Leon Turnbull Photography

It is my son’s birthday today. Of course I would not want to miss that (or my wife would not want me to miss it to be more precise – kidding!), but I still wanted to go for a hike. Well, that is not a problem. Jadon would be sleeping in until noon anyway, so I could easily go for a hike in the morning. I did invite him to hike with me, but he said that would be the exact opposite of what he wants to do on his birthday (namely, relax and take it easy). Ah well, I tried.

So where should I go? I did consider going up to Oroville, but then I’d have to get up at 4AM. Umm, I don’t think so. I decided to go back to Rock Creek Falls.

I have been to Rock Creek Falls twice before. It is not a big waterfall (17 ft. high), but it is spectacular, one of the best in the Sierra foothills in my opinion. The first time I went the creek was in flood. The waterfall was absolutely incredible. The second time it was not in flood, but it was still amazing. I was thinking it would be flowing similar to that second time. Rock Creek is a very large creek. Well ….

I was the only one on the trail all day. Everyone else was at Table Mountain in Oroville (I’m not really kidding about that – it has been very busy there lately because of social media). The ticks were out and about. This is the first time I’ve seen them this year. I’m sure it won’t be the last. The poison oak was also out and about. Hopefully, I would avoid getting too close to it.

Once you get down to the creek, you have to go a short distance downstream to the waterfall. It is a bit tricky to get down to it, but it’s not too bad. The worst part is going through the poison oak. (in other words, I could not avoid getting too close to it). I was curious recently about someone who said they hiked this trail. They went all the way down to the bottom but did not go see the waterfall. They had no idea there was even a waterfall here. Really, people! Go to http://www.waterfallswest.com! How horrible to be so close to a beautiful waterfall and not even know it is there. I don’t know why you would even want to hike this trail if you are not going to the waterfall. As I said, this is one of the best in the foothills.

Well … Rock Creek Falls was not flowing quite as well as the last time I was here in 2011. It is still incredibly beautiful, no doubt about it, but I was definitely disappointed in the flow. We just have not had enough rain this year! Even though we had some recently, it just has not been enough. We are so far behind for this season, and the rest of February and into March is not looking very promising at the moment. More rain please. Much more rain please.

Recently, it seems, people are becoming more and more rude. Do you see this as well? Someone recently posted a photo of a waterfall and called it by an incorrect name, so I politely (very politely) corrected him, and he went ballistic on me. What the heck? Why would you be so angry about this? Remember the Bassi Falls winter photo? I posted it in a Facebook group, and I was called out by someone saying I should not post it because it is dangerous to go there in the winter! What? First of all, it’s not dangerous to go there. Secondly, who cares! Basically this person was saying no one can ever post any winter photos of any place ever!

Are you feeling too much fear because of the virus? You do not need to live in fear. God is in control of this. But even so, that is still absolutely no excuse to be so rude to other people. You may not be able to or you may not want to go hiking right now. That is your choice, but hiking is an essential activity, and if other people want to hike right now, that is their choice. There is nothing wrong with that, and it is not against any rules or orders. Do not be rude towards them, or show hate towards them. Please. Love, not hate.

This is Canyon Creek Falls #1, 42 ft. high.

I really wanted to go out for a hike this weekend, but I did not want to go far or do anything hard. My daughter Nekoda also wanted to come with me, and she also just wanted a very easy hike. So, I decided to go back to Iowa Canyon Falls, a very easy one that I have been to multiple times before. But in typical madman fashion, it did not turn out to be quite so easy.

The road was gated due to construction. This would add 3 miles round trip to the hike, and a steep uphill climb walking back up the road from the river. It was late in the day, so we might even have to walk back in the dark. Well, I was okay with this. Was Nekoda okay with it? Yes, she said let’s go for it. So we did.

It was a very pleasant walk going “down” to the river. Much of the road follows the creek, and there were quite a few spring wildflowers along the road as well. Once down at the river, we saw a lot of construction going on. What the heck are they doing down here? It was a big mess, and it seemed like a major construction effort. I have no clue. It is almost as if they are building a powerhouse down here or something. Indeed, I just looked it up (being curious) and it seems they *are* building a powerhouse here. Ugh.

It is a short jaunt from here to walk up the creek to the falls. There were ticks and poison oak, a plenty! But we made it up the waterfall overlook, and Nekoda sat on the rocks while I took my photos. I also really wanted to go to the upper falls (which I think is a lot nicer than the lower falls), however … the poison oak was absolutely ridiculous along the short trail to the upper falls. It was horrific! Nekoda did not want to trounce through the oak to the falls, and I did not want to either, so we turned around and hiked back up the road to the car. The climb back up the road was not really so bad, and we arrived back at the car well before dark. It was a quick and short hike to a pretty little waterfall.

When I checked the weather forecast on Friday morning, it said it would start raining by 8AM on Saturday. I checked it again on Friday evening,  and it now said 7AM. Heavy rain. I really really wanted to get up to the Big Waterfall (at least) before it started. Preferably, I wanted to get back across the creek before it started. If the rock was wet and slick, it would be a lot more tricky to cross the creek. So I prayed, Lord please hold off on the rain until I cross the creek. After that, have at it.

I set my alarm for 5:45AM. I did not sleep very well. I don’t know why, I guess I just could not get comfortable. And worried about getting back across the creek. I did not want to wake up so early, but I wanted to beat that rain. It was not even cloudy yet, but I knew the rain was coming. It took an hour to get packed up, and then I started the big ascent up the mountain.

The crazy narrow side trail (the Six Inch Trail) to the Big Waterfall was lined with poison oak. It was completely unavoidable. Well, that is rather unfortunate. (understatement of the year). This trail never had poison oak before, from what I remember. The Big Waterfall is 144 ft. high, the biggest of the drops on this magnificent creek. I did not spend much time here, just took my photos and continued on up the mountain, still wanting to beat that rain. I stopped at the two waterfalls above this one to take more photos, and finally arrived at the creek crossing. Still not raining. I was able to jump back across without even getting my feet wet. That was interesting. (another understatement). I filled up my water from the creek and continued on.

I expected the rain to start any minute but it did not. It was after 10AM when I felt the first sprinkles. By this time, I was only five minutes from my car, but the deluge did not even begin until I got back on the freeway. The weather was perfect for the entire hike down to the river and back out. Thank you Lord! It was a short, safe, and fantastic journey to one of my favorite places in the North Fork American River drainage.

Firstly, the bad news. Here are the April 1 statistics: snow pack is at 57% of average (northern CA), 58% (central Sierra), 45% (southern Sierra). Rain fall is at 55% (north), 53% (central), 51% (south). Despite what you may have heard, we did NOT have a miracle March. March precipitation was above average (thankfully), but it did not make up very much in the snow pack. So it is going to be a bleak year (as if it wasn’t already). Interestingly, the late March storms added a lot of snow to lower elevations, so despite the low snow pack, you cannot access anything above 5000 ft. elevation right now (if you were even going to go out). Storms are continuing into April, but that will end soon and the snow will start melting quickly and soon be over. Yosemite is closed. 🙁

Secondly, for my hike this past weekend, I need to say that I did not break any rules or orders. I did not interact with a single person the entire weekend. I did not stop anywhere in between my house and the trailhead. I did not put anyone at risk whatsoever, including myself. I should not have to say any of that, and I’m sure 99% person of my readers are good, but … There are two sides, of course, and they are both wrong: On the one hand you have the people who are irresponsible, and don’t care about getting the virus or about spreading it to others. (or they don’t believe they will get it). Then on the other end of the spectrum, you have those living in fear, and they are spreading their fear and hate to everyone else, shaming those who go out hiking (even though they are being completely responsible). At this time in our history, we must be united. We must be helping each other and loving each other. So please everyone, stop spreading hate. Start spreading love.

I had hoped to go to higher elevation this weekend, but the low elevation snow stopped me in my tracks, and I could not get anywhere near the trailhead. I turned around and went to Plan B. This is one of my all time favorite creeks in the North Fork American River drainage. There are no less than seven magnificent waterfalls on this creek. It has been quite a few years since I have been down there. In fact, it has been 11 years since I went all the way down to the river. I’ve been wanting to return for quite some time now, and I’ve been wanting to camp down there so I would have more time. This would be a good weekend to do it.

There were three big problems, of course, and not necessarily in this order: (1) Ticks. This is Tick City. I have been down this trail more than once and had to retreat because the ticks were so bad; they were all over me, and literally forced me back. (2) Poison oak. Nuff said. (3) Crossing the creek. There used to be a bridge over the creek but it is long gone. If the creek is too high, it cannot be crossed (and I have had to retreat because of this also).

I got to the trailhead, and started my hike. It was a beautiful morning. There was a storm coming the next day, and I hoped to get out of the canyon before I got too wet. As you get closer to the creek crossing, you begin to hear the creek although you cannot see it yet and you are high above it. It did not sound very crossable. The North Fork American River was flowing at 800 cfs. In my notes, I anticipated that I should be able to cross the creek if it was 1500 cfs or less, definitely not any more than this. So it should be crossable, but it did not sound crossable.

Eventually, I arrived at the creek crossing. Well, hmmm, … It definitely looked a bit tricky, but it did look crossable. I made it across successfully and without incident. I do think 1500 would be too much, but maybe a little more would be fine. I had my lunch on the other side of the creek on the rocks. From here, things now get much more interesting as the trail descends steeply all the way to the river. Waterfalls galore. Magnificent views galore. Narrow trail. Huge (deathly) dropoffs. Poison oak galore. Ticks galore.

The ticks were actually very manageable. Surprise surprise! They were definitely out, hanging about on the grasses, but they were easily avoidable if you were careful. (and I was careful). The poison oak was a different story. It was all over the place. The urushiol oil was just oozing off the leaves, daring you to get close to it. On the way down, I somehow avoided touching it (thankfully), but on the way back up, I touched it multiple times. I scrubbed myself down when I got home. Hopefully, I do not get the rash.

I was hoping to camp either down at the river (preferably), or at the sixth waterfall (just above the seventh). There was no way to get down to the sixth waterfall that I could see, and there were no places to camp along the river (it was far too rocky). There was literally one small place to set up camp along the cliff, essentially right along the trail, above the river. It was a short walk down to the river from here, and the spot was tight, and uncomfortably close to giant poison oak leaves. It was a little windy here as well, so I had to set up the Zpacks tent much lower than preferable. It would have to do.

I ate my dinner, then went up to see the sixth and seventh waterfalls. I should have gone up to see more waterfalls since I had a lot of time;  they were further up the canyon, however, and I had planned to see them in the morning on the way back up. I think that was a big mistake since I had so much time and the weather was so perfect. In the morning, it would be raining. Oh well. I definitely will be back here again.

Shown above is the seventh waterfall, 26 ft. high, located right at the confluence with the NF American River. It is a magnificent place. I was camped essentially right near the top of the waterfall. There is a better campsite on the other side, but very deadly to cross the creek above the falls. Not taking any chances on that, I chose my small spot next to the poison oak. I had a good night, listening to the multitudes of birds throughout the canyon. I still wanted to see the Big Waterfall in the morning. Hopefully, before the rain started …