who did not have any spikes. They wisely turned back when we got to the first bad icy section but the next day coming back down I could not believe it. It was a Saturday and there were a ton of people coming up the trail and many of them did not have proper footwear (and they were NOT turning back). The conditions were even worse on Saturday than Friday (a lot more icy). All these people who went up the icy sections did not even think to wonder how they were going to get back down later? (frankly I wonder how they even got up these sections in the first place – but going back down is 100 times worse). I would be surprised if not one of these people broke a bone (or worse) coming back down the trail. People really need to use their brains more. Is it really worth the risk going on this hike in winter without proper gear?

It took me FOUR hours to get to the top of Nevada Falls. It has never taken me that long before. I figured there were a couple reasons: 1. I had a very heavy pack carrying all my winter gear, including extra clothes, spikes, snowshoes, etc. (it was about 38 pounds). 2. I had not hiked at all in a couple weeks because of the COVID thing and not much more since Christmas so I was quite a bit out of shape. I was completely spent by the time I got up there and I was not even close to being done yet. I still had 4 or 5 miles to hike from the top of Nevada Falls. At least it is flat from there.

Flat does not mean easy. I had to break out the snowshoes before I even got to Little Yosemite Valley. Not a lot of people had been up this way past Nevada Falls. (which I thought was surprising). Once I got past Little Yosemite Valley there was no one at all. I was breaking the path. It was so incredibly beautiful walking up the valley in the late afternoon and being the only one who has been up there this winter. But it was also very tiring.

It was 4PM when I finally reached the first waterfall: Merced River Falls (58 ft. high). With only one hour until sunset and also the fact that I was so incredibly tired I decided to camp here instead of going on to Bunnell Cascade as originally planned. I setup camp, took my photos of Merced River Falls, made my dinner, and then went to bed. Could I get to Bunnell Cascade in the morning?

I had grandiose plans for the day. I got half of it done. Not too bad.

I forgot to mention on my last post that they have made a lot of changes at Table Mountain this year. There is a new paved parking lot and there is a lot more fencing and signs. The way they have done the fencing and signs is very confusing and makes you think you would be trespassing if you continued past them but that is not the case: you are not trespassing if you stay on the trails.

Continuing past Hollow Falls I stopped at Crevice Falls first. I love this angle, looking down the “crack” where the stream pours off the cliff. It is incredibly cool. There is another viewpoint but I did not go over to it. Instead I went over to Ladder Falls and Upper Ladder Falls. Yes, there is an Upper Ladder Falls. No one knows about that one. It is very well hidden. It was discovered by my friend Mike. I had not been to it before but I wanted to finally check it out. I have been waiting for the right day and lots of rain. (I’ve had to wait a long time). It is not a big one but it is pretty. This was the first of the two things I had planned. After I was finished with the upper falls and the main Ladder Falls the wind had picked up enormously and the rain from the next storm was just starting.

The second part of my plan was to go to Ranch Falls and try to get down to it. However, I decided to skip that one on account of the storm coming and also the lack of water flowing on Table Mountain. I returned on the same trail and had to navigate far around all the cows again on the way back. By the time I got back to the car the storm was in full force and I was getting a good wet soaking. It was a great morning on Table Mountain. The cows agree.

December was a great month for California. As of Jan 1, we are now at 158% of normal for rain in northern CA, 156% (central Sierra) and 145% (southern Sierra). Even better is the snow pack: 135% (north), 148% (central), 160% (south). All this came from just two big storms in December including the last storm that dumped about 10 feet of snow in Tahoe! We went from 10% of normal to over 135%. A lot of people are saying that this is too much! But you are wrong if you are thinking that. The overall snow pack (for the year) is only at 50%. If it does not snow for the rest of the winter then we will still be in a bad drought situation and after a huge December it looks like January is going to be dry (at least the first half). We still have 3 more months of winter though so hopefully we will get a lot more snow and end this mini drought for good.

Anyhow, we arrived home from Canada on Sunday. Since I had Monday off work I decided to go hiking. I was tired from the long drive but the conditions seemed perfect and irresistible: a cloudy day with lots of recent rain. Table Mountain in Oroville should be fantastic. Right?

I arrived at the trailhead at 7:30AM. I was the only one there. I only saw one other couple on Table Mountain the entire day. It is funny. In the spring the parking lot is completely overflowing every day of the week but in the winter? No one! The cows are a different beast, however. They were in angry mode today. They were all standing in the middle of the trail defiantly blocking my path and peering furiously at me the entire time. I had to go way off trail to get around them, through the mud in some cases. I probably walked an extra mile to get around them. As I walked by they would start trotting towards me. I thought one of them was going to charge me. Seriously. Crazy killer cows. In the words of George Castanza: The cows were angry that day, my friends. My wife laughs at me. She says why are you afraid of cows and not afraid of bears? Well … I’m not totally afraid of the cows, only slightly afraid of them. Ha ha.

I stopped at Hollow Falls first. I have to admit I was quite disappointed in the water flows on Table Mountain. It was only about 7 days since the big storm and the flows are already down significantly. I was expecting a lot more. This is going to make me re-think my hiking plans for the next couple weekends. I was even more upset about another thing: some idiot left their poop (from their dog?) in a plastic bag under a rock right at the base of the waterfall right in the middle of the foot path, in the perfect place for everyone to see and have to step over as they visit the falls. Argh … who does this????? It is so annoying. Almost as bad is that no one else bothered to pick it up. It was obviously there for a long time and you literally could not miss seeing it if you went to Hollow Falls. Well don’t worry, it is not there anymore.

After visiting Hollow Falls I continued on my hike to see more waterfalls. Where would I go next? Phantom? Beatson? Something else? Stay tuned to find out …

This was the first Christmas in two years we were able to go to Canada to visit my family. It was only this summer that Canada finally opened their border again. (we thought they might close it again after Omicron started but thankfully that did not happen). We had no issues crossing the border but the trickiest part was getting all out test results within 72 hours of crossing. (especially since it takes two days for us to drive up there). It was wonderful seeing my family again and we had a great time.

It was cold! We only went for one day skiing on the 26th. After this day a major freeze came on through and it was too cold to ski. The coldest day we had was -11 degrees Fahrenheit (-24 Celsius). I have skied in such cold temperatures before but it is just not fun. In my youth I surely would ski in this weather but in my older years I am much wiser. ha ha. Instead of skiing we went hiking and snowshoeing. One day we snowshoed across a frozen Nancy Greene Lake and one day though a beautiful old growth forest.

On another day we went to Castlegar to hike (it was only -6 degrees there – so balmy!). We snowshoed over to Norns Creek Falls, a waterfall I had not been to before. I got a picture from the top of it but unfortunately it was impossible to get down to the bottom. There was (surprisingly) a lot of snow and it was very steep and incredibly dangerous with avalanche prone conditions. Just a short drive from there we returned to Tulip Creek Falls, a local favorite of mine. At Tulip Creek there was very little snow and the creek was not flowing nearly as well as Norns Creek. How is this possible since they are so close to each other?

It is a short hike up to the falls and we found it completely frozen, not the first time I have seen it like this. Tulip Creek is so interesting when it is frozen over. Beautiful. We had a lovely and cold time in British Columbia.

We were headed up to northern California for the weekend to celebrate Christmas with my wife’s family. She went up early so I had to bring the kids with me on Saturday morning. The thing is, I wanted to stop for a hike on the way up north. The problem is, the kids did not want to hike with me.

My son Jadon would literally rather sit in the cold car for three hours than go on a hike. I have failed him miserably. It is very disappointing to me and I don’t understand it. At least Nekoda has a good excuse: she is injured from dancing. She probably would have come hiking otherwise but the problem is that she is ALWAYS injured from dancing. I guess that is just the normal life of a dancer.

So … I was still going to hike. They can sit in the cold car if that is what they want to do. I decided a good hike to do would be Lovejoy Falls in Chico. I just found out about this waterfall last year. It is shocking that I never knew about this waterfall before. It is well marked along a popular trail in a popular park. How could I not know about this one? It is strange. It is on a very small drainage but with all the recent rain I figured that it should be flowing well.

The hike begins with a big 600 ft. descent down into the canyon which I would have to go back up later. Maybe it’s a good thing the kids stayed in the car. They would not have liked hiking back up this! For me though it was no issue and I looked forward to the climb at the end (seriously – but I am a bit strange).  Once down at the bottom the trail meanders along the ridge through a beautiful lush forested area to the top of Lovejoy Falls, and then continues down to the bottom of the falls. It was a very peaceful hike. No one else was on the trail. It was a gorgeous day.

Lovejoy Falls is 51 ft. high dropping off a big cliff into a very small pool. There is a big rock wall you climb up on right in front of the falls which is quite interesting. I thought it would have a lot more flow than it did but nonetheless the waterfall is very pretty. A couple other hikers came up to the falls just as I was leaving but otherwise I saw absolutely no one for the entire hike. It was a beautiful day in Chico and a beautiful hike to Lovejoy Falls.