Leon Turnbull Photography

I had a very rude awakening by the jeepers. They were driving around the reservoir in the middle of the night (very loudly), and they decided they would drive through my camping area right beside my tent! There is no road here! They knew I was there also, because it was the same group of which I picked up their trash earlier. I found this extremely annoying and disrespectful.

Needless to say, I got very little sleep. Nonetheless, I wanted to get up very early, at 5AM to be precise. Are you crazy, madman? Well, it is because I wanted to attempt to find a new waterfall and get there before the sun got on it. I packed up camp, had a quick breakfast, and headed out at 6AM.

I really did not think I was going to make it. My planned route I determined that looked best on Google Earth took me to the edge of a cliff with no way down. I did not see this cliff on Google Earth! After a couple other tries and a lot of scrambling around through brush, I finally found a way around the cliff. I was very tired from all the scrambling around, and it was getting late. I still thought I was going to get cliffed out again, but I continued down the creekside and finally came out at the bottom. I was not cliffed out! I got all the way down to the reservoir and to the bottom of this gorgeous 70 ft. cascade. The light was still good. I was absolutely ecstatic! It was such a beautiful morning, and such a beautiful location and waterfall. This was my favorite waterfall of all the falls I saw this weekend. I love discovering brand new waterfalls!

It was easier climbing back up to the trail because I did not have scramble around the brush the same way that I came down. I took a big break to rest. From here it was a 3 mile hike back to my car. It was hot and slow going but I made it back to my car by 10:30AM. Except for the disrespectful jeepers, it was an amazing springtime adventure into the Hell Hole.

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Life has been too stressful. Getting out on a backpacking trip this weekend was an essential activity for me. It is still early season, most areas are still snowed in, and those that aren’t snowed in are closed because of the virus, so picking the right place to go is a difficult task. I chose to go back to the Hell Hole.

I have been to all the waterfalls on Grayhorse Creek before, but it was at low flow. I’ve been wanting to go back at high flow for a long time. I would just camp along Grayhorse Creek and go up to see all the waterfalls in the evening. A quick trip, but a good one.

It is a short hike to Grayhorse Creek; I arrived about noon and setup camp on this side of the creek. The views from here are magnificent. Since I had so much time before I needed to go up to the waterfalls, I decided to hike to the end of the reservoir in the afternoon. That meant I had to cross Grayhorse Creek. It was getting pretty close to peak flow for the year, and the creek was flowing very strong (Kyburz on the SFAR was at 1200cfs). I was not sure that I would be able to make it but I was able to cross at 1PM without any difficulty. The only problem I had was that my feet were frozen off by the time I got to the other side. The water was cold! It was a warm day, though, and they thawed out pretty quickly once I got out of the stream. I hiked along to the end of the reservoir and to Hell Hole Falls. I was hiking IN the reservoir, along the river. The reservoir is very low right now, and it is easy and pleasant to do this. The light was bad of course, so taking good pictures of Hell Hole Falls was not possible, but it was nice to do this hike, and the waterfall was flowing pretty good. I did not go up to Kada Falls because that requires crossing Five Lakes Creek, which would have been very difficult to do, and I did not want to take the time and effort to do that. I returned to camp.

Begin Rant …

The trail to Grayhorse Creek is a popular road with jeepers. Their machines are horribly loud and you can hear them for miles. I knew all this of course, so I cannot complain “too much” that there were jeeps down in the reservoir. Had I known there would be so many, however, I would have chosen a different place to camp. Are we not supposed to be under quarantine still? There were at least two large groups here, and they were absolutely NOT social distancing. On my way back to camp, I had to pick up their beer cans that they threw out in the middle of the reservoir. I know it was them because the cans were not there on my way out. A couple other things I noticed on my drive out to Hell Hole: At Stumpy Meadows reservoir, the boat ramp area is closed yet I saw at least 15 cars in there, and they had just pushed the closed sign out of the way. In the town of Georgetown, I saw at least 30 motor bikes, and the bikers were just hanging out and definitely not social distancing. These small towns don’t seem to care about the rules, their restaurants and non-essential stores are open, yet they do not want the rest of us going there. Georgetown is just one example I have seen (Tahoe, Mammoth Lakes). I have been responsible and following the rules. Recently, I have seen a couple people post their hikes in Lassen Volcanic NP (which is closed). So you can hike into Lassen by back roads and that is ok? No it is not. The park is completely closed. I could hike into Yosemite if I wanted to, in fact I have a great route that I really really want to do, and I am sure I would not see anyone in the park, but it is illegal to go there. The irresponsible people are ruining things for the rest of us.

End Rant …

Back at camp, I made my dinner, relaxed a bit, and then headed up the mountain. My first stop was (lower) Grayhorse Creek Falls. With the creek rushing so fast, it is impossible to cross and impossible to wade upstream. That means the only way down to the falls is via a very steep and cliffy traverse. Rope is a necessity. I anticipated this beforehand, and I brought my rope with me. Normally, I hate to bring rope on a backpacking trip, it is just too much extra weight; this time, however, I brought both my water shoes and rope, and I needed them both. I would not have gotten to this first waterfall without the rope. Even so, once I got up to the falls, I found a huge tree fallen in the creek, literally blocking half the waterfall from view. So I had to settle for a secondary view of the falls, on a scary ledge, and even this view was partially obscured by trees.

I continued upstream to the multitude of waterfalls. Waterfalls coming out of the ying yang. I even found a new one that was not there on my previous trip up the canyon. (picture coming later). As I hiked up the canyon I came across the local resident. He was following the stay at home order. A big, beautiful, brown-colored bear was standing on its hind legs, looking down on me. He was huge. As soon as I saw it, he scampered up the mountain away from me, too fast for me to get out my camera. Oh, how I wish I was prepared with my camera.

It was 6:45PM when I finally got to the uppermost waterfall. This was much later than I wanted, but there were just too many waterfalls to photograph! I was pretty sure that I had been up to this uppermost falls before (pictured above). I remember the little trail going to it, but when I looked back at my previous photos, I could not find a picture of this one. That is very strange, and I don’t remember what happened. Anyway, I took some photos this time. It was now 7PM, and I hurried back down the canyon. It is a long descent, and finally got back to camp just before dark.

I had a good night except for one big problem ….

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I went out hiking on Sunday afternoon. This is what I observed…

Firstly, I went up into the snow at higher elevation. There was 7 feet of fresh snow on the ground, and it was not compacted. I took 10 steps with my snowshoes on and sunk in at least 6-12 inches on each step. On the eleventh step, I sunk in 3 feet, and barely stopped myself from sinking in more. This was extremely dangerous. I could easily sink in 5 feet and not be able to get out. I quickly went back to the car and drove to lower elevation at Jenkinson Lake. There was 3 feet of snow on the ground here, but it was a lot better for snowshoeing.

So … I am not a little concerned with what I have seen lately and what is to come.

The fear and mass hysteria that the media has created is overwhelming, causing people to buy up all the toilet paper and bread and other items. The national parks and state parks are now closed. I am upset about this. Some people say it is necessary but I disagree. It is not necessary. *IF* people would just follow the “rules”. There is nothing wrong or dangerous or infectious about hiking. It is the safest activity you can do. People are saying on Facebook to stay home. Do not go hiking. Someone actually said you cannot even drive anywhere to go on a hike. Honestly, respectfully, if you are in such a state of fear, you should not be going anywhere, especially not to the grocery store. If you are going to get the virus anywhere, it is going to be at the grocery store. It will not be on a hike.

Do not be in fear as the media wants you to be. God is in control, just trust in Him and believe in Him. Please. The Bible states that in the end times, billions of people are going to die. Not thousands. Billions. Why? Because at that time, most everyone on Earth has rejected God and His love, and has turned to evil. We are not in the end times (though it may not be far off). This event (events) will happen in the future for certain. Every Bible prophesy in the past has always come true, and the future prophecies will also come true. You should be in fear for those days (if you are not a believer), but not for today.

Here is the problem today, however: Some people are ruining it for everyone else. This is why the national parks are closed. People are not following the guidelines and staying 6 feet away from others. This is why the national forests are going to close as well. I think this has happened in Utah already. Very soon, we will not have any hiking at all. I have seen this disregard in a number of places, in southern California for instance (people flocking to the beaches and other hiking trails). I saw it first hand at Jenkinson Lake as well. There were a ton of people out at the lake, playing in the snow, sledding, four wheeling, and shooting targets (annoying). They were not keeping safe distances. They are going to ruin it for everyone else (all of us who are respectful). This is what upsets me the most.

I drove as far as I could on the road through the snow, and then decided to park and walk the rest of the way to my turnoff. A lot of big jeeps and trucks passed me as I walked along the road. They were all congregated (of course) at the exact spot on the road where I wanted to turn off. In order to avoid them, I put on my snowshoes before I got to the turn off, and went down the snow bank. From there I continued on a 3 foot snow covered trail down towards the lake. I did not encounter anyone from here to the waterfall.

There were no tracks on the trail and it was tough going. I realized that this route was going to take too long. I would have to turn back. But wait. What if I just went straight down to the lake (off the trail). The forest was open, and it was not very steep at all. This would cut off a heckuva lot of time and mileage. So this is what I did, and made it down to the lake in short order. Once down at the lake, I found quite a few other tracks. Obviously many people had been to the falls recently, although it would have been a much longer hike for them because the park was closed.

I got to the waterfall (it is man-made, if you did not know this). I took some photos and video, and then started hiking back. It was getting late. I was not sure if I would make it back before dark, but the return hike went very quickly. Even though it was uphill, it was easier because I had already broken ground. I got back to the main road. My feet were wet and cold. There were still a lot of other people out, and some were still driving up the road from town, even this late, which I thought was a bit ridiculous. Anyway, I had a great and SAFE hike in the soon to be closed Eldorado National Forest. ( I do hope I am wrong about that but ..)

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It was the biggest storm so far this winter. I suppose that is not saying much because we have had zero big storms this winter, and it is now mid March. Nonetheless, this was a big storm and it was starting early Saturday morning. I usually get up and hike Saturday morning, but I just was not feeling it. Should I go out somewhere in the rain? That did not appeal to me very much. Should I go up into the snow? The temps would be very cold, and the winds were supposed to be huge, so that did not appeal to me much, either. However … thanks to you know what, my wife had nothing to do today since all the normal Saturday activities were canceled. So I wondered if she would want to go snowshoeing with me? If she agreed, it would give me some much needed motivation to get out in the wilderness and do some hiking. Guess what? She agreed!

And bonus … we could practice our social distancing as we hiked out in the wilderness. There would certainly be no one else out hiking today in the biggest snow storm of the year. We would have Bassi Falls all to ourselves. Social distancing … oh my. I don’t know about all this, but there is one thing I will say: I hate hate hate that I can’t buy the bread I like for my lunches next week because everyone has lost their minds.

Bassi Falls was where we decided to go since it was pretty easy to get to. The road is normally plowed, so I expected it to be in good shape for driving. I also expected there to be about a foot of new snow on the ground, and another foot falling from the sky. Not exactly. Firstly, the road was not plowed at all. This made the drive a little bit interesting. The road was very slick, and there was quite a bit of snow on it, especially when we came back down the mountain later. Any more and I would not have wanted to drive it. However, there was not a foot of snow on the ground, and we did not need our snowshoes whatsoever. The main reason I chose Bassi Falls in the first place was because I was pretty sure there would be a lot of snow. There was not.

I thought we could cut off some time on the hike by taking a short cut. This was a mistake, and I really hate myself for trying it. It was definitely not a short cut, and in fact it took much longer than the normal trail, and the worst thing is it took too much out of my wife. Also, stupidly, I did not load my maps properly into my GPS, so I was not entirely sure which way to go at some sections. Tara eventually decided to turn back to the car. I continued on and arrived at Bassi Falls.

Just as I got to the falls, the blizzard started. It had been pretty nice up until my arrival at the waterfall, but now the wind was howling, it was cold, and the snow was falling very heavily. (as you can see in the photo). The granite rock was also very slick (I did fall once), and it was very tricky crossing the stream to get closer to the falls. I did not spend much time here at Bassi. I just took my photos and then started hiking back. It was a great and blustery day in the Eldorado National Forest.

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This is Blue Hole Falls, where I camped for the night.

It was supposed to be down to below freezing in the night. I wore an extra layer because I expected it to be much colder than the first night. It was not even cold at all! It was very pleasant in the morning, and I took my time packing up, eating breakfast, and enjoying the beautiful morning that God provided.

I had 6 miles to hike back to the trailhead. It felt like a very long 6 miles. I have hiked this trail along the Salt Springs Reservoir 3 times, and every time, it felt agonizingly long. It is not difficult, it is just long, most likely because I am always tired before I even start the hike back.

There were ticks on the trail, but not too many. There was poison oak. Somehow, I touched it, but I do not know how. I certainly don’t remember touching any. The worst thing, however, as I already mentioned, were the gnats. They were just so incredibly annoying. Ugh.

Anyway, I arrived at the trailhead about noon. I saw no one the entire weekend. I ate my lunch, and made the long drive home. It was an epic weekend in the Mokelumne Wilderness.

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