Leon Turnbull Photography

 

As of March 1, we have a snowpack at 60% of average (northern CA), 67% (central Sierra), 64% (southern Sierra). Rain is at 89% (north), 77% (central), 72% (south). After two months of no rain we have gone from way above average to way below average and once again we are in desperate need of a miracle March. Please pray!

 

The plan this weekend was to return to Big Kimshew because I really wanted to attempt Frenchys Falls. I have been in this area before but it is 10 miles one way. You cannot drive in here any longer (which, by the way, is stupid and annoying – but that is a topic for another day). Last time I went here I biked in but I did not want to do that again. It is very tough! Plus, my bike is currently out of order. Twenty miles as a day hike is just a bit too much (I did think about it, however). Doing it as a 2 day backpacking trip would be quite do-able and not too difficult and I would have time to get to other waterfalls as well. Sounds like a plan, madman!

 

The entire hike is on dirt roads so it is a very boring hike. I tried to keep myself entertained by taking funny video clips (wait for the madman video!). There was not much snow on the roads but there was a little bit. I saw an inordinate amount of animal tracks in the snow. Deer, squirrel, rabbit, bear, and bobcat tracks. A lot of bobcat tracks. A huge amount of bobcat tracks! In this one particular spot there must have been 20 or 30 bobcat tracks all over the place. Maybe it was just one bobcat gone bonkers, or a lot of different cats, I don’t know, but I have never ever seen so many tracks in one place before. I was certain I was going to see one, there must be a lot of them around, but I never did. I also saw quite a bit of poop including bear and bobcat. The cats seem to do their thing on top of rocks in the middle of the road. Have you ever noticed this? They don’t leave it in the dirt, they leave it on top of rocks. Why do they do this? I think they need to learn some leave no trace principles.

 

I arrived at my intended campsite at around 2PM or so. Camping in this area is difficult. There is little water (a necessity for camping) and where there are creeks flowing there is not any camping. I had mapped out a couple potential campsites on Google Earth beforehand but when I arrived at these spots I found that these are NOT good camping locations at all! In fact it was impossible to camp at these spots. What do I do now? It is late and I did not want to go back on the road to find something so instead I continued forward on the road to where it crossed Breakneck Creek. I set up my tent right on the roadside beside the creek. It was not very scenic and probably the worst location I have ever camped but it was the only possible option! At least I had water and does it really matter what else? I am only going to sleep here for one night.

 

After eating dinner I went to try to find the waterfall on Breakneck Creek. The name of this creek is rather interesting. Indeed it is a bit ominous. It is a very steep descent (about 500 ft.). It is ominously steep. Surprisingly, however,  I was able to get down to the waterfall. It is about 60 ft. high and is a very lovely cascade. Photographing it was a big challenge. I could not find any decent angle that I liked. There is another drop just below this but I could not get down to it because it was too cliffy and brushy. One out of two is not bad (so far). I returned to my beautiful campsite and went to bed.

 

I woke up early and packed up. The plan was to head down to Middle Big Kimshew Falls and Frenchys Falls. I have been to Middle Big Kimshew Falls seven years ago. A lot has changed in seven years. The road is now completely overgrown. Seven years ago it was perfectly fine. Now it is horrible and I came really close to turning around. (and I suppose I should have). Just when I was about to turn back it seemed to get a bit better. I thought that if I could get down to the ridge road it would be much easier. Umm, nope. When I finally got down to the ridge road it was much later than I hoped so I decided to skip Middle Big Kimshew Falls since I have been to it before and decided to focus on Frenchys. The ridge road was not better. It was worse. Far worse! The brush was essentially impenetrable and there were three landslides I had to cross over. What I should have done is turn back but then I would have to climb 1000 ft. back up to the main road. I did not want to do this so I pressed on. I was already very tired from all this bushwhacking. The road finally opened up by the time I reached the point where I needed to drop down to Frenchys. The planned route down did not work. I got about halfway and then got cliffed out. Once again it was too brushy and too cliffy to continue. I suppose it was not too surprising but I was disappointed that I had to retreat. At least I made it to one waterfall on this trip. One is better than none.

 

My planned route now was to continue on the ridge road back to the bridge over the West Branch Feather River making the hike a big loop. I certainly did not want to go back up the mountain through all that brush with a 1000 ft. ascent. This route “should” work. After all that brushy-ness earlier on the road I was a bit concerned but now the road has opened up and it should be fine for the rest of the way. If I had to retreat now I would be in huge trouble. I was well past the point of  no return. I would not be able to get back to the car before dark if I had to do that and I had no food left to spend another night camping. (not to mention that I was extremely tired and also I had to work the next day). The road was perfect and easy hiking … until … I completely missed a turnoff. I walked almost a mile on the nice road past my supposed turnoff. But there was no turnoff! I surely would have seen it. This road I was walking on now was not on my map at all. I went back to where the supposed turnoff was and found a very old road that was completely overgrown. It was literally impassable. I was already well past the amount of bushwhacking I could do (or wanted to do) on a single day. I was not going to bushwhack down this old road for 3 miles. I could not retreat (as I already said). My biggest fear was realized for this trip. I sat down and thought about it. The other road that was not on my map was a good wide maintained road. It must go back to the main road eventually. It logically must go back! It might take a while but it must take me back to where I need to go. I decided to continue on the unmapped road. Indeed, it did take me back to the bridge and the main road. I don’t even think it was that much longer but I did lose a lot of time and added two miles or so to my hike. I ended up hiking 17 miles in total for the day. I finally got back to my car at 3PM. Of course I stopped at Jake’s in Oroville for a burger. It was an interesting trip into Lassen National Forest with one waterfall seen.

 

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To be honest, I have had a big struggle getting motivated for day hiking in the last couple months. I think the lack of rain has a lot to do with it – it is very depressing and so lately I have preferred sleeping in on the weekends. On the other hand, I am super excited about my upcoming spring backpacking trips. I have five really good ones planned for the spring, maybe six. They are going to be awesome with many new and amazing waterfalls (just so long as we get a good amount of snow melt this spring).

Apart from all this day dreaming I figured I should probably make a better effort to get out on a day hike this weekend. Force myself out of bed. I have not done this hike in the town of Paradise before but it has been on my list for awhile. I decided that this would be the day! Why not.

It is actually a pretty easy hike and even though it is 8 miles round trip it only has 400 ft. of elevation gain. I felt like I just wanted an easy hike, nothing too difficult this time. Clear Creek Falls was the ticket. It was a very enjoyable hike, very pretty, and very scenic. Part of it involves hiking along the canal and on the flume which is quite interesting indeed.

Clear Creek Falls is a gorgeous one and is a bit higher than I expected but not quite 20 ft. high (it is 18 ft.). Do you see a phantom in the waterfall? For some people I guess it is very apparent. For me I am struggling to see anything. My wife even tried to point it out to me. I see something that looks more like a bison than a phantom. Anyhow, I had a very enjoyable time hiking in Paradise to visit the so called phantom of the water.

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I did not sleep well. It was about 27 degrees which is the coldest I have ever backpacked but I was not cold in my tent and I did not even need all my layers. I had two sleeping bags. I wore my long underwear and three tops. Nonetheless I only got about 4 hours of sleep and I am not sure why. It was quite a bit windy all night long but I don’t really think that was the main reason.

Anyhow I woke up early, packed everything up and then hiked up to Bunnell Cascade. It is only about a mile further up the canyon. The snow was hard packed and I did not even need snow shoes. I made it to the falls in short order. It was quite a bit colder up there so I was all bundled up (or bunnelled up?) in my warm clothes while I took my photos. It also seemed that there were better camping spots (remember that for next time).

I like Bunnell Cascade a lot more than Merced River Falls. Even though it is slightly smaller (53 ft.) it is much prettier. I took my time, took many photos, had my breakfast, then scooted back down to collect my gear back at Merced River Falls. It was 9AM when I started back down the trail for home.

From Nevada Falls down to the bottom it took 2 hours and 15 minutes (compared to 4 hours hiking up!). As I already mentioned there were a ton of people and many had improper footwear. Considering the horrible icy conditions I was very surprised there were so many people. It was like a typical summer day on this trail! I made it back to my car by 2PM, very tired and very sore. I was home by 5:30PM. It was a fantastic winter trip to Yosemite National Park.

 

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January was a bust. I think we basically received zero precipitation in the entire month. As of Feb 1, the snow pack is at 100% of normal (northern CA), 98% (central Sierra), 100% (southern Sierra). Rain is at 117% (north), 103% (central), 95% (south). That may seem ok but all the bonus accumulation we received in December is now all gone and February is starting off as dismally as January. I just pray we get a lot more in the next couple months.

In the last few years I have tried to go on one winter backpacking trip each year. Most waterfalls do not flow in winter but this year right from the start I had my eye on Yosemite National Park. To be specific: Bunnell Cascade and Merced River Falls on the Merced River. These would definitely be flowing and the hike should be do-able in the winter. I have been to them a couple times before but I did not have any good photos of them. It is a long hike from Yosemite Valley.

I was planning to go a couple weeks prior but unfortunately the COVID bug hit our household. I did not get very sick but the rest of my family did. Essentially all I got was a cold for a couple days (just a stuffy nose). I am 100% sure I did not get very sick because I had the booster shot (whereas the rest of my family did not have it). My wife does not agree with me but that is what I believe. Anyhow the first weekend I did not hike because I thought I might get sick (I did not). The second weekend I had the cold so I did not feel like hiking. By the third weekend we were all recovered and I was going hiking. No matter what. Yosemite here I come.

According to the Yosemite National Park website if you are backpacking from Happy Isles in winter you must get your permit from the visitor center in person. They don’t open until 9AM. So … I planned to be there by exactly 9AM. I needed to get as early a start as possible as it is a long hike and there is not much daylight in winter. When they opened at 9AM the ranger told me it is all self permit issuance in winter (even from Happy Isles). Ugh. I could have arrived earlier and started hiking much earlier. Oh well.

I was on the trail by 9:30AM. Of course the Mist Trail is closed in winter due to icy conditions but even the winter route is fairly treacherous. There is a lot of ice on the trail. Without spikes or crampons it is extremely dangerous. I had figured that since a lot of people would be hiking this trail every day it could not possibly be so bad. Wrong. Fortunately I did bring my spikes and it is not hard or dangerous at all if you have the proper footwear. However, I was following a couple other people up the trail who did not have any spikes. They wisely turned back when we got to the first bad icy section but the next day coming back down I could not believe it. It was a Saturday and there were a ton of people coming up the trail and many of them did not have proper footwear (and they were NOT turning back). The conditions were even worse on Saturday than Friday (a lot more icy). All these people who went up the icy sections did not even think to wonder how they were going to get back down later? (frankly I wonder how they even got up these sections in the first place – but going back down is 100 times worse). I would be surprised if not one of these people broke a bone (or worse) coming back down the trail. People really need to use their brains more. Is it really worth the risk going on this hike in winter without proper gear?

It took me FOUR hours to get to the top of Nevada Falls. It has never taken me that long before. I figured there were a couple reasons: 1. I had a very heavy pack carrying all my winter gear, including extra clothes, spikes, snowshoes, etc. (it was about 38 pounds). 2. I had not hiked at all in a couple weeks because of the COVID thing and not much more since Christmas so I was quite a bit out of shape. I was completely spent by the time I got up there and I was not even close to being done yet. I still had 4 or 5 miles to hike from the top of Nevada Falls. At least it is flat from there.

Flat does not mean easy. I had to break out the snowshoes before I even got to Little Yosemite Valley. Not a lot of people had been up this way past Nevada Falls. (which I thought was surprising). Once I got past Little Yosemite Valley there was no one at all. I was breaking the path. It was so incredibly beautiful walking up the valley in the late afternoon and being the only one who has been up there this winter. But it was also very tiring.

It was 4PM when I finally reached the first waterfall: Merced River Falls (58 ft. high). With only one hour until sunset and also the fact that I was so incredibly tired I decided to camp here instead of going on to Bunnell Cascade as originally planned. I setup camp, took my photos of Merced River Falls, made my dinner, and then went to bed. Could I get to Bunnell Cascade in the morning?

 

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I had grandiose plans for the day. I got half of it done. Not too bad.

I forgot to mention on my last post that they have made a lot of changes at Table Mountain this year. There is a new paved parking lot and there is a lot more fencing and signs. The way they have done the fencing and signs is very confusing and makes you think you would be trespassing if you continued past them but that is not the case: you are not trespassing if you stay on the trails.

Continuing past Hollow Falls I stopped at Crevice Falls first. I love this angle, looking down the “crack” where the stream pours off the cliff. It is incredibly cool. There is another viewpoint but I did not go over to it. Instead I went over to Ladder Falls and Upper Ladder Falls. Yes, there is an Upper Ladder Falls. No one knows about that one. It is very well hidden. It was discovered by my friend Mike. I had not been to it before but I wanted to finally check it out. I have been waiting for the right day and lots of rain. (I’ve had to wait a long time). It is not a big one but it is pretty. This was the first of the two things I had planned. After I was finished with the upper falls and the main Ladder Falls the wind had picked up enormously and the rain from the next storm was just starting.

The second part of my plan was to go to Ranch Falls and try to get down to it. However, I decided to skip that one on account of the storm coming and also the lack of water flowing on Table Mountain. I returned on the same trail and had to navigate far around all the cows again on the way back. By the time I got back to the car the storm was in full force and I was getting a good wet soaking. It was a great morning on Table Mountain. The cows agree.

 

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