Leon Turnbull Photography

I was hoping to get to three waterfalls this past weekend. I managed to get to two of them, both of which I had not been to before. The third one (Big Kimshew) I had been to before so it was not a huge loss to miss it, but the road to the big falls was very muddy with huge puddles that I did not feel like driving my SUV through, so I decided to skip it.

I was actually a bit surprised I could drive as far as I did. The road was rough and slow going. It is a very long drive as well. When I arrived at the gate, it was still a bit before sunrise, so I was ahead of schedule. That would soon change.

As I hiked down the road, I thought the first waterfall would be quick and easy. It seemed that way on Google Earth. It seemed that you could even see it from the road. Not so. I had to cut off the road and go straight down through the woods. Fortunately, there was no poison oak. As I approached the top of the waterfall, the terrain became rather cliffy. It was very cold and the ground was icy. I needed to be extremely careful. I decided to keep going downstream, looking for an easier path down to the creek, then cut back to the falls. This worked well enough, but was unnecessary and took much longer. I could have gone straight down to the falls from the road. I went right down to creek level below the falls, but soon realized this was a mistake. I could not see the waterfall from there. I went back up, and found a little ledge right in front of the waterfall. It was cold. It was icy. There was a huge amount of spray from the falls, but it was pretty cool, and I managed to get a decent photo of it. Check out my last post to see it, and my website for more info. The waterfall is 59 ft. high, it is a cool one, and I am sure very few people have ever seen this falls before, as it is very well hidden. All this took a lot of time and effort, and by the time I got back up to the road, it was much later than I hoped. I still had a 5 mile hike one way to the second waterfall.

The rest of the hike was all on the road, but it descended 1300 feet down to the river in those 5 miles. I was not sure about the sun, but I suspected I was going to be late arriving at the falls. I decided to jog the last 3 miles downhill to the river to make up some time. As it turned out, it was completely unnecessary, I had plenty of time, but I was not sure, so I jogged. At least it was downhill.

However, I was also wearing a heavy pack, so this was a bit hampering. I jogged slowly. Why was I wearing a big pack? Good question, and again, it turned out to be completely unnecessary.

All the photos I have seen of Lower Big Kimshew Falls seemed to be taken from far away, the falls seemed obscured by the rocks and terrain, and there was a big huge pool in front of the falls. I wondered how I could get up close to the falls. I thought I could perhaps do it if I brought my raft and paddled up close to the falls. So yes, I lugged my big raft 5 miles down to the waterfall (and back up afterwards).

When I got down there, I was confused. It was actually very easy to walk right up close to the falls. There was no need for the raft at all. I carried it all that way for nothing. Also, the falls was not obscured by the rocks. This was mind boggling to me, it did not really make any sense. It did not even look like the photos I had seen prior. I think that because there was more flow in the creek today, it just flowed right over the rocks. This is a good thing. It was just confusing to my pee brain. I also thought the waterfall would be a bit bigger. It is only 16 feet high. Not a huge one by any means, but I am glad I finally came down to see it nonetheless. I saw a rope swing beside the falls, so I think it is a good swimming hole in the summer (if you know how to get here). Of course, the creek is also popular with the daredevil kayakers. This little 16 ft high drop might be a piece of cake for them, but there are much bigger waterfalls upstream from here, one or two of which I have still not seen (yet).

Another thing I found out which I had not known, and made me very happy about the route I had taken: The bridge over the West Branch Feather River was in utter shambles and closed off. I think it has been like this for quite awhile, but I had no idea. No one ever mentioned this to me before. I would not have wanted to try to cross the bridge. If you are one of those daredevils, then yes I suppose it could be crossed all right, but it looked extremely dangerous to me. The only reason I went the way I did is because I wanted to also see that first waterfall. I am sure glad I did.

After my hike was done and I was driving back down that rough road back to Oroville, I came across a couple road bikers that were locked out of their vehicle. They asked me if I had a screwdriver so they could pry open a window and get into their truck. All they had to open their truck was a remote key and it had dead batteries, so they could not get into it! I don’t know but if you ask me, and that is your only way to get into your vehicle, you sure better have a backup plan in case your remote batteries die and you are way out in the middle of the wilderness with no cell phone coverage and no other people around. You know what I am saying? Well lucky for them I did have a screwdriver, and they were able to use it to pry open the window successfully. They were sure grateful.

Fall Creek Falls, 59 ft. high. See my website for info on this new discovery. Story is coming in the next post.

On the way back from my first hike, I stopped at the ever popular 69 ft. high Potem Falls. It is an easy hike. I have been here many times before and did not really want to stop here, however it was in shade because it was so late in the day now, and I wanted to get video of Potem Falls (which I did, successfully).

I was disgusted. There was trash everywhere, left behind by the multitude of idiots coming here. I usually always pick up trash on the trail, however my trash bag was already full from stuff I collected from my first hike, so I did not even take it down to Potem Falls. I wish I had. Also, much of the trash was thrown down the steep hillsides where it would be very difficult to pick up (and possibly, in poison oak). Why do people have to ruin such a beautiful location? Maybe someone (perhaps one or more of my awesome readers) will go to Potem Falls and pick up the trash (just please do not get any poison oak rash in the process). If I lived up here, I would make a special trip myself to clean it up.

Anyway, the waterfall itself was beautiful and flowing nicely. It was late when I got home, and I was so extremely tired, yet I still had to be back at work the next day. Ugh.

On New Year’s Day for my first hike of 2018, I decided to head up to the Montgomery Creek area to try to find a new waterfall. The first 4.5 miles of the hike was easy and it took about 1.5 hours. The last 0.5 miles of the hike was ridiculous and it took about 1.5 hours. Then I had to hike it all in reverse. It took the same amount of time. I’m not joking.

The waterfall is a long way from nowhere. The last time I was up in this area I was taking my friend Brian Rueb to see a 5 foot waterfall. Well, it was not intentional, but that is how it worked out. I think that might have been the last time he hiked with me. This is one of the main reasons why I like to hike alone. I like to explore new areas to find new waterfalls that no one has been to before. Many times I strike out and do not find anything. I hate it when I bring someone out somewhere and end up not getting anywhere for whatever reason. They probably hate me for it. I’m not sure that is what Brian was thinking, but in my mind that is what I was thinking that he was thinking. Is that proper English? I did ask my son Jadon to come with me on this hike. However, it is probably a very good thing that he declined. He can’t hate me because I am his father, but maybe he would have hated me for a short time. This hike was ridiculous!

The hike started out on a dirt road, and was mostly flat the entire 4.5 miles. It was very pleasant hiking, following the creek, which was sometimes out of sight, but sometimes in view from the road.

As I was hiking along, I saw some fresh bobcat tracks and scat in the road. As I was thinking about this and wondering if I would come across the creature, I saw a strange animal come bounding toward me on the road. When it saw me, it came to a dead stop. A few seconds later it ran off into the bushes and out of sight. He was far too quick to allow me to get the camera out, but it was definitely a ringtail! I have never seen one of these animals before; apparently they were quite common back in mining days, but now they are very rare (and also nocturnal, so I’m not sure what this little dude was thinking – a late New Year’s Eve night partying, I guess). Anyhow, it was very cool.

I continued on, finally arriving at my creek crossing. From here, it is just a half mile up the creek to the waterfall. The brush along the creek was pure absurdity! I tried walking up the creekbed, walking alongside the creek, and walking up high above the creek. It was bad bad bad everywhere. Thankfully, there was not much poison oak and no ticks. (both of which was surprising – but I was not complaining). There was a bit of poison oak, however, and I did get a small rash but not too badly. After much effort, I finally got to a spot where I could see the waterfall ahead of me (with still a large amount of brush to battle through to get to it). I could see that it was a good one and a tall one. You might think that this would give me motivation and resolve to be able finish the hike, but even at this point I still considered giving up. That is how bad the brush was. I knew I still had a tough battle ahead of me. It was at this point I realized I had lost my tripod somewhere in the brush behind me. It was my cheaper one, but it was still a $70 tripod, and I had to go back to get it. It was not very close behind me either. I had to go all the way back to where I had climbed up a steep section from the creekbed. I finally found it. Then I had to turn around and go back through all that brush again!

The terrain was very steep as I got up close to the waterfall with a big dropoff to get back down to the creek. I found a way, though, which was right beside the cliff at the base of the falls. More brush. Then I had to climb down a big log (hoping it was securely in place), and I finally reached the base of the waterfall. It certainly is a fabulous waterfall, dropping 80 ft. high. It would be amazing at higher flows, but will I ever return here? Not likely.

On the return trip, I stayed higher above the creek. Not much better. I finally got back to the road. It was late now, well past lunchtime, and I was about 4 hours behind my anticipated end to the hike. Ah well, it was a good way to start 2018, and it was worth the effort … I think.

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.