Leon Turnbull Photography

I had plans to go to something local this weekend right after the rain storm. However, at the last minute, my wife said she was going up north for the weekend. She did not exactly invite me, but I thought it would be a good idea to tag along, and go hiking up north for the weekend and check out some possible new waterfalls. There are tons of spots I still want to check out up that way, I just had to pick one. or two. or three. So I invited myself.

First up was this waterfall on Wells Creek. I have never heard of anyone going here before. I have never seen any photos, no one has documented this falls before, and I have never even heard anyone mention it. Even my in-laws who have lived here all their lives, and even camped in this particular area, had not ever heard of it. I wonder why that would be. That usually means it is impossible.

Well the road was sure impossible. Ok, not impossible, just ridiculous. Ridiculously slow, that is. It is a 14 mile drive on a dirt road, and it is SLOW. It is not bone-jarring awful compared to the Bowman Lake Road, but it is awful because there are so many potholes and ruts, and that means you have to drive slow, and for 14 miles of driving like that, I am a nut case by the end of it. On the plus side, there were a lot of bunny rabbits jumping out in front of my car as I drove up the road. Then a little later, there were a bunch of deer doing the same thing. Followed by a number of squirrels running across in front of me. I was waiting to come to the bear section, but I guess I never got that far. I sure drove far enough for it, you would think. The last mile or so, it did get a bit too muddy, and I decided to walk that last part. I suppose I could have driven it, but like I said I was a nut case by then, and I just had to get out and do some walking.

Finally, I got to the creek at the top of the waterfall. Wells Creek is a pretty small drainage, so I knew it would not be roaring, but after an inch of rain the night before, I figured it would be decent (ie. not dry). It probably was dry two days before this. Getting down to the bottom? Not impossible. Actually, it was fairly easy, all things considered. It is a steep descent to the bottom, but not difficult and then there is a little crook between the rocks that leads to the base of the falls. It is a gorgeous 116 ft. waterfall out in the middle of nowhere. And now you know it exists.

Yeah this one would be awesome if there was more water in the river, but I was still really really pleased to find it. Actually, I thought there would be a lot more water flowing in the river. Indeed, I was sure of it. Last weekend, the river was flowing very well, and we had some more rain during the week, so I was sure it would still be flowing. I’m really not sure what happened, but the flow was way down.

This is Emigrant Gap again, and it is the third weekend in a row I went here. The road will be snowed in for good pretty soon, probably even by next weekend, so I do like to get up in this area when I can. There were no hunters this weekend. In fact, I did not see anyone at all (just one truck, and that is all for the entire morning). This time my goal was the East Fork of the North Fork American River, specifically the upper reaches of this river.

I was not sure there would be any waterfall up there at all, but after thoroughly examining my topo maps and Google Earth, I thought there would be a possibility of a small waterfall, and it certainly was worth trying, especially if the river was flowing, which of course I figured it must be, based on how it looked last week. I also figured it would be a very easy hike, which also sounded good to me after the killer one last weekend.

Well you know me, the Waterfall Madman does not end up doing anything easy, and this was no exception. The hike started off easy enough, a simple 1 mile jaunt on a logging road over towards the East Fork. It was cold too, 32 degrees when I started out. And the wind was crazy wind. It was very brisk and cold, but it felt terrific. It made me feel alive. It was a splendid day to be out in the beautiful creation, and I needed to be out there this day. I absolutely needed to be out in the wilderness. Then the road ended.

So what do I do now? Do I cut down to the river and try to work my way upstream? Or do I attempt to traverse the ridge, and then hopefully find a way down the cliff when I get to the waterfall (if there even is a waterfall). I chose the latter, and it was a good choice. At first, though, it did not seem so. The manzanita brush was thick along the ridge, much thicker than I expected. It seemed so open on Google Earth. This brush could be a show stopper for sure, but I continued on, hoping for a path through it, and indeed I found one. It was tough going but finally the terrain became more open, more like what I saw on GE. I saw no trace that any human had ever been up this way before. That’s the way I like it. The only thing I found was a bear path leading me through that brush. They are good at trampling through that stuff. Thank you, bears. I love you.

The ridge came to an end at the start of the gorge, and fortunately not too cliffy. I made my way down to the river, and there it was: a beautiful 34 ft. high waterfall dropping over a rock ledge into an icy pool. The Madman was very happy, the first to find and document this waterfall. It was quite a lot bigger than I expected to find (actually I didn’t think I’d find anything), and all in all, it really was not all that difficult to get here. I love it when a plan comes together. I will certainly come back when I know the river is flowing well (which will probably not be until the spring), and it will be awesome.

I headed back up to Emigrant Gap this weekend with much determination on the agenda. The snow was gone of course, and traffic was less on Emigrant Gap road in the early morning hours but there were still other drivers out and about. This is crazy, I thought. Only I am this crazy! I even saw a couple hunters, but since deer hunting season is over, they should not have been out here. I was a little annoyed about that. Where are the deer police when you need them?

Well I ran into a mud pile before I got to my selected trailhead. I decided to walk the rest of the way instead of getting myself stuck in a bucket. This added four miles to my hike and about 1000 ft. of elevation. Oh boy. I already knew that my hike was going to be a tough one. From the trailhead, I would drop 1000 ft. down to the river. Now I would have to climb back up 2000 ft. instead of 1000 ft. I was not exactly prepared for that.

I also decided to carry my big heavy lens on this hike, bad back and all. I did not want to, believe you me, but I knew that most likely the only view of this waterfall I would get would be from far across the canyon, and I would need it. I did need it, after all, as expected, but my back sure did not thank me for it.

The North Fork of the North Fork of the American River Canyon has been a thorn in my side more times than I can count. There are multiple waterfalls in this canyon, and some dandy big ones too, but getting to most of them is ridiculous. Impossible. Deadly. Just give up already, madman. No sir, I cannot give up. But I have been turned back on multiple occasions. (last week, for instance was one such occassion).

This week, I was hoping to get a good solid view of Middle North Fork Falls from across the canyon. I Google Earthed this potential route. Getting down to the bottom of it is totally out of the question, but all I really wanted was a good viewpoint. However, it did not look promising on Google Earth, due to the forest tree cover. I could not see a good potential unobstructed viewpoint. But I hoped for one anyway. Surely there would be.

From the “trailhead” at the end of the road (where I would have parked if there had been no mud piles), I descended into the forest. Down down down. 1000 ft. down. From time to time, I caught glimpses of the big waterfall across the canyon, but no viewpoint materialized. There were a couple spots where I would have had an amazing view of it, except for one or two trees in the way. If I could just cut those trees down, I thought. Huh. I kept going down. I was getting close to the cliff. The point of no return if I was not careful. Maybe from the edge of the cliff, there would be an unobstructed view. I came to a particularly steep section and the ground was rather crumbly, and sat down wondering how I could get down. Do I need to get out my rope here? Then I looked beside me and there was a rope. It was as though it magically appeared. I don’t think the bears put that there. Obviously someone had been down here before, but the rope ended and did not go all the way to the bottom. Then I saw it. There was a rock outcrop directly across from the falls, and it looked open. Could I get to it? I made my way over, climbed up onto the rock, and voila, I had my viewpoint. The sun was starting to get into my scene, unfortunately, since it took so long for me to get down there. But I had my viewpoint. It was indeed, basically, right on the edge of the cliff, directly across from the top of Middle North Fork Falls. The picture here is only the top part of the waterfall. The total height of the falls is 231 ft., and the top section shown here is about 100 ft. It continues for another 131 ft out of view. I did find a viewpoint of the entire waterfall, but it was a partially obstructed one. This was the best I could do for this waterfall but this was a sweet sweet place, and even though I couldn’t see the entire falls from here, I was a happy camper. I also got a long distance view of Burnett Canyon Falls, another waterfall in this crazy drainage that is impossible to get to.

Well enough of all that, it was time to head back up the mountain. My back was killing me when I got back to the car, but I survived. I wish I had brought my lunch though, it was noon and I was starving. I was not expecting this hike to take so long. It was an hour drive back to Auburn, where I re-fueled with a triple Western bacon cheeseburger. Yes, you heard that right. Triple. It was a very good day.

So for Halloween, my daughter Nekoda dressed up as “The Huntsman”, carrying a bow that was much larger than her. Really though she was more of a “huntress”, but she wanted to be called “Huntsman”. Ok, whatever. What does that have to do with waterfalls, you say? Well, let me tell you!

Our first big winter storm of the year came on Halloween, starting right at around trick or treat time. This seemed to upset a lot of people, especially about the timing of it all, and I heard a lot of whining about it. I could possibly understand such thinking in normal times , but we are in the midst of a three year drought, people. The reservoirs are at 30% capacity. If we have another bad winter (and we just might), we will be in a world of hurt next summer. What is more important here, Halloween or rain? It seems rather obvious to me. I was very proud of Nekoda, however, because a couple days before Halloween she prayed for rain to come, even though she knew the storm was coming on Halloween Day. It was a very unselfish prayer (unfortunately, I can’t say my son did the same – haha), but she also had no intention of letting any amount of rain ruin Halloween for her, and she didn’t. Both kids went out trick or treating in the rain, and had a great time.

Anyway on to my story. Saturday morning, I got up early and headed up into the mountains to Emigrant Gap. There was quite a bit more snow up there, more than I expected to see, and it was still snowing, but the road was clear. Many tire tracks had already headed down the road that morning. I was shocked. Normally, I never see many cars on this road. What is going on? Is everyone going to my waterfall? Then it became very clear to me: hunters! It was grand central in Emigrant Gap, filled with hunters, because it was the last weekend of deer hunting season. Ugh. Well, they did clear the road for me, but I was not happy to see so many people out this morning. Especially hunters.

I decided to go down to North Fork Falls first. And a good thing too. I’ve been here in the snow before, but it is a pretty waterfall when there is fresh snow, if you can get there, and the river was quite high, much higher than I expected (and quite a bit more flow than when I was here last year in the snow). Certainly a great start to the day.

My second hike was much more difficult, and unfortunately did not pan out in any new waterfalls. There was just too much snow, and the terrain was too dangerous and slippery with all the snow on the ground. By the time I got back, I was freezing cold, and soaking wet, from my feet up to my hands, but even though I did not get any more photos, it was still a great hike in the snow. About a half mile before I got back to the car, I see a hunter walking up the road. He asked me if I had seen his buddy. I said no. He was very surprised at this. No? Nope, haven’t seen anyone. There was only one set of tracks heading up the road as well, which were mine from earlier that morning, and I pointed this out to him. But isn’t the main road back that way? he said, pointing behind me. Uh no, it is the other way. You are going in the wrong direction, bub. Now, I thought he was going to have a heart attack right there. He was in shock. What? he said. He did not believe me, so I had to show him my GPS and show him where we were and where the main road was. I guess he was off in the bushes trying to find some deer and when he got back to the road he headed in the wrong direction, thinking he was following his buddy’s tracks back to the car, but instead he was following mine from that morning. He said if I had not showed up, he would have continued on forever. Or until he became lion chow. Or whichever came first. Well we walked back to the cars together (his buddy was waiting for him there), chatting about hunting, deer, and waterfalls. It was a fun day in the snow.

Three times is a charm, right? Big Springs Falls on the McCloud River has been a thorn in my side for awhile, but I was finally able to get to it this weekend. It was not a cake walk, however, and I almost did not make it.

The thing is, getting to this waterfall basically requires crossing the McCloud River, and McCloud River is basically uncrossable for most of the year. It is far too brushy on the north side of the river, which I found out big time on two prior attempts trying to get here. There is a potential route on the south side which does not require crossing the river but it is too long. However, when I was here a couple weeks ago, the river flow was low and I thought it could be done. So this was my plan, cross the river and hike down to the falls on the south side. It would be a short and mostly easy hike and I would have plenty of time to reach the falls before the sun got there, which was of course, very early in the morning.

Things do not always go as planned, do they. Certainly not with the waterfall madman, anyway. I arrived at the parking lot in the dark. I could tell right away something was awry. The river was quite a bit higher than two weeks ago. How is this possible? The only thing I could think of was snow melt from the storm we had a couple weeks ago. When I arrived at the spot where I was planning to cross, there was just no way. The river was flowing too deep and too strong. Oh boo hickey. Here comes strike three.

Well what to do, what to do. I decided to walk down river and see what could be done. At first there was a path, but eventually I ran into that deadly brush and no way to continue. Still no possibility of crossing the river. However, I decided on an alternative, and that is get in the river and wade along the shore down to the falls. Now here is where I pat myself on the back big time. The temperature in the morning was 35 degrees. Wading in the river, even for just a simple crossing, would be foolishness at best, and frostbite at worst. I do not have waders, they are too heavy to carry on hikes. But I anticipated this coldness would be coming, and I went to the scuba shop beforehand and picked up some wet socks (or whatever you call them), in order to keep my feet warm while I was in the river. This was one of the best purchases I have ever made. The river was freezing, but my feet were toasty warm in the sock booties (or whatever you call them), and I was in the river wading down stream for quite some time. The going was very slow. The river was shallower on the edge, but there were a lot of slippery rocks big and small that I had to walk over, and I had to be very careful I did not slip and fall. When I came to a little rapid, I decided to try to get out of the river and go around it. Through the brush. That was a big huge mistake. After much distraught-ness, I got back into the river below the rapid. The rest of the way was uneventful, and I made it down to the waterfall, and still had time before the sun got here. I was able to stand in the middle of the river thereabouts to take this photo.

Big Springs Falls is a real beauty. It is much like Mossbrae Falls, a spring flowing right out of the side of a hill, though it is smaller than Mossbrae (25 ft. high), and much harder to get to as we found out. It also flows year round, and even in this drought year, it was flowing like a charm.