Leon Turnbull Photography

We have had some awesome beautiful rainy weather this May after a very dry winter. It has kept the creeks flowing, though it certainly is not helping the drought situation since we need so much more rain, and unfortunately it is now coming to an end and summer is going to kick in with a vengeance this week (it looks like, anyway).

I had not been up to the sacred lake yet this year (Tahoe, of course), but it was our anniversary on Friday and at the last minute I thought Tara and I should have a nice romantic getaway for a night at our favorite lake. Even though it was the long weekend, I was able to book a night at a nice hotel at the last minute (pat myself on back). The rain prevented any nice sunset or sunrise pictures from happening while we were up there, but we had a lovely day nonetheless.

On the way back I was wanting to do a waterfall hike with Tara to somewhere, but where. I hummed and hawed about where to go. The rain was coming in for one last drenching. I finally decided that we should go home the long way around, up around the lake to the north. A stop at Incline Village and a short hike leads to this small waterfall on Third Creek (though it is not on Third Creek, it is on a small tributary of Third Creek). The drainage is small on this creek, but it had some decent flow due to the rain.

I measured this falls to be 24 ft. high. It does not look that high, in fact it looks more like 15 ft. high or so, but the measuring sticks do not lie (usually) and it will qualify for my website. I continued following the trail up the mountain, I was sure there were more waterfalls on this creek, and I went quite a ways up but I found none. I could see a bigger one, possibly, far up the mountain, but that would have been impossible to reach. Anyway, this one is a nice little waterfall on the way home, and we had a nice time (in the rain).

This is Hell Hole Falls. It is a pretty cool little waterfall dropping into the reservoir. When the reservoir is full it is completely inundated, but of course now the reservoir is about empty. I estimate it is about 25 ft. high maybe a bit higher. I did not have my measuring sticks with me this time, to help save on carrying weight. As you can see, it is impossible to get up close to it, unless you want to swim. Not for me, it would have been mighty cold to do that.

Well I bought all this fancy equipment for backpacking, I figured it was time to try it out. The idea being that with backpacking I can get to more waterfalls then I could on just a day hike. I tried. I got to two waterfalls but I had three others in mind that I could not get to due too steep terrain and crazy thick brush. I was hoping to take my son with me this time but he was feeling a bit sick this weekend. I did not let that stop me, however, and this became my first ever solo backpack and it was pretty darn good.

I would backpack to the end of Hell Hole reservoir where there are two waterfalls and camp in the vicinity. Good plan. Easy smeasy. Right? Not quite. It is a long drive to the trailhead and it was rather interesting. This was my first time driving through the King fire that devastated this area last summer. The destruction is catastrophic. Wow. When I drove through the Rim fire earlier this spring there was lots of growth and wildflowers blooming abundantly everywhere. Not so here, not even close, but give it another year perhaps. I thought the Hell Hole area would be equally devastated but it did not seem to get hit hard. I was surprised but pleased about that.

The trail follows a jeep trail on the north side of the reservoir. This is not any jeep trail for the casual driver. It is only for the sick. Crazy steep descents, and huge boulders to manipulate. It is 6 miles to the end with a descent of 1000 ft. It was not going to be fun coming back up the next day. There were other cars at the trailhead which meant some of those “sick” people were out on the trail with their jeeps. I would not drive this trail even if I had one of those jeeps. I wondered if I would see them, and yes I caught up to them 3.5 miles in. A whole bunch of them. They were stopped right in the middle of the road at a particularly nasty steep section. I asked the first guy I saw if they were stuck. He said no, just hanging out. Really? Hanging out in the middle of the road? The next guys I talked to said their car was broke and they’ve been there since 3am. I was not sure what to believe now. I continued on my way leaving them behind in the dust of my boot tracks. They seemed nice but I did have to pick up one of their beer cans on my way back. You have a car and you can’t take your trash but instead have to let the weary backpacker with a heavy load pick it up? Argh. At least it was only one can. If I had to pick up two my back would have broke.

The jeep trail ends at 4 miles officially, but not exactly. It continues straight through the middle of the reservoir instead of alongside it. Well that’s ok I guess because the reservoir is so low due to the drought. I had been fairly certain (though I’m not sure why, now) that a hiking trail continued from here but I found no such thing. So instead I just walked through the reservoir. It was very easy. In the meantime the jeepers got their car fixed (or whatever) and passed me up along this section (quite noisily I might add), but I caught up to them again at the end of the reservoir. I found out they were going to camp at the first waterfall. Ok then, I’ll not be camping there, I was hoping for a quiet and peaceful night, not a noisy one – but the guys I talked to did seem quite nice and talkative and generous – even offering me a ride. They said they had seen mountain lion tracks in the sand when they were here a couple weeks ago and were freaked out about that, and indeed, there were lots of animal tracks in the soft sand. The deer prints were easy to recognize, but there were also bigger prints. Bear? Lion? Yes on both counts, I think. Now I was starting to freak out myself. Well anyway, I beat them to the first waterfall (I am superhuman and can walk faster than most vehicles). Hell Hole Falls is a nice 30 footer dropping into the reservoir (the empty reservoir). When the lake is full this waterfall is completely inundated. Today it was just gorgeous.

I continued on to Five Lakes Creek. Again I understood there should be a trail all the way to this falls but I could not find it. I decided to cross the creek and try on the other side. I had been expecting that all creek crossings including this one and the Rubicon River I would be able to rock hop. This crossing, however, was up to my waist and my pants got soaked. Very bad. I might need to wear them tonight if it gets cold. On the other side there was no trail either. I wandered through the forest this way and that way, and eventually found the falls. I could hear it well before I could see it. It was incredible. I was thinking this would be about 40 ft high but actually it is more like 70 ft high. Absolutely spectacular and the flow was quite strong. Amazing.

I had wanted to camp at the waterfall but there were no good spots plus there were mosquitoes so I decided to go back to the Rubicon River and camp there (but not near the jeepers). I found a nice spot, no mosquitoes, there were black flies but they were not too horrible. It was not very cold that night, the temperature was in the neighborhood of 45 degrees (thankfully – I thought it was going to be much colder), but nonetheless I still had trouble sleeping. Too wound up and over tired, I guess.

In the morning, I had wanted to explore further up river and find some more waterfalls before heading back home. That meant crossing the Rubicon. No rock hopping allowed and it sure “looked” mighty cold. I hummed and hawed, and finally decided to go for it. It was not as cold as I imagined in my head and I got across. Now .. supposedly there is a trail on the other side going up the river. It is a very old trail, however, not maintained in decades, I found traces of it here and there, but eventually it petered out into a mass of thick manzanita brush. There was no continuing possible, and I gave up. It was disappointing, but the going was just too extremely difficult and I still had a very tough hike to make back up the mountain.

I saw no trace of the jeepers on my hike back. I’m not sure where they went to, their cars were still parked at the trailhead. The jeep road must continue up river, but where? I need to figure that out for next time, it would probably be much easier than negotiating that old, mostly non-existent trail. It started to rain lightly on the hike back, threatening for more, but not materializing. It felt nice and cool on my perspiring face. As I got closer to the car, and as I was going along talking to myself and to God about the rain, I said to God: “ok Lord, bring it on”. Immediately, within seconds of saying that, He brought it. It started hailing in buckets, and soon changed into a pouring, pelting rain, which continued for the rest of the hike to the car. On hindsight, I guess I should not have said that, but I was only 10 minutes from the car, and although I was drenched, the rain sure felt good, and fun. It would not have been fun if I had to camp that night, but I did not, so hey, it was fun. One more plus thing: on the drive back home, I saw my first bear of the season along side the road. Yay, I love seeing bears! It would have been nicer if I had seen one in the wilderness while I was hiking, but I’ll take this one. A nice little cap to my awesome first solo backpacking adventure.

My annual pilgrimage to Yosemite this year was mostly disastrous. But all was not lost.

I had big plans. Starting with Friday evening after work, I left immediately for Yosemite. I arrived right on time for my evening hike except for one thing: the road was too rough to drive any further. I could have walked from there to the trailhead but it was still a couple miles away, and it was getting too late. I would have been walking back in the dark and that is not anything I desired. I salvaged that evening though by going to one of my favorite spots, the confluence of the south and middle forks of the Tuolumne River. It is an amazing area with three magnificent waterfalls side-by-side-by-side. I love this location but it is not one I had intended to go to this time. I consoled myself by getting some new and different compositions of these waterfalls. More to come on this later.

The rain started at 1 AM, and it rained pretty much nonstop all night and all through the next day. I was sleeping in my car so I was dry, but not warm. I don’t know what it is with me and sleeping bags and the cold. My wife insists I am from Mexico although really I am from Canada, so you *might* think that the cold would not bother me. I bought a new sleeping bag for this trip which is rated at 20°F. So that means, I would think, that if it is 20°F then I would be snug and warm in my sleeping bag. Not for me! The temperature got down to only 46° and I was still freezing cold. The next night it was about 36 degrees. I will leave it to you to imagine how I fared that night.

When I woke the next morning I knew it was going to be a rough day for hiking, and I was right. My anticipated hike was going to be a glorious one, but I knew I would not be able to make it in the rain. I did try … however the snow level was at about 4700 feet elevation, much lower than expected, and my hike was at 6700 feet. I had no chance of getting there. I tried another hike at around the 4700 foot level, and I hiked about 8 miles in the heavy falling snow, but I did not get to any waterfalls. It was just too tough in this weather and I got very soaked. I had a big backpack trip still planned and now I somehow had to get everything dry before the next morning. The rain was not letting up either.

I arrived at Hetch Hetchy in the afternoon. My idea was to hike to Wapama Falls in the evening, and then the next day do the same hike again except all the way to Rancheria Falls. The reason for going to Wapama Falls in the evening was to photograph the waterfall in good light. This falls is in the sun most of the day and getting good photos of it is very difficult if not impossible, considering that the park is not open until well after sunrise and closes well before sunset (that, by the way, is one of my big pet peeves). It is also especially difficult to photograph when there is so much mist and it is raining, but that’s another story. I was the last one off the trail and back at the campsite just before dark.

I survived the night. It was a close thing. I wanted to sleep in the next day, take it easy in the morning, and then casually make the hike out to Rancheria Falls. In the morning I packed up my gear and was just about to load the big weight upon my shoulders when someone came by and told me that the dam was closed. There was a rockslide. What?!?! Are you kidding me?? I went down to talk to the Ranger who told me the slide must have happened during the night and they did not know when the trail would be open again. She said it was a big slide … yeah right. It was so big it did not even make the news. I could be wrong, but I suspect that it was just a small slide, and indeed if I had started my hike early in the morning before the park opened I think I probably could have gotten past it without any problems. In fact, there was another backpacker in the camp who was doing the same thing as I was. When I woke up he was gone, and I think he got an early start and was able to get by the rock slide without issues. Although perhaps he is the one that caused the rockslide. Who knows. Anyway, there was nothing to do but go home. Clearly God did not want me to hike to Rancheria Falls that day, but why I do not know, because it would have been awesome. I thought about going somewhere else, but I was tired so I just decided to head back home and try again another year.  At least I was able to get my annual pilgrimage lunch at the Pizza Factory in Groveland.

I had no intention whatsoever of going to the South Yuba River Falls again. However, my planned hike failed miserably and this was my only consolation prize.

I started my hike at 5:37 AM in the dark, seven minutes late. It was 37°. I was trying out some new light clothing I just purchased, in preparation for my upcoming annual Yosemite pilgrimage. This would be a good test. It was a long sleeve merino wool shirt and the REI Revel cloud down jacket. They are both light as a feather and I thought for certain it was too cold to wear this, surely I would need something else as well. And yet, as I prepared to start my hike I did not feel too cold at all. Once I got going I was warm, actually even too warm. The new clothes are top notch and passed the test with flying colors, however the wool did give me the itch. I am not a wool person. I wonder if I put a cotton T-shirt underneath, if that will be better? I suspect that the cotton would totally negate the effect of the wool. Anyway I might try it.

So on to my hike. It was dark. I saw and heard no strange or evil animals, such as Sasquatches or flying pterodactyls. However, after a couple miles of hiking I came to a swamp. The road became a swamp. There was no (dry) way around this and there was an unmarked stream crossing my path and I had to wade across it, and it was deep, up to my waist deep. And cold. Geepers, it was cold! Shortly after crossing the stream, I found that the road was turning away from where I expected it to go. According to my topo map, the road should’ve continued up to where the waterfalls were. It should have been an easy hike, but instead the road turned back towards the river. I searched around the forest this way and that for another road, an overgrown road, anything. It was not to be, I had to turn back, there is no way I could’ve continued another 2 miles through the swampy area with no trail to follow. It was time to go home.

But wait! It was still early and I was only about a mile from South Yuba River Falls. I did want to go back there anyway to attempt to get closer to that waterfall. Remember, the last time I was here there was a full on blizzard, I was dead tired from snowshoeing all the way to the falls, and I did not have the energy nor was it safe to get down closer to it. There was no blizzard today. I had no idea when the South Yuba River Falls would be in the sun, but I knew it would be in the sun early. Would I make it in time?

I scooted my buns down to the river and when I came to the campground shortly before the falls, I found a truckload of campers there. They were all still asleep, except for one man and his dog. I could not understand how they got through the swamp area with the vehicles that they had. It was utterly impossible without getting stuck. The water on the road would’ve been 2 feet deep, there is no way they could’ve done it. I would have asked the man about it, since my curiosity was peaked, but I figured they must have gone on a different road. However, on my way back I searched for such road and I found no other way to get around the swamp. I did find a way myself to go around the swamp, but I was on no road. So how did they get there? Mysteries.

As for the waterfall, I arrived in the nick of time and made it down to the riverside. I had about 15 minutes to photograph it before the sun came over the hills. It was a marvelous consolation prize and a great morning to hike.