Leon Turnbull Photography

I was back in the Bay Area for an exciting weekend adventure. This time, I was back to see the Devil. Mt. Diablo State Park, that is. It has been a while, a long while, since I was last here. I really wanted to try to get to Wild Oat Falls. Did I make it? Well, I think you know that already, but it was killer, very difficult, and poison oak infested. I almost blew it, though.

There was a big storm coming in, but it was supposed to be cloudy and showery all morning. It was not showery at all. It was also not cloudy. Well it was cloudy when I started the hike.

Whenever I am here, the trail to Donner Creek is especially muddy. Ridiculously muddy. But it was good to see the creek flowing well from all the rain. Praise God for the rain. We are now well over average for the year so far. The waterfalls should be  fantastic.

Thanks to my friend Mike, I had a good route planned for Wild Oat Falls, and it was my full intention to follow this route. But alas, that did not happen. Enter poison oak. Well, you see, I thought it might be good to go to Donner Creek Falls first. It is on the way and would be a bit easier (I thought) to go to those waterfalls first, even though I’ve been to them before. I should not have done that. But anyway, I did. I spent a lot of time, far too much time, scrambling around those waterfalls, and tiring myself out. Now the sun was coming out. The clouds were all gone. It was supposed to be cloudy all morning! Nope. Not Cloudy. By the time I could get up to Wild Oat Falls, now, it would be in the sun, and that is the waterfall I really wanted to get to. I blew it! I should have gone up to Wild Oat first! I knew it, too. Ugh.

However … all was not lost. I saw a path heading up the canyon from the Donner Creek Falls. I was not planning to go this way. I knew there would be a lot of poison oak this way. Guess what? There was a lot of poison oak. However, it was much faster doing this now then going my original route. I could not avoid touching the oak. I gave up trying, and just trounced right through the stuff. Hoping beyond all hope, that I will avoid getting the itch this time. (actually … I have not gotten the poison oak itch in a long time – knock on wood). It was a tough route, climbing up the canyon this way. The waterfall was much further than I thought it was. This was NOT the right way to go to it! I continued climbing, and finally I could see the falls. It was still in shade. Could I make it in time? I still had a long way to go. Finally I reached the viewpoint. It was still in shade. I was ecstatic. Wild Oat Falls is a stunning 83 ft. high waterfall. Such magnificence! I took photos and enjoyed the view. I did not go back down via Donner Creek Falls, I went back the way I had initially intended to come to this one. It was much much easier. And no poison oak! (but it was too late about that, anyway). It was a long hike back down the mountain. By the time I got back to the car, the clouds were back. It was raining. Yeah!

As of Feb. 1, here are your stats for the year thus far: Snow pack is 101% of average (northern CA), 103% (central Sierra),98% (southern Sierra). Rain is 96% of average (northern CA), 92% (central Sierra), 97% (southern Sierra). So as you can see, we are pretty darn average for the year so far. The good news is that February is starting out with a bang (the above stats do not include the storm that started on Feb. 1). I like being average. I have said it before. I wish we had average precipitation EVERY YEAR, instead of the huge ups and downs that we usually have in California. We will have to see how we end up at the end of this year with two more months to go in the winter. I am sure liking how February is starting off.

As for this photo, is it a pretty average photo of an average waterfall? This is Upper Merlin Falls, 53 ft. high. When I first went to Merlin Falls a couple years ago, I did not go to this upper Falls. Why not? It is not difficult! On that day, I totally wrenched my back on my first hike of the day. I could only BARELY hobble up to the lower falls (which is by the roadside). Going up to the upper falls was out of the question. Driving home that day was a nightmare. I am only now just getting back to this one. So many waterfalls to see, not enough time. Enjoy.

This is a new waterfall for me. Tobin Falls, 117 ft. high. It is a real beauty. At higher flows, it would be amazing. I found that the creeks on this side of the river were flowing quite a bit less than the other side, generally speaking. I think that is because there was no snow on the mountains on this side, and there was snow on the other side. Weird.

Anyway, to get to this one, you need to walk along the railroad tracks, which is always a bit unnerving, wherever you may be, but I saw no trains the entire morning. In the afternoon, I did see quite a few trains while I was hiking to Chambers Creek. Weird.

I love it when my birthday is on a Saturday. Saturday is my usual hiking day, so when my birthday is on a Saturday, I can hike all day and do what I love. Find waterfalls!

I headed back to Oroville. This time I left very early, and beat the construction traffic on Hwy 70. They were getting ready to start at 7AM when I drove through, but there were no delays. My plan was to head back to Murphy Creek Falls and try to get to that elusive upper falls. However … the creek was at about twice the flow it was last time I was here. I would have to cross that creek. I suspected this would be the case as I have been monitoring creek levels all week. It did not go down as much during the week as much as I had hoped, but I decided to try it anyhow. The creek actually looked crossable when I arrived at the trailhead. This might be good after all. I started up the trail, but then got to the small seasonal creek just before the lower falls. This little creek was flowing at least twice as high perhaps more. It was extremely dangerous, and I could not cross it safely.  I did not want to die, so I retreated back to the car. That is when I found a yellow sticker on my car from the highway patrol (not a ticket). I was parked legally, well off the highway, and gone for less than 30 minutes. Yet the officer apparently thought I had abandoned my car! Geepers!

Anyhow, Murphy was a bust. It was on to plan B.

Plan B was to go up to Chambers Creek Falls. I have not been to these falls in 12 years. It was time to return and get better photos of these waterfalls, and maybe see some parts I have seen before. I started the hike at 11:30am. So what was I doing from 8AM or so until 11:30? Going to see other waterfalls of course. All in all, I saw 7 waterfalls on my birthday, 3 of them were new ones. More on this later.

The hike up to Chambers Creek Falls is a huffer, gaining 1700 ft. in elevation in a couple miles. There were a ton of ticks along the trail. Crappers. Fortunately, the trail is wide, so it is easy to avoid them. As I thought about this, however, the trail suddenly becomes much narrower on the top half of the trail. Not so easy to avoid them now. But anyhow, I avoided getting any of the little bugger machines on myself. I find it interesting how they know to climb up on the grasses overhanging onto the trail? They do not climb up on the grasses off in the bushes. You need to do a lot of off trail scrambling to see all the waterfalls up here, and I did not see any ticks (or very few) when I was doing all that.

I finally arrived at the bridge over Chambers Creek. There are four waterfalls here. Only Fall #2 is easy to get to. The other three are killer. I ate my lunch at the bridge, and took photos of #2 (35 ft. high). As I was finishing up my lunch, a family came up the trail. The only other people I saw all day long. I don’t imagine they were planning to see the other waterfalls (which is good because they had two little kids and a dog and that would have been very dangerous for them – but those kids did really good climbing up this trail, it is not an easy hike). Anyway, I climbed up above the second falls, and then down to Fall #1 (105 ft. high). After this, I climbed back up and down to the trail, and made the very steep descent down to Fall #3 pictured here (94 ft. high). I was standing on a freaky ledge at the edge of the cliff to get this photo. I sure hoped the rock was secure on the cliff. But Fall #4 was scarier. I have not been down to Fall #4 before, and I did not think it would be possible. Yet I was able to continue climbing down the mountain, and I came down to a point where I could see Fall #4. Sort of. It was almost but not quite the most spectacular thing I have ever seen. You can get a glimpse of the 2 tiers of Fall #4, with #3 above. What a sight. But it is only a glimpse. There is no clear view of the thing. As it was, I had to stand in a very sketchy spot, just to get a photo of Fall #4. After this, it was back up up up to the bridge, and then back down the trail to the car. I got back to the car right at sunset. Then I drove to Chicago Fire in Roseville to meet my family for my birthday dinner. It was an awesome birthday.

After going to see four waterfalls in Novato in the morning, I drove to Fairfax, and stopped for lunch at Round Table pizza. What should I do after lunch? I wanted to go on at least one more hike in the afternoon.

I drove to Lake Lagunitas for the next hike. This is a very busy place. There were tons of people out biking, hiking, running, and walking. I wondered if any of these people would be going to see this waterfall. The answer: NO ONE. Only the waterfall madman is out to see the waterfalls. Of course, 99% or more of the people there had no idea there was even a waterfall at Lake Lagunitas. Did you? Thanks to waterfallswest friend Mike, I knew there was a waterfall here and I wanted to go see it. Perhaps another reason no one was at the waterfall is because it is a killer hike! I was anticipating a short and quick hike up to the falls, but no sir. This hike was crazy, and it took a very long time. However, if I had gone the right way in the first place, perhaps it would have been short and quick. I always tend to make things harder than they need be.

There was a nice trail to begin with, but before too long I lost it. So I just went straight up the creek bed, which is the way I thought I should go and the way that made the most sense. There were multiple creek crossings. There were many fallen logs to crawl over and under. There was a lot of brush to trounce through. There was much steep terrain to climb up and down. It took a long time! It took forever! It was the never ending bush whack!

Finally I got up to the top where I could see the waterfall. A couple more creek crossings, another steep hill to clamber up, and I finally made it to the falls. That is when I noticed an actual trail that went right up beside the waterfall. Ugh.

So I took photos of the waterfall, which is a pretty nice drop (32 ft. high), but would have been much better at higher flows. Then I wondered about that trail. I did not know where it went, but I did not really want to go back down the same way. That would have taken forever. The trail was perfect! It went all the way down to the bottom, pretty nice and mostly very easy to follow, all the way down to where I had initially lost it on the way up. Oh that would have been so much easier to take this trail UP to the falls. Now I know. But will I ever be back here to do this hike again? Perhaps, if the creek is at a high flow (for certain, a high flow).