Leon Turnbull Photography

As of April 1, the rainfall is at 80% of normal (northern CA), 79% (Central CA), 64% (South). The snowpack is at 47% of normal (northern Sierra), 64% (Central Sierra), 55% (Southern Sierra). March was the fifth wettest March on record, thanks to three very big storms. With those 3 storms, we went up from about 20% snow pack to 50% snow pack.

So was it a true Miracle March, as many people are saying? I would say yes and no. First and foremost, I thank and praise God for all the rain we received in March. Many people were praying for rain, and He answered that prayer. The snow pack more than doubled in one month, as did the overall rainfall. It would have been very depressing indeed without that March rain. Nonetheless, overall, a 50% snow pack is still very dismal and awful. The good news is there is rain continuing into April. This rain will probably bring us up close to 100% of normal for precipitation, but it will not add much to the snow pack, unfortunately.

All right, on to the waterfalls …

I have been sick recently and I have not been out hiking much. Also, I just had dental surgery and now I am out of commission for this weekend in recovery. However, in between those things, I did manage to get in one new visit to an old friend. The Devil is most certainly NOT my friend. However, his waterfall is not too shabby, mostly because it is very easy to get to. Except for that darn road.

I have not been down here since the storm damage of 2017. The road was closed for most of last winter, and only opened again in the summer. I was dreading the drive down. It was an awful road before. What would it be like now? It seemed maybe a slight bit narrower and a slight bit rougher on the way down. Or was that just my imagination? It was probably the latter, I suppose. The main thing I hate about the road is that it is so narrow, unfathomably narrow in some spots, with horrendous dropoffs. If any cars are coming in the opposite direction, there is no way to pass. Thankfully, I saw no one.

However …on the other side of the river, the half mile up to Devils Falls, the road was most certainly much worse. There are huge ruts in the road now where there was none before. A four wheel drive seems a necessity now.

In addition to seeing Devil’s Falls, I also tried to get to the upper falls, and also down to Shirttail Falls. When I did those hikes before, it was shortly after the fire, and pretty easy to get to them. No brush, no poison oak. Now the brush is back and the poison oak is back. In force. The poison oak was humongous. I did NOT want to get into any oak. It was not worth it. I decided to turn around. I finished photographing Devil’s, then drove went back up the mountain. There was a big storm coming in, and it was good to get off that crazy road before it all started.

As of March 1, the rain fall in California is at 59% of normal (north), 38% (central), and 27% (south). The snow pack is at 20% of normal (northern CA), 27% (central Sierra), and 22% (southern Sierra). Pretty darn pathetic. This is not counting the big storm we had this weekend. That storm will up those totals a bit, and there is more rain in the forecast in the next couple weeks. But will we get a miracle March? It remains to be seen, and I am hopeful and praying, but we need a heck of a lot more big storms.

This weekend, I wanted to go up into the snow and do some snowshoeing. My thought was to hike to Grouse Falls in the snow. However, there was a lot more snow than expected. There was snow in the town of Foresthill, and quite a lot. Driving down Mosquito Ridge Rd was pretty dicey. (with huge dropoffs along the road, don’t forget). I could not drive as close to Grouse Falls as I had hoped. I probably could have done the hike, but it would have been a much longer hike than I wanted to do. So instead, I drove back down to the bridge over the North Fork of the Middle Fork American River, and hiked the trail up the river from there. It is something I’ve always wanted to do but hadn’t done yet (there are no waterfalls, which is probably why I haven’t hiked it). Unfortunately, the trail was much shorter than I thought it would be or hoped it would be. After 1.5 miles, the trail ended. So I hiked back, drove to the Auburn Confluence and hiked the short mile to Black Hole of Calcutta Falls.

It was raining when I started the hike, but by the time I got to the falls, it was sunny. I waited and waited for the clouds to come back, and when they did, I took some photos, and hiked back to the car, just as it started raining again. An interesting thing about this waterfall is there is a new bridge over the creek here. I have not been to the waterfall in four years, and there was no bridge back at that time. When I saw a photo of the waterfall recently, with the new bridge in the foreground, I was utterly confused. At first, I thought it was a different waterfall that I had not known about before! I even went on a hike awhile back on another trail, thinking the falls must be on that trail somewhere. Well I finally I figured out the waterfall was indeed Black Hole of Calcutta with a brand new bridge. So weird. (btw, I did not take a photo of the new bridge – but I did take a photo from the first hike I did along the river)

So last week when I was messing around at Lower Stevens Creek Falls, I was in the poison oak, and in it up to my eyeballs. Literally. I got a horrible poison oak rash from it. It was the worst rash I’ve had in years, maybe even the worst ever. I even had to go to the Doctor to get meds because it was in my eye. Don’t laugh. I know you’re laughing at me. Well I deserve it of course. I was dumb, and I probably could have avoided getting such a horrible rash if I had only been more careful about the whole thing, I shouldn’t even have gone down there at all, but I really wanted to check out that lower falls. I was more worried about killing myself on that steep terrain than worried about avoiding the poison oak. Not so this week.

My primary concern this week was to avoid poison oak at all costs. So that means … STAY ON TRAILS! My first hike on Saturday was to Canyon Creek. That is a good trail. There may be ticks on that trail, and lots of them, but the poison oak should be avoidable. Well I did avoid the poison oak, and I only saw one tick (that itself is a shocker if you know that trail), however, I was not able to get to any waterfalls. Before starting out, I was 75% sure that the bridge over the creek would be gone due to the big storms we had this winter; it would surely be washed away. Well of course, I had to check it out anyway. And yes, when I got down to the creek, I found no bridge. The creek was flowing far too high to wade across, so I was skumped. I could not get to the waterfalls. I did not take any photos at all, though I puttered around Canyon Creek for quite awhile, but could not get to anything worth photographing.

So on Sunday after church, I wanted to go on another hike. An easy one. Again, NO POISON OAK! I chose American Canyon Creek Falls. This one should be all right. Again, there may be ticks, but the trail is a good one, and I should be able to avoid any poison oak easily. Not exactly.  What? Whenever I have been down here in the past, and I have been down here many times, I never found too much in the way of poison oak. Growing off to the side, sure, but not all over the trail! It was everywhere! And just oozing with urushiol oil. If one really can get poison oak rash from just looking at it, then I will certainly be getting another bad rash this week. But I carefully avoided touching the stuff as I hiked down. After I crossed the two creeks – which I was able to jump across even though they both had pretty good flow – then the situation became much worse. The oak was ridiculously bad, growing right over into the middle of the narrow trail. I slowed down to a snail’s pace as I carefully, ever so carefully, walked past the poison oak leaves coming out at me from both sides of the trail, daring me, taunting me, to get by without touching them. Unfortunately, I could not do it. I touched the stuff a couple times. I have never seen so much oak on this trail before. Of course, I do not usually come down here at this time of year. I suppose that is the reason. But still! If I had known it would be like this, I would not have chosen this hike. Anyway, I continued  on down to the waterfall. Slowly but surely.

The next issue was how I would cross the creek below the falls? It was flowing pretty darn strong! I knew it would be difficult at this flow, potentially impossible. When I got down there, I could see it would be tough. The creek was swift, and the little cascade below the pool was deadly if one slipped (well, not deadly, but definitely not good). I have crossed the creek before at high flow, I have a good photo on my website, so I knew it must be possible, and the flow then was higher than today.  That was many years ago. I have absolutely zero recollection of crossing this creek at high flow. I know I did not use a rope then, but how could I have ever done it! This time, I brought my rope, and this time I did use it, latching it onto a small tree, and carrying it across the creek with me. There are three steps you need to make through the swift flowing water. Fortunately, the footholds are secure enough to do it. I was holding onto that rope, and my feet were holding onto the rocks in the stream like a newt clinging to the side of a wet cliff. Three steps, and I lunged across onto the rock on the other side. But carefully! There is not much room on the other side whatsoever, and one small slip and you will be swimming in that big beautiful pool! Camera, tripod, and all of you! Now what to do with the end of the rope? I could not let go of it, if I lost the end of the rope, and the current took it away from me out of reach, I would be stuck, and not able to get back across the creek. However, there was no place on that side to latch the rope to, so I looped it around my belt buckle ensuring that I would not lose it! Then I sat down, careful not to slip, or let go of anything, and set up my tripod to take photos. I did drop my camera remote, but it did not go in the drink. Whew. I just bought that thing for the new camera too. I think this is the best photo I have ever obtained of this waterfall. It is so much nicer when the creek is higher.

Going back across was slightly more difficult! A lot more difficult! I could not go back down from the other side in the same manner (ie. backwards) because I couldn’t get a good handhold, so I had to go down from the rocks into the stream forwards, which was extremely tough and a bit scary. I should have thought about this before I went over there to begin with. I lunged back across the stream.

Now that I was all safe, I sat down on the rocks and ate my lunch. Perhaps you were wondering about the newt reference I made above? I am not that strange, it was not actually just a random, weird reference. As I ate my lunch, I noticed two newts on the other side of the creek, attempting to climb up the cliffs. There were little streams coming down the cliff, and the rocks were wet and slick. To you and me they were little streams. To these newts, they were massive waterfalls! They were trying to climb up beside them and I was cheering them on! One of them fell three times trying to get up a slick vertical rock. The other one was doing a lot better, and made it up his section, but then he seemed to be trapped on a rock in between two of those massive waterfalls. He just stopped there. Was he resting? Sleeping? Or had he just given up all hope? The other one, meanwhile, finally got up that rock and continued climbing up the cliff, holding onto any bit of moss he could find. At one point, near the top, he seemed to lose his footing, and was holding on to the moss with his two upper legs, the bottom two were dangling. Come on little guy. You can do it! He pulled himself up and got under an overhang. I do not know how he could continue from there. The other one finally gathered up his energy, and crossed that little stream. It would be a long fall if he did not make it, but he made it across. Whew!  As you can see, I am easily entertained. I watched these guys for about 30 minutes as I ate my lunch. They probably only climbed up less than 5 feet during all that time. Finally, I said goodbye and good luck to the little fellers. Up the hill I went. Back through the poison oak.

So I just bought a new camera, the Sony A6300. I did not have the extra money to buy the full frame version, but I needed the new camera for my upcoming backpacking trips. The Canon is just far too heavy for backpacking, as I talked about last year in my blog. This year I absolutely needed a new camera for backpacking, but also a good camera. Enter the A6300.

With my wife out of town for the weekend, partying in Las Vegas, me looking after the kids, and after dropping my daughter off at dance practice, I only had a short time to hike on Saturday, but I had to get out to try the new camera, so up I went up to Colfax and back to Stevens Creek Falls.

The trailhead parking area was busy! I figured there would be a few people on the trail today, but not this many. By the time I got back to the car after my hike, there were so many cars they were parked up along the road back to town. I had no idea this trail was so popular. Ugh.

I don’t like it when there are so many people on the trails, but what to do. This is why I normally start hiking at sunrise. Anyway, it is a short hike to the falls. With the flow much lower now, it was relatively easy to cross the creek at the top of the lower falls. No surprise or difficulty there. I have never shot this lower waterfall before because it is very steep getting down to it, but I was determined to try it again today. It was much more difficult than I imagined it to be! The ground was very crumbly and steep, and a big long slide off into the creek if I lost my footing. Even using the rope, I had a lot of trouble getting down, and the poison oak was unavoidable down at the bottom. Argh! I was just in it bad last week, and I got the rash (though just a very small one on my leg and on my side), and now I was back in it again. I did not want to be in the oak again this week!

All the people up on the trail just made everything worse. I could see many people come across the creek at the top of the falls, all watching me, sensing I was about to lose my footing and fall into the creek and over the lower falls, killing myself. Blood and guts spilled all over the place. Oh the pressure. But I made it through that oak, and down to the bottom of the waterfall safely.

I brought both cameras on this hike. I wanted to compare the photos. The A6300 is certainly going to take a lot of getting used to. The buttons are just extremely sensitive. I had everything ready to go beforehand and figured out, I thought. Yet the settings just seemed to change randomly at the small touch of any button, and the shutter would release even though I was sure I had not touched that button. Ah, it was frustrating. As far as quality goes, the Sony is all right, but when I compared the photos at home, I think the Canon 5D MK II quality was still a lot better. They are about the same amount of megapixels so you might think the Sony would be just as good if not better than the Canon. I was hoping that would be the case so I can sell the Canon, but I’m not so sure right now. The colors seem to be pretty good on the Sony, perhaps better. Anyway, the jury is still out. The Sony is definitely going to take some getting used to. It was a good morning on the trail. Let’s just hope I do not get that darn rash this week.

In search of a brand new waterfall this weekend, and I found one, but not the one I thought I would find.

There is supposed to be a nice cold storm coming in this weekend, but waking up in the morning, there were not any clouds around. Where is that darn storm? I could have taken the car since the roads are all paved, but it was supposed to snow at very low elevation, so I thought it best to take my SUV in case it started snowing early. It did not snow early. In fact, it was sunny all morning long. Where is that darn storm anyway? Even now, as I write this in the afternoon, it is still sunny.

I wondered about driving on this road (Iowa Hill Rd), thinking it could be closed or very damaged. Its counterpart (Yankee Jims) is closed. As I drove down the road, you can see there were at least a couple big mud slides in the last month, but they have been cleared out now. Damage to the road from erosion is also evident, but it is not overly bad and not dangerous to drive. Once on the other side of the river, however, the road becomes very steep, and very narrow. I hate driving these narrow roads, even more so since the edges are eroded from the February storms. I have only driven up this road once before (and did not drive back down the same way – I went back via Yankee Jims – which obviously I cannot do today). Today I would have to drive back down the same way, and pray like mad that I would not meet another car coming up the hill at one of those very narrow sections. This road really freaks me out.

I arrived at the trailhead and found a nice wide dirt logging road on which to begin my hike. Sweet. It did not last too long. Sooner or later, I would have to exit the road and descend down to the bottom of the canyon. Sooner came sooner than you might think, and off the road I exited. It was very brushy. It was not supposed to be so brushy, according to Google Earth, that is. But indeed, it was very brushy, and I did briefly consider quitting already or at least trying further back up the road. I did not want to bash my way through all that manzanita brush. However, I found a way around it. Once I got around the bad stuff, the going was much easier, and not as brushy. There was poison oak, but it was not bad, and I think I managed to avoid touching any of it. When I got back home later, I still scrubbed down with Tecnu, just in case. Better safe than sorry. I find that 95% of the time if I do this, I will not get a rash. At this time of year, I am in the poison oak a lot.

I continued down to the creek. The very last section was quite steep and slick because the ground was dripping with wetness from some hidden underground spring. I had to use my rope to get down this last part safely, but I got down and found this stunningly gorgeous 28 ft. high waterfall. Fantabulous! But … this was not the waterfall I was expecting to find here. I was looking for a different one, and I was pretty darn sure I was in the right place. Instead, I found this other brand new darling falls. Hey, who’s complaining?  Nevertheless, I do wonder where that other waterfall is. A return trip is going to be required here. But first, I will need to go back to the drawing board.

Anyhow, I climbed back up the mountain through the oak and brush, and made it back to my vehicle in good time. My prayers were answered, and I met no cars coming up that narrow road. It was a beautiful morning, but bring on that snow already.