Leon Turnbull Photography

Sometimes I just feel like staying home and doing absolutely nothing, and that is just what I did this past weekend. So no new waterfalls this week. This one is from Christmas Day, in Marysville BC, Canada.

The new stats are in: As of Jan. 1, we are at 68% of average for rainfall in Northern CA, 73% (central), 81% (south). For snowpack, we are at 82% (north), 96% (central), 112% (south). As you can see, we did not progress much in December. We had zero big storms last month. The first half of January is also looking bleak, but there is hope for the last half of the month to do some catchup. Let’s keep praying.

December is the first month of winter, and so it is the time when we officially start measuring the snow pack in California. As of January 1, things are not looking good: The rainfall is at 65% of average for Northern CA, 37% (Central CA), and 22% (Southern CA). The snowpack is at 24% of average (North), 33% (Central), and 23% (South). At first I was not too concerned about this awful dry spell we had in December. We had a decent November and it looked like the pattern was going to change to a wet January. However, now it looks like the ridge will be building back into the west coast in January as of next week, and that means we are headed for another dry spell. This is really bad news. Hopefully this time, it will not be a long one. We need to pray for much more snow and rain in California, and soon.

We headed up to Canada at Christmas to visit my family in Cranbrook BC. Usually we go to my mom’s in Rossland, which has the best ski hill in the world (I am biased), but this year we went to Cranbrook where my sister lives, and we skied in Kimberley instead. It was COLD! At the beginning of the week, the temperature was around -15 to -20 Celsius. That is about -5 Fahrenheit for my American friends. That is too cold to ski or do much of anything. However, my kids did go up for a couple rounds on the ski hill anyway, and it warmed up (slightly) later in the week.

As for all the waterfalls? Well, they were completely frozen of course. I was not surprised. Nonetheless, my wife and I drove to Fernie for one day, and we went on a snowshoe hike to Fairy Creek Falls, which I had not been to before.

There was about 4 inches of fresh snow, so we got out our snowshoes for the easy hike. We could have hiked in our boots, but there were some spots that were deeper, so I am glad we opted for the snowshoes. The hike starts off with a very steep hill to climb. My wife was not amused, and wondered what I was getting her into. I had no idea, but she did not believe me. I do not have Canadian maps on my GPS, so I really had no idea about the terrain, but from what I had read, I knew it had to be an easy hike, and only about 1 mile in length. It was actually 1.4 miles, and after the initial climb, the terrain leveled out and the rest of the hike was fairly easy.

It was very beautiful as well, hiking through the forest in the fresh snow. We read signs, however, that Fernie is in the process of developing this entire area and putting houses in here. This would be incredibly awful and it would ruin this hike entirely. Instead of hiking through a gorgeous forest, you will be hiking past many houses. Residents of Fernie should be very upset about this in my opinion.

Anyway, we finally came to the waterfall. It was very pretty, and it was not entirely frozen as I expected it to be. It was gorgeous in the snow, a true Fairyland, and very much living up to its real name, a real life Fairy Tale. It was a bit tricky getting right up to the bottom of the falls in the snow, as it was steep and slippery, but I did go up close to it. The best views, however, were from further back, up on the hillside (where I took this photo from).

On the way back, we saw a few hikers coming up the trail. None of them wearing snowshoes. They probably thought we were some weird Californians, but my answer to that is that we padded down the snow for them so they would not need snowshoes. They should have thanked us. Am I right?

P.S. If you are wondering about my title to this blog post, it is the name of an old song which I love, by Plumb. It has nothing to do with waterfalls, but look it up if you are interested in the song. You will like it.

The first day after Christmas we went up on the ski hill. Red Mountain is the best ski hill anywhere. Am I biased? Maybe. My children do not ski much, because it is so expensive down in California. Shame on me, I do not like to ski is much as I used to. I have skied at all the Lake Tahoe resorts, and they are good hills there, but it is so expensive and such a long drive to Tahoe. Frankly, nowadays I prefer to hike and not ski. It is much cheaper, and more fulfilling also. However, when I am back in my hometown I do ski (since my mom pays for it). So although my kids are not expert skiers, they do really well when they do go. My daughter and son both got up on the top of Red Mountain for the first time, and there are no easy runs from the top of that lift. They did great. We did have one funny incident when we went to the very top (Granite Mtn), with my daughter Nekoda and niece Hannah. As we were about to get off the lift, Hannah’s board got caught and she did a faceplant. Right in front of me. I could see this whole thing unfolding in slow motion. I could not get off or I would have sliced her head open stepping on her, so I waited for her to get out of my way, then I realized there was no more ramp for me to get off on, and the lift was turning to go back downhill, so I just jumped. It was about 10 ft, and I slammed into a pole, but fortunately the snow was soft. The ski patrol guy came over. He first asked me if I was ok (so nice of him to be so concerned for me), then he harangued me about how I should be getting off the lift properly, as if I was a stupid beginner who does not know how to get off a chair lift. Yeah ok, Mr. Expert, in case you did not notice, I would have killed my niece if I had tried to get off. Thank you very much. At least my sister was thankful I did not severely injure her daughter. I’m sure Hannah was grateful also.

On the second day, the day that Carrie Fisher died, he went to see Rogue One in the theater. I still remember clearly the day in 1977 my family took us to see Star Wars. I was nine. Now 39 years later, I take my family back to the very same theater to see this movie. It seemed rather appropriate.

On the third day, we were supposed to go skiing again however some members of our family, not to name any names, did not want to go up. So I grabbed my things and headed down the hill to Beaver Falls.

It is an interesting hike in the winter along the railroad tracks. And fun. There was about 2 feet of snow on the ground, and they do not clear the tracks in the winter, so the snow shoes were a definite necessity.

In the beginning, you go past some houses. One raging dog maniac was barking his head off at me, and wagging his tail at the same time. Trying to get at me if he could (to lick me to death?). His two dog companions, however, were howling ridiculously. It sounded as if they were both being slowly eaten alive by some sort of large animal. I’m not kidding. It was pathetic.

Along the way, I saw some tracks that must’ve been coyote. It looked like the coyote was jumping down the trail because the tracks were huge, almost like a bear. Then I came across fresh deer tracks and I followed the deer trail all the way to the falls and right down to the bottom. It was not hard getting to the bottom, but once down things got downright dangerous. The water level was very high for this time of year, and I could not follow along the creek bed as I normally would.

I had to ditch the snowshoes, then climb up a cliff and along the cliff before I could get back down to creek level. Once down, I had to work my way out on the ice towards the creek edge in order to see the waterfall around the corner. The raging creek was flowing right under my feet as I stood on the shaky ice. It was a bit freaky and I did not, I could not go any further up towards the falls, and I certainly did not want to get out any closer to the edge of the creek for fear of dropping through the ice. If my wife is reading this, then I will say I was perfectly safe where I was standing to take this shot, and I made sure the ice was very secure under my feet. Ok, honey? Anyway, it was incredibly beautiful down there. My first snowshoe hike of the season.

I managed to get most of the gang up at 5AM to go to this waterfall. My daughter, my mother, my brother-in-law Lynal, and even my niece Hannah. I was surprised they all wanted to come.

This is a very easy waterfall to get to, right beside the road. It is a bit surprising that they had not been here before since they live so close to it. If I lived here, I would be going to this one and all the others in the area at least once a year. But my family? Why have they not been to any of these great waterfalls so close to them? I have failed them. Sigh.

Along the way, we saw a bear and an elk. Elk are as common in Cranbrook as deer are in most other places.  The bear was cool. I find it interesting that my daughter saw zero bears in Alaska, but did see one in Canada. Canada wins! Canada also wins in hockey. Just saying.

Bull River is dam controlled, but I knew that they were currently releasing water from the dam. However, the website said the current flow was 1200 ft.³ per second and this is definitely not 1200. It seems more like about half that amount, or less. The rest of it must be going into the powerhouse. Oh well. At least it is flowing decently well.

The waterfall is right under the bridge pretty much, so that makes it a bit difficult to see. You can get right to the cliff edge, but no you can’t. It is very treacherous here, and although I inched my way out to the edge of the cliff, as close as I possibly dared to go, I still cannot see the bottom of the waterfall. From the bridge, however, I climbed up on the railing, and I was able to see the entire waterfall and take a photo of it. From this extreme angle, it makes the waterfall seem much smaller than it really is. It is actually 44 ft. high. That is your guaranteed measurement, and if you are in the area, why not come to see it? Don’t wait for 10 years to see it, like my family did. Sigh.

We got up super early in the morning (3AM) to drive to Cranbrook to visit my sister. On the way of course, we stopped for a waterfall. I can’t believe I talked my mom into getting up that early. Nekoda is like, whatever, she’ll just sleep in the car anyway. She pretty  much slept the entire trip from California to Canada.

Priest River Falls is a very gorgeous waterfall (Priest River / Morning Worship – get it? ha ha) way out in the middle of nowhere. I’m not exaggerating about the nowhere part. It is not to be confused with the Priest River Falls in Idaho. Actually, that one is called Upper Priest River Falls even though it’s downstream from this one. Makes perfect sense, right? The two falls are quite close together but you cannot hike from one to the other because you would be crossing the border. I really think there should be a cross border trail between the two waterfalls. That would be super cool. Ah well.

Anyhow, we drove as far as we could and then could drive no further as we came to a river crossing. We had to walk from here, and that meant wading across the river. Nekoda and I went first quickly. I did not have much time to get to the falls before the sun was on it. I really did not think my mother was going to wade across that very cold river so we just left her there. I did leave arrows for her in case she did decide to come.

We arrived at the overlook to the waterfall. It was very nice, but partially obscured. There was a very very steep trail going down to the bottom. I got out my rope, and Nekoda and I started to descend. However, it got too steep and dangerous, and much too slippery because the ground was wet from rain and the tree roots were slick as ice. It was too crazy even for me so I just took photos from the overlook. Nearby, Nekoda discovered the spot where the local cougar likes to eat his breakfast, along with all the leftover bones. She was very confused why they were there until I explained. The explanation did not give her any comfort.

Meanwhile, my mother showed up at the overlook to see the waterfall. She did make it after all, and she did not even notice the lovely arrows I left for her on the ground.  Nonetheless she found the falls, though her feet were cold for the rest of the morning from wading across that river. But it was all worth it. It is a very beautiful 58 foot high waterfall, and very rarely seen since it is so far out from civilization.