Leon Turnbull Photography

The fires this year in California have been horrendous, seemingly much worse than a normal year. For the first time ever, all the national forests were closed for a couple weeks. Some are still closed. Some parks are still closed. (Sequoia National Park, in particular). So what caused the increase in fires this year? Do not say “climate change”. Honestly, this is a personal opinion, but I hate when people say that, and people say it all the time. Climate change does not cause fires. It may play a factor in the fires (one of many factors), but it does not cause them. I will tell you what caused the increase in fires in 2020: COVID-19. When I say that, I do not mean the virus causes the fires. (that is as dumb as saying that climate change causes fires). It is people! Over 90% of all forest fires are caused by people. And this year, with COVID-19, a much larger number of people than normal have been out in the forests, hiking and camping and recreating. And that means, a much larger than normal amount of stupid people have been out in the forests. And that means, a much larger than normal amount of fires. Am I wrong?

Speaking of fire, I figured it was time to return to the Pool of Cold Fire, an absolutely magnificent canyon with very difficult access.

Actually, though, I had no intention of returning here this Fall, but I bought a new raft. My old raft had a number of holes in it. I fixed all the visible holes, but it was still leaking. It was time to buy a new one. I had big plans to go on a particular rafting adventure this Fall, and after I bought the raft, that area caught fire and is still burning right now. I will not be able to do it this year. (and that is not the only one of my Fall plans that have gone up in smoke – literally).

I really wanted to try out the new pack raft, so I decided to return to the Pool of Cold Fire, which is pretty easy introductory rafting adventure, but not so easy hiking adventure. I started the hike at 2PM on Saturday afternoon, finally arriving at the pool at 4PM. (it is only 2 miles). It is a big descent down to the river, then you need to hike up the river, crossing it, wading through it, hiking through poison oak, and finally you arrive at the Pool of Cold Fire. I was tired by the time I got there. My legs were actually shaking from exhaustion. I guess it has been too long since I’ve gone on a tough hike. I had my dinner and rested, and then blew up the raft.

I found it was a bit difficult to maneuver the new pack raft with the new paddles, more difficult than I anticipated, but I managed to get to the end of the pool, where there is an obstacle you cannot paddle around (rocks in the middle of the river). That required me to get out of the raft in the middle of the river, trying not to dump myself and my gear into the river, and drag the raft up over the rocks. It is a bit tricky. On the other side, I left the raft and walked up to the waterfall, Lower North Fork Falls.  It is also tricky to view it as you need to climb up on a very steep slope with a very steep drop-off into the river. It is an absolutely beautiful little waterfall, even though it is small.

I took my photos, got back to the raft, paddled back, packed up, and scrambled back down the river to the main trail. My legs, as I mentioned, were very tired. I tried to be careful, but I fell a couple times. No injuries, but it could have been worse. One time, however, I slipped on the wet rock and started sliding into the river. I was certain I was going in for a swim. There was nothing to stop me. Yet somehow, I managed to stop myself just in time. The truth is, however, that it was God that stopped me in time, because I was definitely going into the river. If I had, I think my camera and phone probably would have been ruined. Thank you, Lord. I got back to the trail. It was 6:20PM. Sunset was 6:50PM. I grossly underestimated how long it would take to hike out of the canyon. It is only 1.5 miles, so I figured it would take 30 to 45 minutes. I forgot about the elevation. It is a 1300 ft. ascent to the top. I should have known it normally takes about an hour to climb 1000 ft., so this hike out would take well over an hour, and it would be well after dark when I got back to the car. It took exactly one hour to climb out (better than I thought), but it was still dark when I finished the hike. It was a magnificent hike in Tahoe National Forest.

This is from my last hike and backpacking trip to Desolation Wilderness. It is Lower Waterfall Camp Falls. It is such an incredibly beautiful area. I have not been hiking since then. I do not plan to go hiking. Well, not this month anyway. I do have a big trip planned next month, and a really big one for September. Normally, I do not hike at all during the summer. I hate the heat and I hate the mosquitoes. If you don’t know that by now, you must be new here. LOL.

As you know, we had a horrible winter last year. You may be wondering what is in store for next winter. I know I am. The bad news is that it does not look very promising. We are currently looking at probable ENSO neutral conditions, the same as last year. However, there is also a possibility of a WEAK La Nina, but even if we have the weak La Nina, that still does not bode well for a good winter. So I guess we will just have to see what happens as it happens. And PRAY for a good winter and that we are not heading back into another big drought in California.

I hate having to beat a dead horse, but I keep hearing things about our trails that really disturb me. People are just leaving trash everywhere, at the trailheads, in the streams, on the trails. Please people, leave no trace. Pack out your trash. Pick up other trash you see. Leave the place in better condition than it was.

Have a great rest of the summer, everyone. Be good.

Middle Waterfall Camp Falls, 30 ft.

It was not too cold during the night. Of course I slept awful anyway, but it was supposed to be below freezing and it wasn’t. Perhaps it was 40 degrees, but I don’t think it was colder than that.

I woke up at sunrise, packed up, ate breakfast, and started hiking down the mountain. I wanted to get going before the mosquitoes woke up, and I did. I encountered a few of them on the hike back, but really they were not too bad at all.

I was super tired when I reached the bottom of Horsetail Falls. The terrain is very rocky and it is so hard on the feet. It took me 5.5 hours to get to the car, and it is only about 6.5 miles. That tells you how difficult the terrain is. I encountered zero people on the hike from Waterfall Camp to the bottom of Horsetail Falls (except for one person I saw camped at Pyramid Lake). From the bottom of Horsetail Falls to the trailhead, I encountered about 1000 people. (give or take). The parking lot was completely full. It is a Monday! Why are there so many people doing this hike on a Monday! It is not a holiday. Don’t you have to work?

And of course, I picked up all your trash as well, people. There was a lot of it I saw along the trail. One piece was literally within 10 feet of the garbage can at the bottom of the trail. What the %#$&*? All you hikers that passed by the litter along the way and did not bother to help clean up the trail, why can’t you please help out?  I found a sock which someone had dropped, probably accidentally, but someone else had come along and placed it in plain view with a rock on it so it would not blow away. Seriously, why would you not just carry this obvious piece of garbage down the mountain with you? No one is going to come all the way back up the mountain another day to retrieve their old sock. Really? Just three pieces people. Come on. Well, anyway, the Horsetail Falls trail is now clean (for one day at least). You are welcome.

This is Lower Waterfall Camp Falls, about 40 ft. high. It drops right into Lake Aloha. Such an amazing place in the Desolation Wilderness.

I have been planning this hike to Waterfall Camp at Lake Aloha all spring and watching the snow depth very closely. The snow in this area lingers a long time; I was surprised about this as I waited impatiently for it to melt. Whereas the snow on the east side of Lake Aloha has been long gone for over two months now, the other side was completely snow covered only two weeks ago. I certainly could not have made it there two weeks ago. Last week perhaps I could have gone, but the mosquitoes would have been bad. This week was the perfect, and I mean perfect time to go. Sunday was to be a very windy day. Actually, it was an extremely windy day with gusts over 50 mph. There would be no mosquitoes. It was supposed to be very cold with below freezing temperatures at night. Well, I can handle the cold. I cannot handle the mosquitoes. They are out in squadrons right now in the Sierra Nevada. This would be my last hurrah. The last backpacking trip I would take before the Fall. It was a dandy, to say the least.

I was as much prepared as I could be for this hike. I brought my spikes in case there were still snow patches to cross. I brought my old tent because it stands up better in the high winds. I brought my sleeping bag liner and warm clothes. I brought my rain jacket just in case. All this added up the weight in my backpack and I needed all of it (except the rain jacket). There were some things, though, that I was not prepared for.

There were ZERO parking spaces available when I arrived at the Echo Lakes trailhead at 7:30AM on Sunday morning. This was shocking. Even the secondary parking lots were full. Are all these people backpacking to Lake Aloha? There could not possibly be that many people backpacking there. There are permit limits in Desolation Wilderness. Now if I had prayed for a spot, I am certain God would have saved me a space, but I was not expecting this to be an issue whatsoever. My mistake! What could I do? There was honestly no place at all I could park for an overnight trip. I figured I only had one other option: Start my hike from the Horsetail Falls trailhead.

The route from Horsetail Falls is shorter but it is MUCH MORE DIFFICULT. There is a lot more elevation gain. It is pretty much all off-trail hiking and it is very rocky. Compare that to starting from Echo Lakes, where most of the hike is on the very well groomed Pacific Crest Trail with minimal elevation gain. Let’s not forget that getting up to the top of Horsetail Falls is extremely sketchy and I would be doing it with a heavy backpack. I have done this 2 or 3 times in the past couple years, and am somewhat comfortable with the route now, but it still freaks me out. It is much more difficult with a backpack. There is the one very narrow section where you need to hoist yourself up and through. When I arrived at this spot, there were some backpackers coming down. They decided not to go down this narrow section but instead go down a MUCH sketchier section beside it. I cannot do that route (I have tried before). It freaks me to the bone. They were having a lot of trouble with it. There was one other backpacker coming down the narrow section, but it was too narrow to come down with his backpack on. He told me to go the sketchy route. Umm, no thank you. I managed to hoist myself up through the narrow section with my backpack on, but the next day coming down, I found it is impossible to do so with a backpack on (as this other person also learned), so I had to take it off and slide down, dragging my backpack behind me. It worked, but it was not easy.

Once at the top of Horsetail Falls the going is easier, but it is still all off-trail and very rocky. It is very slow going. It is also up hill, and so not really that easy. The wind was strong. Some gusts almost blew me off my feet (literally). You hope you are not on a sketchy cliff section when a strong gust comes. I arrived at Pyramid Lake at about noon and had my lunch there. I had hoped to be at camp by now and if I had started from Echo Lakes, I probably would have been.

The entire hike is incredibly beautiful, and the views are magnificent, but when I finally arrived at Lake Aloha, I was awestruck. It is such a stunningly beautiful lake (I have been to Lake Aloha before, but it has been many years). No wonder everyone wants to backpack here. I did not see anyone at all, however, after climbing up Horsetail Falls. Everyone would have been on the other side of the lake, but nonetheless, I prayed I would not see anyone at my camp and that I would have it all to myself.

Now I had to work my way up the west side of Lake Aloha to Waterfall Camp. I could see a waterfall in the distance. Was this my waterfall camp? No, it was a new and unexpected waterfall, and it seemed to drop right into the lake. Would I even be able to cross it? As it turned out, it was easy to cross, but then I reached the snow field. It was a big snow field and there was no way around it. Was it stable? Would I slide into the lake and drown? Would I posthole 10 feet through the snow and not be able to get out? I put on my spikes here. The snow was stable and crossing it was easy and safe. I did not really need the spikes today, but the next morning coming back it was icy and spikes were definitely required. I saw one set of boot tracks in the snow. Someone had already been to Waterfall Camp this year, and quite recently, probably the day before. It looked like they had gone back, so hopefully that meant no one was there today.

After the snow field, the rest of the route was relatively easy. The anticipation inside me was getting intense. I knew I was close. The hike along the lake was so beautiful, but it was about to get even better. As I rounded the last corner, Waterfall Camp finally came into view. Wow! There are no words to describe this place. There are five incredible waterfalls right at the camp, but there are actually more than this. Waterfalls are streaming down the cliffs above the camp in all directions. This is Rivendell. I was alone at Rivendell. I was … well, no words can describe how I felt.

Setting up my tent at Waterfall Camp proper proved to be impossible. The wind was intense. There are some tent pads, but they are on rock, so I could not get my tent stakes into the ground. If it was not windy, it would have been perfect with stunning views of the waterfalls and Lake Aloha, but there was no way to get my tent secure here. There was another spot just down from the waterfalls that was in the trees and more sheltered. It was beside a mini waterfall and I could see the upper falls from this camp, but no views of the lake. No matter. I was able to get my tent set up securely. I ate my dinner, then afterwards went to photograph all five of the main waterfalls. All of them were spectacular. I took my time. I was in Heaven. I was in Rivendell. I was in the Desolation Wilderness.