Leon Turnbull Photography

If I am going to get up super early in the morning to go hiking, I need to be motivated. Some weekends I feel more like sleeping in than getting up to go hiking. Funny that. Sometimes, it does not take much to motivate me, other times it takes a sledgehammer. This weekend was one of those sledgehammer type weekends. I did not feel much like driving a long way from home to go on a big hike, so I was initially thinking I would just go somewhere close to home, but I wasn’t really much into that either when I thought about my options for close to home hikes. As I pondered my dilemna, I thought about Deadwood Creek. I had heard of a big waterfall on this creek a couple years ago, and have been wanting to try to get to it for a long time, especially since a friend recently sent me some photos of the waterfall (actually, photos of him kayaking off the waterfall – he is one of my crazier acquaintances). It seemed to be a good time to try it. Even though it was a long drive from home, I was now motivated. The plan was set. This was on Tuesday. Now I just had to wait for the weekend to arrive!

Saturday arrived, and I was still motivated. Excited even. I got up early and started the long drive out to the trailhead. Did I say it was a long drive? Deadwood Creek is way out in the land of nowhere, many miles past Clipper Mills (if you know where that is, and you probably do not). It is about an hour drive past Marysville, well you probably have heard of that town at least. It was a freezing cold day, below 20 degrees, and as I drove past Clipper Mills, I came upon snow. Oops, I did not anticipate this. The last few miles requires driving on a dirt forestry road. With snow on the ground, would I even be able to reach the trailhead? The answer was a big fat NO. The road had obviously been driven on, however, there was a big snow patch stopping me from proceeding. If I had more clearance on my SUV I could have made it, but I did not want to risk getting stuck way out here, that would be very uncool. So … what do I do? Go home? After driving all the way out here to nowhere land, and not even able to start any hike at all? Nope. Well, I suppose I could just hike along the dirt road to the trailhead. It would be about 3 miles. So instead of a difficult 3 mile hike, I would have a difficult 9 mile hike. I had the time, and most importantly, I still had the motivation. Time to hike.

With the late start and the extra long hike, I would be getting to the waterfall much later than expected (if at all), but from my prior calculations I knew that the sun would not be hitting the waterfall until at least noon. I had loads of time. If it were otherwise, I would not even have started the hike. Photography is perhaps THE most critical part of my waterfallin’ exploits. I absolutely hate getting to a waterfall and not being able to take a good photograph of it. Sometimes it is just not possible to get to waterfalls in good lighting conditions, but I do a lot of preparation beforehand to make sure the odds are in my favor. For this one, I should certainly have lots of time but already it seemed the sun was high in the sky and shining down into the canyons. Did I make an error in my calculations?

The trail down to Deadwood Creek and the North Yuba River is a dirt road, descending a whopping 1200 ft. in 1.5 miles. It was going to be a killer hike back out of the canyon. At the top of the trail I saw bear prints in the snow. Aren’t these dudes supposed to be sleeping right now? Hmmm. The hike down was fairly quick, and I saw no bears or other wildlife, except for some horrid squirrels and the thunderous quail. At the bottom of the canyon there is a powerhouse; they suck the lifeblood out of Deadwood Creek above the waterfall and siphon it down into the powerhouse along the river. Argh. Why do they need a powerhouse here? It irks me to no end. Frankly, I was not even sure there would be any flow at all in the creek. Not because of the powerhouse, but because it was so darn cold. I really thought the creek would be completely frozen. That would be just splendid. Drive all the way out here, hike all the way down to the creek, and then find no waterfall at all.

When I finally got to the bottom, I could see (happily) that I was wrong about the flow in the creek. It was flowing, and at a pretty darn good clip to boot. The last section down to the falls is steep so I used my rope to help me scale down the treacherous slope. I felt like a canyoneer. Once at the bottom, I needed to cross the creek and make my way up to the falls on the other side. Deadwood Creek Falls drops 43 ft. into a large and deep pool, and I was able to get down right in front of the falls. It was icy and cold and magnificent. And the water in the pool was just wow, such an incredibly intense blue green color. I was so happy how my photograph turned out, and how my camera portrayed this amazing scene before me. And the hike back out of the canyon? Much easier than I anticipated. I had heard horror stories about the hike up, a hike that would suck the lifeblood out of you worse than the powerhouse. Not so. It was not easy by any means, but the grade on the trail was mostly very good, with plenty of switchbacks. I have done far worse hikes than this one. It was surely a beautiful cold winter day in the North Yuba River canyon.

After spending Christmas at my folks’ place in Rossland BC, we drove over to the East Kootenays, to Cranbrook to visit my sister and family. They have two girls about the same age as our two kids, and it is always very special for the cousins to see each other. Their girl Mya said we are her favourite of all her many cousins. Take that Doerksen family! (kidding) Most of the time, we did not even see the four of them as they were all off somewhere playing together. That could be a good thing or a bad thing, I suppose.

Anyway on Friday after Christmas, I got up early to do a little hike. Unfortunately my dumb weather app got me up an hour too early. There is a one hour time difference between Rossland and Cranbrook, thus I thought it very odd that there would only be a five minute difference in sunrise time. But then again it didn’t seem right that sunrise would be after 8:30AM in Cranbrook either. Yeah right. Well at least there was a Tim Hortons in town where I could sit and wait until after 8:30 (and have a coffee and donut too of course).

My goal was Moyie Falls just south of Cranbrook. When we were last here in Autumn, I vaguely remember trying to get to this waterfall with Tara, but for some reason we never got there. I have no idea why. My memory is fleeting in old age. All I remember is that we drove up the dirt road from Lumberton, but I know we never even got close to the falls. Maybe we made a wrong turn somewhere? The thing of it is, even if we did not make a wrong turn, we probably could not have gotten to the waterfall anyway.

It is interesting that this road is plowed in the winter. Indeed, I found that many such logging roads in BC were plowed. It is odd. If this was California, there is no way in a cat’s meow the road would be plowed, though I wish it were different in California. It would open up some amazing winter recreational opportunities. Sigh.

Well I found the turnoff that I somehow missed the last time I was here, and started walking down the road to the Moyie River. I had my snowshoes on just in case I needed them, but I did not. The trail was well packed and well trodden. It seems to be a popular hike in the winter, but there was no one here this day (too close to sunrise? It is sure tough getting up at 8:30 eh). It is an easy trek down to the river, and from there the trail continues up stream to the falls. You cannot see or hear the waterfall. In fact, the river is so flat and so peaceful and meandering down here, you think there is no way there could be a waterfall. I was not really sure what to expect either, I thought there might be a 20 foot waterfall, but more likely it would be just 10 feet or even less. But as I rounded a corner, I could see it, and it was a dandy. Not just a 10 footer, but a 46 ft high beauty as the river drops over a hidden cliff in a tight gorge.

I could also see something else. This waterfall is not possible to get to without crossing the river. In the spring, I think it would be impossible. In the cold freezing winter though, it is different. Ice bridges allow passage across the river. I was a bit hesitant, but the path I was following was secure and strong. That extra spaghetti I ate at the Colander Restaurant was not enough to break this ice bridge. The path led over the river, then up the other side to the falls. A big snowy rock right in front of the waterfall I climbed up on top of, to enjoy the view and take my photographs. Notice also the old mine shaft beside the waterfall. It is a very fascinating and beautiful place.

No I am not swearing. Really. The name of this creek is Jackass Creek, and the waterfall is Lower Jackass Creek Falls. Why they named the creek this, I have no idea.

I have been battling an awful cold since I returned from Canada. It has already caused me to miss a couple hiking opportunities. I still feel sick but I did not want to miss another hiking chance, so I got up early and headed out to Oroville/Highway 70. I had hopes to see at least five, perhaps eight waterfalls. I only saw three, the first being Lower Jackass Creek.

You can see this waterfall from across the North Fork Feather River along Hwy 70. I have wanted to try to get down to it for quite awhile. This was the weekend I did it. I’m not sure about the legalities of getting here, but that is another topic altogether. There was no one around. I’m sure it was fine. 🙂

It is actually a very gorgeous waterfall, 38 ft. high. A beautiful one to get right up close to. You cannot appreciate this waterfall from the other side of the river. I would have liked to spend more time here, but I had many other waterfalls to see this day. I’m sure I will be back here someday. I just hope I did not touch any poison oak down there.

It was about two years ago I first learned of this waterfall. It is Bear Creek Falls in Trail BC, so close to civilization and the city, and yet so remote at the same time. You won’t find this one posted or documented anywhere else. It is a locals only type of waterfall, but fortunately I am in the know with the locals. At that time I examined the descent from the road. It looked very steep and especially very brushy. It did not really even look possible and I did not make an attempt. However, then my mom told me that she and dad had gone down to the waterfall about 40+ years ago. It probably was much less brushy back then but the gauntlet was thrown down. I had to get to this waterfall now. No holding back.

This winter I finally had the chance. In winter it would be easier on the one hand because the brush would be covered by snow. But on the other hand it might be much more dangerous to traverse the cliffs in the snow. There was about two feet on the ground. I did not think it would be too feasible, but it was time to make a go of it anyway. No holding back, right? How steep can it really be anyway?

You can see the falls from the road (in winter) but this is private property and not the best place to descend to the creek anyway. I started further down the road where there is a parking pullout and the terrain is easier. A bit easier. The first part, though, starts off steep right away as you need to descend into a gully and cross it. After this though it was actually quite easy. I did not bring snowshoes thinking it would be too difficult to use them on the steep terrain. So I just trudged through the two feet of snow. There seemed to be a trail I was following but I could not tell for sure under the snow cover. There were lots of animal prints too from deer and other critters. Once you get closer to the waterfall the terrain gets much more cliffy. It was not really too bad but in the snow it could be dangerous. I did not really want to slide down the mountain into the creek far below me, though it could be exciting; however the snow was very solid and I had no worries. I could not see the waterfall yet as I traversed the mountain but I could see where it would be, hidden behind the cliff ahead of me. I finally got closer and could see the falls. Now the trouble would be how to get up close to it. It was a lot more brushy close to the falls and even in winter it was very difficult making my way up to the waterfall but after crawling under a log, sliding down some icy rocks, and doing the hokey pokey, I finally made it to the bottom, getting right down to creek level at the base of the falls. It is an absolutely gorgeous 63 ft high horsetail shaped waterfall. So very beautiful in the snow and ice. Bear Creek Falls is finally bagged. Take that mom! 🙂 Now I’ll have to see about getting back to this one in the spring sometime. Oh yeah bring it on.

First stop on our trip to Canada for Christmas vacation: Palouse Falls in eastern Washington. Nothing really special about this photo. The light was not great when we arrived, and so I did not take much time here and I did not seek out great compositions of the waterfall. I already have some really good shots of this waterfall with amazing light, so mainly I just wanted to come here to see this 186 ft high beauty again. It is only about 20 miles out of our way on our trip to BC.

Our trip to Canada this year started out with a bang. A bang of a winter storm, I mean. Usually we would travel up I-5 through the Mt. Shasta area and then through central Oregon. However, this year our trip co-incided with a whopper of a winter storm coming through northern California. The Shasta area was forecast to receive 13 feet of snow over a 3 day period, and we would be traveling right through it. Yes I did say 13 feet! I am not sure how much they actually received, but I know the Tahoe area got about 8 feet over that same weekend. I figured I-5 would be closed for sure and it would be pointless or suicide to attempt to drive up there that weekend. I decided on an alternate route, driving through Reno NV instead. It was only about 70 miles longer, but actually it probably took the exact same amount of time to travel this route then it would to go the other way due to the conditions. The only difficult spot would be traveling over the Donner Summit on the I-80, but we did receive a bit of help from God as well, as He delayed the storm hitting the Tahoe area (just for us, I am sure).

The storm did not start to barrage the Tahoe area until Friday afternoon, though it was scheduled to start much earlier Friday morning. We got up at 2AM on Saturday morning, I checked the road conditions, and we headed out. There was chain control over I-80 as expected, but we had no troubles making it over the Donner pass with our four wheel drive vehicle. There was lots of snow to be sure, but the sailing was smooth as silver. Yet we found out later, only a few hours after we passed, they closed the I-80 for the rest of that day. If that storm had started on time as scheduled, we would not have made it through.

The rest of that day was only slightly eventful, and it did involve driving through a sand storm in eastern Oregon. I must say, I have never experienced anything like that before. My wife Tara was driving at the time, and visibility was extremely low. It was interesting to say the least, but we made it through, driving through five states that day before stopping to rest at Richland WA for the night. Order of business in Richland is always to hit Chuck E Cheese for dinner. Not my choice of course. Not my wife’s choice. I guess you can figure out who picks dinner in our family when we are in Richland WA.

The next morning we drive through eastern Washington and on up to British Columbia. It is a much shorter day, and we have time to take it easy. For my wife, that means stopping to shop in Spokane. For me, it means stopping at Palouse Falls. The weather forecast called for cloudy skies, but it was rather sunny when we arrived. We walked around the park a bit, and finally the clouds came in slightly to cover the sun somewhat, allowing me to get at least a halfway decent shot of this amazing waterfall. Ok, Leon is happy. Now let’s get to Spokane to make Tara happy as well. It was a good start to our trip.