Leon Turnbull Photography

On Good Friday, in the evening, I drove back down from Uig to see some more waterfalls, making my way up the east side of Skye. I found that all of the waterfalls that I saw in Scotland (and Ireland) had very below average flows. This is disappointing. For mid April, they all should have had high flow. A couple were completely dry. A few were just trickling. Most of them (thankfully) had decent flow  (but nonetheless, still below average). Why is this? Unlike California, I believe Scotland is in the midst of a drought. It seems they had another below average winter there this year (and I know 2018 was below average as well). It is unfortunate that I had to go there during a drought when I should be exploring California which has an above average winter (but no worries, I will be doing much more CA exploring this year).

My final destination for the evening was the waterfall I was most looking forward to seeing on this trip: Mealt Falls, 180 ft. high. This is the most dramatic and magnificent waterfall in all of Scotland, dropping off a cliff directly into the ocean. It did not really live up to my high expectations.

Here is the thing about Mealt Falls: There is literally one and only one spot to view and photograph the waterfall. It is also a very popular destination. What does this mean? WAIT YOUR TURN! I waited a long time for all the people coming here to disperse and be done with taking photos. One particular group of people just would not leave, taking far too many selfie photos and being rather annoying and inconsiderate to everyone else. Eventually I got fed up waiting for this group and it was getting late, so I barged in beside them, into the melting pot, snagging the one and only viewing spot and set up my tripod. If you do not have a very tall tripod, you cannot take photos of this waterfall properly. I did not have a tall tripod. You cannot stick your camera through the fence bars. I was at a loss how to photograph this waterfall. The only option I had: make the tripod as small as possible, and stick it on top of the fence, holding it as steady and securely as possible with my one hand, while clicking the shutter with the other hand. The problem is that it was extremely windy, so holding the tripod steady was impossible. I just hoped I got in one decent photo of this waterfall. I did manage to get one decent photo (and only one decent photo – but one is enough).

I was initially going to come back here on Easter Sunday morning for sunrise, but I decided against it for a few reasons: one, it was supposed to rain Sunday morning, so I would not get a good sunrise shot anyway; two, the road up to Mealt Falls is one of those crazy narrow ones, and I did not feel like driving it a second time; and three, I just did not feel like this waterfall was worth coming back to. I was not that impressed because the flow was a bit low and there is only the one small spot to view it. In the rain, it would have been pretty much impossible to photograph it. I decided to go to other places on Easter Sunday. Even so, I had a lovely time on Friday evening at Mealt Falls.

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My vacation is complete! I had a fabulous 10 days in Scotland and Ireland. I saw 17 waterfalls in Scotland and 9 waterfalls in Ireland, most all of them with good lighting conditions. Many photos and video to be processed, but here is the first waterfall I saw in Scotland, and probably the best one of the whole trip. Steall Falls, 393 ft. high. Pure awesomeness!

The day of my trip was a bit hectic to say the least. I found out at the last minute that British Airways will not send my baggage through to my destination (from London to Edinburgh), so I could only take carry on baggage, otherwise I would miss my connecting flight. This is so stupid. I HATE British Airways! I will have more to say about this later, however, I had to buy new bags that would fit their stupid restrictions for carry on, so I spent all morning doing this and packing my bags. Thus, with smaller bags, I was not able to take everything on the trip that I wanted to, but finally I was ready to drive to San Jose airport. The flight to London was very long, about 12 hours, but otherwise uneventful. I slept 4-5 hours on the plane, so that was pretty good. I got on the next flight to Edinburgh Scotland, arriving at the hotel late. I ate dinner at the hotel and then went to bed. I had to get up very early the next day.

It is a very long drive from Edinburgh to the Isle of Skye, where I would be staying the next couple days. My first stop along the way would be Steall Falls, and I was determined to get to this waterfall with good lighting conditions. The first day of the trip would be sunny, so I had to make sure I arrived in time to the trailhead. I left the hotel at 4AM.

Driving in Scotland is an adventure to say the least. Of course, you have to drive on the left side of the road. I did not find this to be difficult at all (I thought it would be but it was not – you get used to driving on the left very quickly). The things I did not ever get used to were: THE ROUNDABOUTS. There are a million roundabouts I had to drive through. Most were ok, but some of them, especially the ones in the city, were horrendously confusing. Thank the Lord I had GPS, but even so, I missed a few turns. You really need to know what you are doing on some of these roundabouts. The second thing was: THE NARROW ROADS. In the country, the roads are NARROW! Trucks would drive down the center of the road and do not slow down when they are coming straight at you. Ugh! At times, in the country, the roads are just SINGLE LANE roads with occasional pullouts to allow a car coming towards you to get by. Ugh! If you are making a road, why would you ever make it to be just a single lane!

The countryside in Scotland (and Ireland) is beautiful, but it is not unique. It reminded me very much of California. Not the High Sierra obviously (though they did have some good sized mountains), but I found it to be very similar to Napa Valley, the California coast, or the Sierra foothills. Indeed, most of the time I did not even feel like I was in a foreign country. I felt like I was home in California. I think my wife disagrees with me, but she did not see all the things I saw in Scotland. The first couple days of my trip I was alone, I would be meeting up with my wife and kids a bit later.

I arrived at the Steall Falls trailhead on time. It was very early in the day, but there were still many cars already at the  trailhead and it was busy. Argh. I expected that for this time of day, I would be alone on the trail. I was a bit upset about this. I took photos of the Lower Falls first, then started hiking quickly to the big waterfall. I soon arrived at the river crossing with views of the big waterfall across the river.

The river crossing at Steall Falls is famous, and most definitely very unique! There are three cables going across the river, two on top for your hands, and one on the bottom for your feet (like a triangle). You are quite high above the river, with a big drop if you fall off. It is crazy! I knew I needed to try this, but I was running out of time. The sun was coming up soon. I needed to get my photos done first, so I rock hopped the river in my boots. I got wet feet in the process (not smart), but I rushed up to the falls to take my photos. Once there, I took my time enjoying the waterfall and taking many photos from many different angles. Steall Falls is absolutely marvelous and huge. I think it was the most spectacular falls I saw on this trip. This waterfall really stole the show in Scotland. It was a good start!

On the way back, I tried the cable crossing and took video of myself crossing it. It was windy and blowing me all over as I crossed. It was just a bit freaky!  Then I had to go back to get my camera! However, I decided that crossing that cable once was quite enough for me, so I put on my water shoes and waded back across the river. That was quite a bit easier for sure.

My second hike of the day was Incree Falls. It was a nice one, but the sun was out when I got there. This was the only waterfall I saw of the entire trip that was in bad lighting. All the rest were good lighting. God really blessed us with pretty much perfect weather for the entire trip. We could not have gotten better weather if we tried. The only bad day was the day we flew back home (and I’ll have more on that later, as well).

After Incree Falls, I drove up to my lodge in Uig on the Isle of Skye where I would be staying the next two nights. After checking in and eating dinner, I went on a few evening hikes. Day 1 Part 2 coming soon…

 

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After last weekend’s tick disaster, I said I would only be hiking at higher elevations for the rest of the year. I figured I should go between 4000 and 5000 ft. in elevation this weekend. I found one possible hike I could do, so I set out in search of gold (and a new waterfall).

Starting at 5400 ft., I was surprised there was still so much snow on the ground. CNRFC said there was no snow here, but indeed there was snow, and I found up to two feet, even more in some places as I hiked down the forest road. There was snow all the way down to the waterfall, which was 1000 ft. in elevation lower than I started. I did not use my snow shoes, but I probably could have used them, as I was sinking in some spots. But overall, it was pretty solid snow. The hike was good.

It was also mostly easy, though I took a wrong turn which made it a bit harder than it should have been. I finally arrived at the creek, where I was expecting to find a waterfall about 100 ft. high. That is what I was hoping for. Actually, I did not even know if there would be any waterfall here at all. However, instead of a 100 ft. high waterfall, I found a 20 ft. high waterfall. I measured it precisely 20 ft.  (though it did seem a bit bigger than this as I stood in front of it). There was just the one decent drop on this creek, and below this there was a bit of a cascade, but nothing very interesting. It was tricky and steep to get up to it, but you can stand right in front of the falls and enjoy the spray. Speaking of spray there was a lot of it, so taking photos from in front was impossible; I climbed up the bank to get a side angle shot of the falls.

You may think it was just a big waste of time to drive and hike all the way out here for a 20 ft. waterfall. I suppose if I had known it was only 20 ft. high, I would have gone somewhere else. Nonetheless, I had a very enjoyable hike. The weather was perfect. The hike was not too difficult. There was still snow on the ground. The creeks were flowing well. I found a pretty little waterfall. I had an absolutely awesome day in Eldorado National Forest.

However, if you want big waterfalls, stay tuned to this channel. The next one I plan to see will be over 400 ft. high, and I know that for certain. And you will not be able to guess which one it is…

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As of Apr 1, here are the final season numbers: Rain is at 132% of average for Northern CA, 127% (central Sierra), and 129% (southern Sierra). Snow pack is at 164% of average for Northern CA, 164% (central), and 155% (southern). This is terrific news for California! The final numbers are probably most similar to 2011, and not as big as 2017. Now that spring is here, I am definitely OK with people wanting the rain to end and spring to start. In fact, I would like to see that as well (are you surprised?). However, the rain is continuing to fall as we go into April. We are not seeing any more big storms, but nonetheless, we are still seeing very unsettled weather with many showers and rain and it looks like that will continue through mid month.

This past weekend, I tried to go on an early season backpacking trip down to my favorite river, the North Fork American. It was a nightmare on NFAR St.

My plan was to hike down the Mumford Bar trail to the river and along the American River Trail to New York Canyon. It would have been glorious. I tried this a couple years ago, and the trail was so horribly overgrown, I could not make it even anywhere close to Beacroft Falls. However, I heard that the forest service has now cleared this trail, and I wanted to try it again. So ..

This time around, it was much earlier in the year, so I had to start hiking from China Wall. This added 3 miles (one way) to the hike. There was 3-4 feet of snow on the ground. The first 3 miles is on the road, and it was packed down because it is popular for snowmobile riding in the winter. I did not need my snowshoes for this section, however, once I got to Mumford Bar trail head, snow shoes were required. The snow was deep, and not hard packed. I would not have made it more than a hundred feet down that trail without them.

This trail is a huge descent, 2700 ft. elevation loss in about 3.5 miles. The first 1100 feet were in the snow, so this made the hike extra difficult, and it took a long time. There were a couple very sketchy spots as well, where I had to cross a couple seasonal creek drainages. It was quite steep with big drop-offs from the snow bank down to the creek, and very unstable snow at the edge of the creek. If the snow bank collapsed on me, I would have a very big fall. I looked for a different way down to find a more stable option without any big drop-offs. It was difficult, but I found ways around these sections, and continued on. At 4300 ft. elevation, the snow was finally gone, and I ditched my snowshoes beside the trail, hoping they would still be there the next day when I came back up.

For this hike, I did something a bit different, wearing trail runners instead of hiking boots. This is the first major hike I have worn trail runners. (actually, it is the first hike, period). The reason I did this is because I knew there would be a number of creek crossings plus hiking in the snow, and I did not want to have to carry water shoes because I am trying to cut down on my backpack weight. Overall, wearing trail runners worked out fine, except for one thing: I kept rolling my ankles. In hiking boots, I am sure this would not have happened at all. I did not hurt my ankle on this trip, but it worries me for the future, because I was out of commission for 6 months a few years ago when I severely twisted my ankle on a hike.

By the time I got to Mumford Bar, it was much later than I wanted. I still had a long way to go to New York Canyon. I did not think I had enough time now, but I would re-evaluate once I got to Beacroft. The trail to Beacroft Falls is now cleared, and easy to follow. There were still a lot of downed trees to climb over. These could have been from the last winter or two, after the trail was cleared by the forest service. HOWEVER … I had a bigger problem …

THE TICKS ….

WERE ABSOLUTELY HORRENDOUS ….

The section from Mumford Bar (a little before that) to Beacroft was unbearably tick infested. It was the WORST TICK EXPERIENCE I have ever had in my life. I was initially going to say it was the second worst experience (after Canyon Creek), but I changed my mind. It was the worst experience, and the reason I say worst is because once I got home I found out that I had about 4 or 5 small tick bites on my body. I had thought I escaped with no bites. Nopity nope. Nope nope nope. I had to pluck over 100 little buggers off my body on this section to Beacroft, stopping every few minutes to check my legs and body. It seems they were all over the ground, also, which is very unusual. They must have been hanging on very low brushes, because they seemed to get on my shoes as I walked along, and then climb up my legs from there.

By the time I got to Beacroft I was completely done with this hike. There is no way I could continue another 5 miles to New York in this infested terrain (and the trail was much more overgrown after Beacroft, so it would be even worse). I decided to camp at Beacroft instead, but one problem: there is no camping area here at all! Any flat ground I saw was not cleared of brush, and hence was infested with ticks! There is absolutely no way I was camping here amongst so many ticks. That would be very stupid indeed. I needed an open area, and there was none. I thought about going back to Mumford Bar. I did not want to, but it seemed I had no choice. Finally, I found one very small spot by the river. It was quite rocky, but there was one small place I could set up my tent. It was not too great, but there were no ticks there, and it would have to do.

After setting up and eating dinner, I wanted to go down to see Beacroft Falls. I was here in 2003, and I did not get a very good photo of it at that time, so it would be a nice consolation being able to get a good photo of Beacroft Falls. When I was here 16 years ago, it was very easy to get down to the waterfall. Now it is IMPOSSIBLE! Believe me, I tried. I gave it my very best effort. Even though the Forest Service cleared the trail to Beacroft, they did not clear any brush off trail (ie. down to the river or falls). Never mind the ticks, the area along the river around Beacroft Falls is completely overgrown and access to the river is literally impossible. Think of the worst brush you have ever encountered in your life. Multiply that by 1000. The brush at Beacroft is even worse than that. You think I am exaggerating but I assure you I am not. I could not get down to the waterfall. More disappointment. The photo here is taken from just off the trail from quite a distance away. It was the only view I could find. As you can see it is not a big waterfall, only about 15 ft. or so high. It is not a bad view, but would have been much better from close up.

I slept pretty well down by the river in my tiny little spot. I got up fairly early and packed up. I wanted to get back to Mumford Bar before the ticks woke up. Maybe they would be sleeping in. Well, that did not really work out too well. I still got plenty of ticks on me on the way back to Mumford, but I suppose they were not nearly as active as they were the previous afternoon.

I rested at Mumford Bar trying to prepare myself for the big climb ahead of me. I found my snow shoes right where I left them. The last 1100 feet climbing up in the snow was very tough. In particular, the difficult section where I had to cross the seasonal creeks was a lot more sketchy on this day because the snow was a lot softer. I had to be really careful on each step. It could have been disastrous if I slid down the soft snow. The last 3 miles on the road back to the car was also a lot tougher because the snow was so much softer. I was so tired when I got back to the car. It was time to drive home, eat pizza (thanks Tara), and sleep.

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I had thought there might be an upper falls on French Creek, but I had not planned to try to get down to it. The terrain looked far too cliffy and it seemed out of the realm of possibility, but mostly I was not even sure there was another waterfall there.

However, as I hiked back up the road from the lower falls, I looked down and I could see there was another waterfall down there. It did look very steep and cliffy, but I decided to try it. If I could do it, it would be so awesome. I descended the mountain for the second time. Down down down, I went. It looked like I was going to get cliffed out, but hey maybe not. I continued down, and soon enough, I was at the creek level, below the waterfall. From there, I was able to just work my way up beside the creek bed to get up close to the falls. And hey, there was no poison oak down at the upper falls. Bonus!

This upper falls is slightly bigger than the lower one, 54 ft. high. It was thundering over the cliff and down the canyon. It was utterly spectacular. Again, it was very difficult to photograph because of all the mist, in fact, the mist was far more intense at the upper falls.

Once again, I ascended back up the mountain to the road. Now I was very tired. But back on the road, it was an easy hike back to the car. I picked up a ton of garbage along the road and also some down in the canyon. My pack was way heavy because of it. Too bad I have a bad back, people! Thank you so much! But no worry, I picked up all your trash that you left (if you are reading this), and now French Canyon is once again pristine (until you go back in the summer).

As I drove back on the dirt road, I passed a truck that was parked just off the road. I saw it on my way in, and I found it curious that there would be anyone parked down here. Camping in the middle of nowhere? As I was wondering this, an old crazy looking lady came running out at me, flagging me down. Oh boy, what is this? Well it seems their truck battery died and they needed a jump. She and her husband were stranded there all night long, and then all morning until I came by. Geez, what if no one came by all week? It is winter, not many people go down here this time of year. Anyway, they were nice folks. Glad to be of service.

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