Leon Turnbull Photography

I was surprised there was no snow (or not much) at the trailhead at 5500 ft. elevation. I did not think I’d be able to drive up there, but when I looked at the satellite, I did not see much snow. Maybe this hike to Spruce Creek Falls would be a good one to do right now.

There was maybe just a couple inches of snow so it was easy to drive to the trailhead. It was icy, however. I had fun sliding along the ice as I hiked down the road. Coming back up later would be a bit more difficult. The road crosses Spruce Creek a few minutes into the hike. It was just barely flowing. I really considered just turning back now. But I drove all the way up here. I figured I should at least do a hike down to where I need to get off the road and scramble down to the falls (3 miles of road walking). If the creek is just a trickle down there, then I would not do the off trail (very difficult) part of the hike.

It is about a 1400 ft. descent down to the falls (900 on the road). When I got down to the end of the road, I could hear the creek flowing much better (I could not see it from the road). Ok then, maybe I will continue as planned. I have tried this hike once before, but I found it too steep and cliffy. I returned this time with rope and with a better planned route. (so I thought). The cliffs get really crazy near the top of the waterfall. Cliff cliff, everywhere a cliff. There is no way down. But there is! I found a path leading down to the bottom of the lower tier of the falls. The last section was very steep and indeed I needed to use my rope for safety. I made it down successfully.

This lower tier of Spruce Creek Falls is 39 ft. high. It is quite nice, and you can see the upper tier in my photo. It is much bigger. Unfortunately, I could not find a way up to it. It is extremely sketchy and I did not have any more rope. I was also out of time. I will return in the spring with more rope and more time and more determination.

It was dark when I got back to my car at 5:30PM. It was a cliffy day in Tahoe National Forest.

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Because of stupid COVID, we cannot go to Canada for Christmas as we normally do. I think this is the first year since we were married in 1999 that we are not going to Canada to visit my family. It is upsetting. We also had plans to go up there this past summer, which of course also got nixed. Those plans were moved to next summer, but it seems unlikely we will be able to go then either.

Anyway, I decided I still wanted to take two weeks of vacation this Christmas. We can’t go anywhere, so I want to do a lot of hiking. I have many hikes planned, possibly including a winter backpacking trip. Brrr.

My first hike was a bust. I have brand new snowshoes and wanted to try them out. I actually had a fantastic snowshoe hike, but I could not get down to the waterfall. It was too steep and dangerous in the snow. I should have known that, I don’t know what I was thinking. At least the snowshoes work well.

My second hike was a bust. I was trying to get to a new waterfall on Cherokee Creek, but it was just too darn brushy. I gave it a good effort, but just could not do it. I was bummed but I had one more hike planned on the same day. Would I strike out completely?

I was pretty sure I could get to the lower falls on Cherokee Creek, even though I did not know exactly where they were located. The issue was going to be if it was even 20 ft. high. I knew it would be close, but I just was not sure. Twenty feet is the minimum standard I use for categorizing waterfalls on my website.

It is a very easy hike and pretty much completely flat the entire way, following along the North Fork Yuba River. I saw a couple other groups of hikers on the trail, or rather one couple hiking, and one family biking. It’s definitely flat enough to bike. I also saw an abandoned tent. I just don’t understand people. You can backpack into a camping area with your big tent (it was big), but you cannot pack it out with you, so you just abandon it? Why???? I find this kind of thing so darn frustrating.

After a couple miles of hiking I arrived at Cherokee Creek. From there you need to go upstream. I figured there would be an obvious path and there was. This is (apparently) a popular swimming hole in the summer. There was one tricky spot in which a landslide destroyed the trail, and (of course) there was a dangerous drop-off. I managed to find a way past this. It would have sucked if this is what stopped me from getting to the falls. I arrived at the waterfall at 4pm. (I started at 2:30 but was taking my time, taking a lot of video and such). I could tell right away that the waterfall was not a big one, and definitely not much bigger than 20 feet. I measured it to be 23 ft. high. It is certainly a pretty little thing.

Sunset was at 4:45pm. This is the time I started back, and I was booting it, hiking as fast as I could. Almost all the hike back was in the dark, but I made good time and got back  to the car at 5:30pm. It was a good day in Tahoe National Forest.

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I drove up to Lake Tahoe this weekend, hoping to hike up to Susie Lake and do some snowshoeing. Well. .. Fallen Leaf Lake Road was closed. I knew they close it in the winter when there is snow, but there is no snow yet. Also, the forest service website says the trailhead is open. So what the heck? Why is it closed now? I was a bit upset that I could not drive into the trailhead, but more upset that the forest service did not indicate the road was closed. It is a long drive from Sacramento to Lake Tahoe. What should I do now? The closure would add 8 miles of road walking to my hike and it would also mean I would be hiking back in the dark, but I could not think of a different hike that I wanted to do, so I decided to go for it anyway. I have done this before but there was a lot more snow at that time and snowshoes were required. Today, however, I decided to leave my snowshoes in the car because I did not want to carry them 8 miles and I figured I would not need them anyway. I would just go to Grass Lake instead of Susie Lake, so that should be very doable without snowshoes. Ummm, not quite.

I arrived at Upper Glen Alpine Falls (pictured here) about noon and had my lunch there. Surprisingly, it was in the shade so I was able to take some decent photos of it at noon. Well that’s good. Now I don’t have to come back here later in the day to take photos, so that will save a half hour of walking in the dark. It was a fantastic day so far. I was happy and very much enjoying God’s beautiful nature.

I continued on up to Grass Lake. I did not make it. There was a lot more snow than I expected, it was soft, and I was sinking in. It was getting to be quite dangerous. With snowshoes, I would have easily made it. I am so DUMB. I should have brought my snowshoes! Oh well. I turned back, stopping at Upper Glen Alpine Falls again to take some more photos.

I did not see anyone on the trail all day. No one wants to hike an additional 8 miles to go here. Except the mad man of course. When I got back to the road, however, I saw quite a few people walking up the road. They were all parked back at the gate where I did. I was very surprised to see so many people because it was late in the day. All these people would be hiking back to their cars in the dark. I barely made it back before dark myself and they were all quite a way behind me.

When I got back to the gate, I found that the gate was open. Well this is very strange. All the cars were parked on the other side of the gate as I was, so why didn’t they just drive up the road if the gate was open? Why was the gate closed in the morning anyway? Why was it open now? What am I missing here? This makes no sense.

There was an even stranger thing. My car was in the middle of the road! What? I had parked on a hill, so obviously I made sure to set the parking break, however, it was icy. My back wheels were on ice, but my front wheels were on solid ground; I figured it would not be a problem. It looked fine to me. Apparently not! My car must’ve slid down on the ice to the road. Thankfully, it did not block the road but it was sticking out a little bit. It looked like a very bad parking job. I am so DUMBER. Anyway, no damage done. I drove home. It was a great day at Lake Tahoe.

 

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I have not been hiking much lately. I went to Pit River Falls a couple weeks ago (a very short hike). Nothing last week. Almost did not go again this week. I slept well enough, but it is hard getting up so early in the morning. Nonetheless, I managed to drag myself out of bed and hit the road. I would be returning to Lower East Fork Falls in Tahoe National Forest.

The hike down to the river was much more difficult than I remembered. It was downright treacherous. I don’t remember it being treacherous. I think it is because the ground was much harder (meaning, less traction), and the leaves on the ground made it slick and dangerous. I don’t think I had those conditions last time I did this hike. I almost turned around because of the difficulty, but I persevered and got down to the river. I did not use my rope to get down this time. Last time, I know I used it, but I don’t remember where. It was not “that bad”.

I really really wanted to try to get down to Burnett Canyon this time. That was the main reason I wanted to do this hike again. Burnett Canyon was still flowing decent, I could see that, but I could not get down to the waterfall. I was prepared well enough, or so I thought, but it was just too difficult. The canyon becomes very narrow before you get down to the falls with sheer cliffs on each side. I think the only way would be to swim it (and I’m not sure that is feasible), but it was definitely too cold to swim today (34 degrees). Maybe I will have to come back next summer when it is warm and try again. I don’t know. It is a thorn in my side and I really wanted to slay it this time, but it just did not happen. The time was running out and the sun was coming. If I did not turn around, I would not even get photos of the other waterfall. I retreated to Lower East Fork Falls, a very magnificent 50 ft. high waterfall, and it was still flowing well.

I did do something different this time: I went down to the creek level and took photos of the waterfall from there. It was not too hard to get down, I’m not sure why I did not do it last time. I think I was just happy to see it at all. This time, I made sure to get down to the bottom and explore the waterfall completely.

While I was down at the creek, the unthinkable almost happened. My GPS was laying on the rocks, and I stupidly knocked it with my tripod while I was taking photos. The GPS slid down towards the river on the slick rock. It would have gone in, except that it just happened to hit my backpack. I am certain that God stopped it for me (thank you, Lord). This incident brings up a very good lesson, though: Always have a backup navigation device (whatever it may be). I admit I am sometimes (but not often) lax with this, but if my GPS was lost in the river, could I have found my way back up the mountain? Perhaps, perhaps not. If you are hiking off trail, a GPS is a necessity. If you are always hiking on trail, you may think you don’t need a backup. You may think you don’t need a GPS at all, and if you are just hiking on the Lower Yosemite Falls trail, obviously you don’t need one. But what about Bassi Falls? I know of someone that got lost on this very easy half mile trail and had to call for helicopter rescue. This is inexcusable! Don’t be that person. Always have a navigation device and backup.

Anyway, the hike back up the mountain was extremely strenuous. I’m still hurting, as I write this. It was a fabulous day in Tahoe National Forest.

 

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Sometimes it is not all about the waterfalls. Sometimes it is about the scenery. That is what I am telling myself anyway.

I plan all my trips around waterfalls, of course. Sometimes it does not work out as planned. Especially this year, 2020. For my big Fall backpacking trip, I was not planning to go to this location, I had a different trip planned. The fires. The smoke. That put the nix on my big plan this year. For my alternate trip, Plan Z, I chose northern Yosemite National Park. This was pretty much the only place in all of California where the air seemed all right and not too smoky. There *are* waterfalls here that I had not been to before, and I thought they would be flowing decent, at least a few of them. And you can’t go wrong with Yosemite. I go to Yosemite every year, but this year, I had not been to Yosemite because of COVID-19. I thought I was not going to make it this year, but then Plan Z came into being, and off I went to my favorite national park.

I hiked in from Twin Lakes on the eastern side of the Sierra, hiking through the Hoover Wilderness, over Mule Pass, and into northern Yosemite National Park. I arrived at Twin Lakes on Friday evening. If I arrived any later I would have been out of luck. Apparently, you have to pay for parking here. You should not have to pay for parking at a wilderness trailhead, and I did not think I had to pay. I have hiked here before and I did not pay (though maybe, I was supposed to pay?) There are no signs about parking or about paying for parking, and I was not sure where the trailhead parking was, so I asked the attendant at the campground kiosk, (who was about to close). He told me I had to pay $15. Well, crap. Even though I thought I was being screwed, I payed the $15 and parked. (I don’t think I was being screwed, but I also think there should be free wilderness trailhead parking).

It was after 6PM. My plan was to hike up to Barney Lake and camp the first night. I would arrive at the lake well after dark. I saw one deer just as I started the hike, the only wildlife I saw on the whole trip. The hike took longer than I expected and I did not arrive at the lake until 8PM. (sunset was about 6:30PM). There were quite a few people on the trail, coming down from the lake, even after dark. There was also someone camped at the lake (in the best spot), but I found another place to setup camp, and went to bed.

I got up early, packed up, and continued my hike. First stop: Robinson Creek Falls (pictured here). This was the only waterfall on the entire trip. It was not flowing very decent, but I took a photo anyway. It is a big waterfall and would be impressive at high flow (if you can get to it at high flow). It was also quite difficult to get up close to. There is a large rock slide beside the creek. The boulders were huge. This, as I found out soon enough, would be the main theme for the trip: Enormous rock slides. I managed to find a path over the rocks and to the creek, but only by squeezing through a very narrow slot through a couple large rocks. If I was two inches wider I would not have made it (I am not kidding – on the way back I almost could not squeeze through). Once at the creek, I had to cross over to the other side of the stream to photograph the waterfall. In high water, this is not going to be possible, but the waterfall certainly would be much better if you could find a view of it.

So what can I say about the rest of the trip? Are you still reading? This is going to be long, and there are no more waterfalls. But as I said, the scenery is impeccable. It is Yosemite National Park.

Mule Pass is at 10,500 feet elevation. I started at 8300 feet at Barney Lake. It is a killer climb. It was not so much the high elevation, but it was my 40 pound backpack. I think that is what really did me in. This was intended to be a 5 day trip, but I ended up cutting it short because of the lack of water. On the west side of the pass, there was quite a bit of water flowing in the streams, even the small unnamed streams. I thought this was a good sign. Piute Canyon should have a good, decent, amount of water in it. Wrong. On the east side of the pass, there was no water at all. On the descent, I was starting to worry that Piute Canyon would be completely dry. I was almost out of water, and if that creek was dry I would be dead (literally). Also, the smoke was starting to roll in to the canyon from the south and it was starting to get noticeably bad. I chose this area because there was no smoke here! Ugh. I prayed it would clear up by evening. (and thankfully, it did).

I arrived at the bottom of the canyon. I could not hear the creek flowing. This could be really bad. It was a half mile up the canyon to where I planned to camp beside the waterfall. As I continued and approached closer to the creek, I could finally hear a trickle. Whew. I would not die. But it was definitely not flowing much. Not nearly enough for a decently flowing waterfall. This was very disappointing to me. I really thought this creek and waterfall would be good, even this late in a dry year. I camped beside the almost dry waterfall. I was tired. I slept well.

What would I do the next day? I did not want to go home yet. I decided to explore down Piute Canyon. Maybe there would be more water in the creek downstream. The hike started off tremendously well. There is no trail, but it is easy hiking and when the canyon opened up it was incredibly beautiful. Then I came to a dead end. THE SLIDE. I don’t know when this rock slide occurred, it was a very long time ago, but it is absolutely MASSIVE. It spans the entire canyon, from one end to the other, and up the other side (over a quarter mile wide). The rocks are absolutely ENORMOUS, from one end to the other. I could find no easy way past them, and I spent a couple hours trying to do it. This is no simple rock hop! I finally gave up. I think that it can be done and I just did not go the correct way, but I was tired, and I decided it was not worth the effort because of the lack of water. It was time to go home.

I ate my lunch, then proceeded back up to the top of Mule Pass and down the other side. I stopped at Robinson Lake for the night. There was no one there when I arrived (so I got to choose the best spot). Someone came up later, however, and camped near by. I told him I was coughing a lot and would probably be keeping him awake at night. I think the smoke was causing me to cough so much. (it was not horrible, but there was still a little bit of smoke in the air). I hope I did not keep him awake, but I probably did. I did warn him, however, so it is not my fault; he could have camped further away. Anyway, I enjoyed the beautiful alpenglow at the lake at sunset. The next day was a very long and tiring slog back to my car at Twin Lakes. Thankfully, it was all downhill. I arrived at my car at about noon and got home by dinner time. Pizza again (thank you, Tara). It was a good time in Hoover Wilderness and Yosemite National Park.

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