Leon Turnbull Photography

I said in one of my last posts that I was just going to have one final fling before summer for backpacking and hiking. However … I am a glutton for punishment. I wanted to get to Yosemite one more time to check out some new waterfalls that I have not been to yet. I thought it would be a good idea to bring the family for a camping trip and do these hikes with the crew. Big mistake. The plan did not work out very well. Even though Tioga Road had just opened a couple weeks ago, I was two weeks too late for this. The mosquitoes!

The mosquitoes in Tuolumne Meadows campground were horrendous when we arrived in the afternoon. We set up camp quickly and then left to wander around the meadows and visitor center area. It was beautiful along the Tuolumne River area with a nice breeze and no bugs there, so it was a very nice spot to relax. At about 4PM, it was time to go on our evening hike.

The plan was to hike down to Upper Tenaya Creek Falls and waterslide, and have our dinner at the waterfall.

It was not a very fun hike because of the mosquitoes. My poor son, Jadon. He inherits his sweet blood from myself and my mother, but he has it even worse than us. He had at least 10 visible bites on each of his arms and on each of his legs, and more than that elsewhere. The repellent did absolutely nothing for him whatsoever. I had zero visible bites, which I do not understand because they were definitely biting me A LOT. It was not very enjoyable. Down at the waterfall, we had some relief because there was a bit of a breeze and no mosquitoes there, so we ate our dinner in peace at the falls. However, when I went down to the bottom there was no breeze down there, and the mosquitoes were ridiculous, so I had to quickly take my photos of the lower cascades and run back up to my family (they did not come down with me to the bottom – and Jadon was thanking me profusely).

It was a very easy hike down to the waterfall, much easier than I expected, but it just would have been 100 times better with no mosquitoes. Well, I do think I would like to come back here someday. Tenaya Creek Falls was very beautiful but well below peak flow. The lower cascade especially would have been much better with a lot more water in the creek. It is a somewhat popular natural water slide in the summer, and I did see a girl sliding down into the pool at the bottom. She said the water was very cold.

We hiked back up the hill, arriving at the car after sunset. I gave Jadon the keys and he hiked back as fast as possible, but still got plenty of bites on the way. Poor kid. When we got back to the campground, we had some relief because of all the campfire smoke from other campers; there were no mosquitoes around. We relaxed a bit at the picnic table before heading into the tent for the night.

So all in all, even though it was a beautiful waterfall, it was not a very enjoyable hike. However, the next morning would be a million times better (for me, at least).

December 2018. Just before Christmas, on the first day of the government shutdown I went on a one night winter backpacking adventure in Yosemite National Park in Northern California. I hiked from Cherry Lake (Stanislaus National Forest) to Lake Eleanor California. I visited Frog Creek Falls, and camped at Eleanor Creek Falls. It was a very tough hike. Was it freezing? Was there snow? Did I make it to the waterfalls? Come join me to find out the answers.

It did not get down to freezing in the night, but it was cold, so I was actually glad I had both sleeping bags. I was very warm in my tent. I got up at sunrise, and went out into the cold. It was not really very cold, though. As I said, it was much colder at Llewellyn Falls in September. It was a very pleasant morning, I made breakfast and had some coffee, then packed up.

Instead of going back up the mountain the same way, I headed up the creek. There are two more waterfalls upstream from the big drop on Eleanor Creek, both of them are pretty nice, and access is much easier, so I was very glad to see them.

It took 3 hours to get back to Frog Creek in only 2 miles. The climb back up the mountain was killer. It was after 12PM when I got there. I had lunch and filtered water. I still had 9 miles to hike back to the car. At least it was all on trail now, but it was a long slog back. The last couple miles of road walking back to the dam at Cherry Lake is particularly painful (because you just want the hike to be over!). I finally got back to the car at 4PM. It was another 7 hour hiking day. I lost 3 pounds of weight on this trip, and that is after the huge pizza dinner I ate at Pizza Factory in Groveland. It was a fantastic trip into the Yosemite Wilderness just before Christmas.

Twas the night before the night before the night before Christmas, when all through the national park, not a creature was stirring, not even a park ranger. The waterfalls were flowing by the lake with care, in hopes that the madman soon would be there.

And he was!

Yes, I was off to Yosemite National Park on the morning of the government shutdown for a one night winter backpacking adventure. I had my permit, and I was allowed to enter into the park. It was only a partial shutdown, and I would be walking into the national park from Cherry Lake. I would be hiking to Lake Eleanor, but not just anywhere at Lake Eleanor, I would be hiking to the very far end of the lake. It was going to be extremely difficult, and I was expecting snow and winter conditions, so my pack was much heavier than normal.

When I picked up my permit in the morning, I find it interesting to see who else is backpacking at the same time. There was one other permit there for someone hiking in the next day for 2 nights. Here’s the thing: there was a big winter storm coming in! Did he not know this? Even more interesting than this, however, is that I saw him! He was just starting out at the trailhead when I was finishing. This was 4PM on Sunday, only 45 minutes before sunset. He only had 3 miles to hike, but he would be arriving at his destination after dark for certain. I asked him if he knew there was a winter storm coming? He replied “there is? Well, I do have a rain fly”. He seemed a bit clueless and unprepared for a winter storm. I mean, if you are going backpacking, how do you not know what the weather conditions are going to be? In 2018, I went on 9 backpacking trips, and had zero days of rain. In 2017, I only had one day with an afternoon thunderstorm, no other rain on any of my trips. Is this just good luck? Or good planning? I think it is both, actually. I watch the weather very closely, and pick the best days to go backpacking. I may change my planned dates if the weather is not looking good. I just think backpacking is a lot more fun if you do not have to deal with a lot of rain. For this trip, I knew there was only a 10 percent chance of rain for the weekend. In fact, I was expecting a bit of a shower for the hike back out on Sunday, but that did not even happen.

I was expecting cold weather, though, and snow on the ground. That did not happen either, but I wanted it. You see, I have an idea for a winter backpacking trip in the near future, but it is a very hardcore trip, and I have not backpacked in the winter before. I wanted a first trip to ease into something that would be incredibly difficult. According to CNRFC, there was snow at Lake Eleanor, and the temperature would be about freezing at night. Well there was no snow, and although it was cold at night, it was not even close to freezing. It was colder at Llewellyn Falls in September. Thus, I did not really get the winter experience I was hoping for. I had brought my new Thermarest Neo Air X Therm winter sleeping pad, and I brought both my sleeping bags, tucked inside each other at night. That was a bit overkill I think, and added an extra 2 pounds, but if it was as cold as expected, I think it would have been needed.

It was a great trip nonetheless, and also extremely difficult. There is an easy trail from Cherry Lake to Frog Creek at Lake Eleanor. It is a long hike, about 9 miles. I started hiking at 9AM, arriving at Frog Creek about 1PM. From there, no more trails. I crossed the creek, and went up to Frog Creek Falls, a very lovely 30 ft. cascade. After this, I wanted to hike to the end of Lake Eleanor where there is a very large waterfall (in fact, you can see it from the trail along Lake Eleanor). I planned to camp somewhere along the creek above the falls. Getting down to the waterfall, though, was going to be a challenge. The cliffs are huge at the end of the lake, and I did not think I would even get to see the waterfall at all from up close. It was very tiring just getting to the end of the lake. You need to climb way high up above the cliffs, then back down to the creek. It is only 1.5 miles, but it took almost 3 hours. I finally arrived at my camp, a nice spot along the creek, at 3:45PM, just one hour before sunset.

I dropped my pack and headed straight down to the waterfall. It is not easy getting down to it. At the brink of the falls, it is extremely steep and cliffy, but amazingly I found a view of the waterfall from the side. It is not a great one, but I was pretty happy to get even this view. I was not expecting anything. However, I could not get any further down. It was just too cliffy. It was now very late, and I just had time to take some photos and get back up to camp.

I was almost back to camp when I realized that I forgot my Inreach device back at the waterfall viewpoint. Ugh! So stupid, madman! I had to go all the way back down to retrieve it. By the time I got back to camp, it was after sunset. I set up my tent in the dark. I was extremely tired. I had been hiking basically non stop for 8 hours. It was now dark and cold, and I did not feel like cooking my dinner, so I had a snack and hopped into bed. It was early, but I was so tired. I tried to watch a movie on my phone, but I was too tired even for that. Time to sleep!

This is Silverlace Falls, about 30 ft. high. I camped here on my first night in the Yosemite Wilderness in June. It is a fascinating little slide on the Merced River but difficult to photograph because it is so wide. I did not have a super wide angle lens, which would have been nice. I still have not processed all my photos from the Yosemite trip, so you can still look forward to seeing more pics in the coming weeks.

This time of year (ie. Summer), I start to get very anxious about what the future may hold for next season. Will we have a good winter? Will we see another drought? It is already time to be praying for next year. In 2018, we had a weak La Nina, and as you know, we had a below average winter. The precipitation was about 80% of average for north and central California; the snow pack was only 50-60% of average in California. We also had a weak La Nina in 2017, but of course that was a huge year for us.

So what about 2019? It looks like we are going to have another El Nino next year, but before you get all excited (some people seem to always get excited when El Nino is mentioned), this will not be a strong El Nino. It looks like it will be a weak El Nino (possibly a moderate one). And what does a weak El Nino mean for snow fall next year? You should all know by now it does not mean anything! Remember that super strong El Nino we had a couple years ago and ALL the forecasters said we were going to have a huge year – but instead we only had an average winter that year (or just very slightly above average). Nonetheless, with that caveat in mind, I still like looking at historical events. We have had 11 weak El Ninos since 1950, and 5 of those were above average winters, 2 were average, and 4 were below average. Digging deeper, only one weak El Nino followed a weak La Nina event. That one was a below average winter. Six of the weak El Ninos followed a below average winter (what we just had), and four of those six gave us above average winters. For the moderate El Ninos, 3 out of 6 were above average. So as I said, it all means nothing! It seems to me, we have a 50 percent chance of a good winter in 2019. In other words, please pray!