Leon Turnbull Photography

I slept well the first night. I got up early and made my breakfast. The other backpacker (who was going back towards the trailhead) had already left but the one going in my direction was still sleeping.

As I was about to put on my backpack and hit the trail a couple deer came right up to me, within 6 or 7 feet of me. They had no worries about me being there whatsoever and began to lick my pee. Yes, you read that correctly. It was so hilarious. I watched them and talked to them for about 10 minutes. They were still licking it after I put on my backpack and left.

I was the first to arrive at Hamilton Lake at around noon and snagged the best campsite at the lake. Am I greedy? You can call me that if you wish, and I suppose I am, but there are only two or three really good spots at this lake and it is a very popular place to camp (there are a few other spots that are not as nice). Speaking of which … there is a one night limit for camping at Hamilton Lake because it is such a popular spot. I saw at least a couple people going up from Hamilton to Precipice Lake for a day hike and then were staying at Hamilton Lake for two nights which is against the rules. This is NOT OK, folks. There will be more hikers coming up the next day and if you have taken one of the better campsite locations then they will have no place to camp (or have to camp in one of the crappier locations). If you are going to do this you should at least have the courtesy of taking one of the crappier spots. The rules apply to everyone and are there for good reasons.

The solo backpacker doing the entire HST and the girls came up to the lake in the afternoon. The other couple never showed up so I guess they ended up going somewhere else but another guy came up later, so there were three other groups at the lake. On the other side of the pass I could see storm clouds slowly but surely building. At 3PM they made their move and started moving in towards us. Something wicked this way comes. I decided to make my dinner quickly before the rain started. Thunder started to boom as I ate and the rain started just as I finished eating. I quickly cleaned up and got everything and myself into the tent just in the nick of time. This storm was absolutely intense! For 30 minutes the wind was howling against the tent and the rain was pelting down. It was the craziest thunderstorm I have ever experienced while camping (there was one we had while family camping in Oregon that may have been worse). I was certain the wind was going to tear my tent apart but the Zpacks held up incredibly well. Everything was dry and held together.

The storm finally abated and I stuck my head out of the tent. Blue sky! Were the girls ok? I thought I should be nice and check on them. They did not even have their tents setup yet when the storm started and it was such an intense storm and came on quickly. Afterwards, I remembered reading something recently that was talking about backpacking girls not needing any help from men. I think that is bull crap. Everyone needs help sometimes, both men and women. Can’t a man be kind anymore? All I did is ask if they were ok. I’m not sure if they thinking about that article, I don’t think so, but who knows maybe they were thinking it.

After the storm I went exploring for a bit and when I got back I saw the girls in my campsite taking photos of something. It was a marmot, apparently trying to get into my bear canister. I must have seen about 1000 marmots on this trip (give or take). They were absolutely everywhere and some of them were fearless. Crazy little things. I remember when my daughter was a baby and one tried to kill her (I’m joking but interestingly that was also in Sequoia NP).

In the evening I photographed four waterfalls, the two lower falls, the middle falls, and this one at upper Hamilton Lake at sunset. I was really happy with how these waterfalls were flowing. It sure made up for the previous day. Good night day 2.

 

 

 

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This was my fifth and last and biggest backpacking trip of the spring. I had hoped to get in six trips but that was a bit over zealous of me, especially with my injured feet. Five trips is a huge success in my view.

This would be a 6 day backpacking trip on the High Sierra Trail in Sequoia National Park. Six days is the longest backpacking I have ever done thus far (my previous longest was 5 days). I would not be hiking the entire High Sierra Trail. I have no interest in doing that (at least not right now). My interest is in doing a section of the trail to see ALL the waterfalls in that section. I would not be able to see all these waterfalls if I was hiking the entire trail. I saw 11 waterfalls in the 6 days.

I arrived at the Giant Forest Museum in Sequoia National Park to get my permit at a good early time. There were three people ahead of me. One of them had an invalid permit (due to his own mistake). The ranger was a nice guy and was trying to get him a valid permit but it took 45 minutes! I appreciate him being nice but he should have made the guy wait until the others behind him in line could get their permits (there were 2 others behind me also). This basically delayed me an hour in starting my hike.

Well, it was not really a big deal because I was only planning to hike about 6 miles to Mehrten Creek. I arrived at Mehrten Creek about noon and ate my lunch. My plan was to camp here and see the two waterfalls in the evening. However, Mehrten Creek was essentially dry. I was surprised and disappointed. I know we are in a drought this year but it is only early June. I was not expecting much but the creek should have still had decent flow. How is this going to fare for the rest of the waterfalls on my trip? It was not worth photographing the Mehrten Creek waterfalls at all so I decided to push on to Nine Mile Creek. This would make my hike for the second day a bit shorter. Nine Mile Creek is actually at the 10 mile mark, not the 9 mile mark. I found that the park trail signs were always off the actual mileage. They said it was only 5.2 miles to Mehrten (one example) but according to my GPS it was 6.6 miles.

Along the way to “Nine Mile Creek” I came across a rattlesnake right on the trail. I almost stepped on it. Unfortunately, that was too close for the snake’s comfort and it started rattling at me in earnest. Step back! Step back! Ok! Ok! Thankfully, it moved off the trail and into the bushes.

I arrived at Nine Mile and set up camp. It was a big buggy with gnats and mosquitoes so I made a fire to keep them away. Camp fires are allowed here (but not above 9000 ft.). The mosquitoes were not “horrible”  (we will have more discussion about mosquitoes later), but even a few is bad so a fire works well to keep them all away. A couple other hikers arrived at the camp a bit later, one going back to the trailhead and one going the same direction as me (he was doing the entire HST). Also, a group of girls passed on by and another couple as well. So that means I expected to see about 3 other groups at Hamilton Lake the next day. There are not a lot of great camping spots there so my plan was to get up early and hike the remaining 7 miles to the lake, beating the other groups there and obtaining the best spot at the lake. That was the plan.

I got in my tent early and watched a movie. At dusk a large group of deer passed through my campsite. I could see them from inside my tent. They could see me as well. The look on their faces was funny when they saw me peering at them through the tent mesh: “Why is he looking at us?”.

I did not see any waterfalls on the first day so this photograph is from the second day: Lower Hamilton Lake Falls. I really really really wanted to get down to the bottom of this falls. I tried about 3 different ways but it was a NO GO. It was just way too cliffy and steep and brushy. No wonder I have never seen any photo of this waterfall from the bottom before. Nevertheless, it is not a bad view from the trail. Good night day 1.

 

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Backpacking trip #4 of the spring. One more to go before the waterfalls all dry up for this dismal year. This one did not turn out so successful. I made it to just two waterfalls, and only one good photo (this one). I had hoped for much more. Let me explain!

It was my 22nd wedding anniversary. My wife and I were in Red Bluff for the weekend at her mom’s house. We went out to lunch and then got some ice cream and went down to the river for a pleasant afternoon. In the evening I drove up north to the Trinity Alps Wilderness at the end of Coffee Creek Road.

I had read horror stories about this road and they all turned out to be fairly accurate (much to my chagrin). It is a very rough road littered with sharp rocks for the entire length of it. I tried my best to avoid getting a flat tire on these rocks (I have had that happen before on a similar road). 20 miles of slow driving at about 20mph. You do the math.

I finally reached the end of the road at the campground. There was still enough light so I went down to the first waterfall: South Fork Salmon River Falls (pictured here). It is about 60 ft. high so that is quite a bit bigger than I expected. It was a bit too steep to get all the way down to the river but I found a great viewpoint on a rock at the edge of the cliff. One waterfall in the bag. It was a great start to the trip.

I slept in my car at the trailhead. I slept in until 7:30! That is very late for me and a bit later than I wanted to sleep. Oh well, I guess I needed it. My plan was to hike up to Caribou Lakes and beyond. It did not exactly turn out that way.

There were an enormous number of deer at the trailhead (and also up at Caribou Lakes). They were all over the place, wandering around the campground, hanging out in the meadows, it was crazy. There were more deer here than I have seen in the last three years combined or more (no exaggeration).

There were also quite a few cars at the trailhead for Caribou Lakes. This was a surprise. This trail in the Trinity Alps has become rather popular in the last few years. Too popular. I think the Trinity Alps needs to start implementing quota on some trails (including this one) because they are becoming over used. Nonetheless, I was not expecting to see anyone this weekend because it is very early season. It was definitely not even possible to hike up to the lakes just two weeks ago so I was hitting this trail in the first one or two weeks of the season.

The trail is 9 miles long with 2000 ft. elevation gain. The grade is fairly gentle with no big steep sections. It is a steady climb the entire way. Nevertheless, it took a long time to hike up to the lakes and I was beat by the time I got there. I totally underestimated this hike. I had plans to continue past the lakes and down the other side. It did not matter anyway. There was still way too much snow on the other side and it was impassable. I knew there would be snow (and I brought my spikes) but it looked far too treacherous to attempt it. I did not have any energy to continue regardless.

There were two big groups camped at the lakes that I saw. One of them was camping in the spot where I had hoped to camp. Argh. Well, I found a different spot beside the outlet stream from Snowslide Lake opposite a pretty little waterfall dropping into the lake from the cliffs on the other side. Snowslide Lake is well named I suspect, it looked like there would be plenty of avalanches into the lake in the winter. My camping spot was away from the other groups and I did not see them at all for the rest of the day. The only bad thing is there was almost no shade. It was very hot in the sun. But it was very cold in the shade (what little shade there was). It was a tale of two extremes. I could not find a happy medium.

After dinner I hiked up to the Upper Caribou Lake. There was still plenty of snow up there, and still ice in the lake. It was incredibly gorgeous.

I had one more waterfall to see. There is a huge waterfall below Lower Caribou Lake. Getting down to it is a big problem because it is far below the lake. One thousand feet below the lake, to be precise. I was expecting that the descent would be extremely sketchy the whole way down. Actually, it was not too bad (a few tricky spots) but it took a full hour to get down. I made it all the way down to the precise spot where I had planned. There “should be” a terrific view of the waterfall from this spot. There “would be” a terrific view of the waterfall from this spot. EXCEPT for a bunch of trees beside the falls that were obscuring the view of it. ARGH! I would have been very happy if there was a clear view of the waterfall from here, however it was pretty much a wasted effort. I won’t be sharing the photo on this blog but it will be loaded on my website. There was no way to continue further to the bottom. It is just cliff and more cliff below me. Nothing more I could do but climb back up to the top and to my campsite.

The next morning I packed up and retreated down the mountain to my car. Along the way I had a cool sighting. There was a long traverse which I thought would make a good video clip so I setup my camera as I do and walked back along the traverse. As I was doing this a pine marten came down to my camera walking right in front of it as it was recording video. When he noticed me walking back up the trail he scooted up into the bushes above the trail. So cool! And I got it on video! Well anyway, it took a long time to hike the 9 miles down and I was exhausted by the end of it. It was a good and very tiring trip in the Trinity Alps Wilderness.

 

 

 

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This photo is what I am calling Middle Falls Creek Falls, at the inlet to Lake Vernon.

I got up very early. I did not want to be hiking in the heat of the afternoon so I packed up, ate my breakfast and hit the trail. After a short 500 ft. climb, it is all downhill (3100 ft. down). I felt like I was almost running down the hill (I was walking very fast), but I was not making good progress. I wanted to be back at the car before 11am, but I was not going to make it by that time. This is dumb. I slowed down for the last section down to Hetch Hetchy Reservoir. It was hot now. Once I got down to the reservoir there were loads of people on the trail, all hiking to Wapama Falls. I saw a rattlesnake along here and a huge lizard. I don’t know what kind of lizard it was, but it was not one I’ve seen before. I tried to look up the species later but I could not figure it out. I made it to the car at 11:30AM. That’s not “too bad”, I guess.

I stopped at Pizza Factory in Groveland for a late lunch (the real reason why I wanted to be down the hill earlier). It is the first time since COVID started that I have gone out to eat in a restaurant after one of my hikes. There are a variety of reasons, some obvious, some not, but one of them being that certain towns (especially South Lake Tahoe and Mammoth Lakes) were telling people to stay away from their trails. Really, I am not allowed to hike on the “public” trails in your town and you don’t want me to spend money in your primarily tourist town? Then I won’t. Even after COVID is over. (spend money, that is – you are not stopping me from hiking in your town). I can’t imagine the restaurant owners approved of what their city leaders were saying. Anyway, before COVID I would occasionally go out to eat, especially after backpacking (not always). However, whenever I was in Yosemite, I ALWAYS stopped at Pizza Factory afterwards. I felt it was time to do this again. My reward after a long hard trek. Sweet.

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At 3PM I started my second hike of the day, this time going to the inlet of Lake Vernon. There is a trail on that side of the lake which goes (almost) all the way to the inlet. The last little bit is slightly brushy but I did not find it too difficult to reach the inlet. There is a waterfall here but this is not the main one I wanted to see. For that, I had to climb up the canyon.

I was not sure if this was even going to be possible or not. Would it be too dangerous? If the granite was too slick and steep, I would be sliding off into the roaring creek, and be dead. From my study of Google Earth the route looked quite do-able, but there were a couple sections I was just not sure about. I began the climb.

It was very easy! The granite was not too steep and it was very open and easy going and a very beautiful hike. I was going to make it. Wait, not so fast madman. Guess what, I did not make it.

I was so close. I could partially see the big waterfall. I could not get to it. There was a WALL of manzanita brush in front of me. It was thick as molasses. It was not far but there was absolutely no possible way to get through the stuff. Believe me, I tried. I tried to go up and around it. Nope. I tried to go through it at the bottom. Nope. I had to give it up. This is horrible. I came all the way up here and was almost to the waterfall but I could not make it. It was so disappointing. What could I do? I sat down and ate my dinner. This gave me time to think. Maybe there is another way. I could not miss out on seeing this huge waterfall. There is a side channel going up beside the main branch of Falls Creek. There was water flowing down this drainage. It is overflow from the main creek. Maybe, just maybe, if I could get to it (through the brush), then maybe, just maybe, I could climb up the creek to the top it. I decided to give it a go. What did I have to lose? My life? The brushy part was short and I walked through it along the edge of the cliff. It was not quite as thick right along the cliff. It probably did not want to live right on death’s door. I made it through the brush. After that, I was able to get down to the creek at the bottom. Now I had to climb up the side channel. This is one of the stupider things I have done recently. The rocks were wet and slick. I had to crawl through a narrow slot in the rocks. A couple times I had to put my feet right in the water to climb up the cascade. How would I ever get down? But I did it! I made it to the top and I made it to the bottom of the huge waterfall. If there was any more water in the creek, I could not have done this. At very high flows it certainly would have been impossible (when I was here the Tuolumne River was flowing at about 1200 cfs – this is somewhat high, but it usually gets a lot higher in a normal year).

Has anyone ever been to this waterfall before? It seems unlikely. There is a trail at the top of it but I could see no possible way to get down from the top. It looked very cliffy. The other side of the creek looked better (no brush), but I don’t see how you could get to it without having to cross Falls Creek. Perhaps at low flow Falls Creek would be crossable and then it could be done but the way I did it seems very unlikely anyone has ever gone this way. That brush is insurmountable, and at higher flows, crawling up the side channel would be impossible for sure. Maybe someone has made it up here at lower flows. Perhaps.

Falls Creek Falls is a huge cascade, about 400 ft. high in total. I was standing right near the bottom of the main section of the falls. It was enormous and magnificent. I was so happy! I did not believe I had actually done it. Now I had to wait about 30 minutes for the sun to go behind the ridge, then I took my photos and went back down. Going down that creek drainage was easier than going up (it seemed), but I was very careful. I hiked back down all the way to the bottom and took photos of the lower falls. Then I hurried back the trail to my camp, arriving just before dark. I noticed a couple more backpacking groups had come up today, but they were all camped on the north side. So again, I had the entire south side to myself. Why was everyone camped on the north side of the lake? The camping is far better on the south side of the lake, it is a lot more brushy and a lot more buggy on the north side. Anyway, I had an absolutely fantastic day and saw all the waterfalls I wanted to see. I went to sleep a very happy boy.

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