Leon Turnbull Photography

It was a long weekend. The weather was good. So I went backpacking. I wish it was raining. We have had a horribly dry February, and I’m not confident anymore that we will have a miracle March this year. I will take what I can get. If the weather is good on a long weekend in February then I will go backpacking to waterfalls that I know are flowing well. So off I went into the Mokelumne Wilderness.

When I picked up my permit on Saturday morning, I saw there was one other envelope for someone else backpacking this weekend. The ranger had written on the other person’s envelope: Have an awesome adventure! On my envelope she just wrote: Remember to sign your permit. I was very upset about this. Just kidding. But seriously, I am 100 percent certain that my adventure was way more awesome then this other person’s adventure, wherever he or she was going. So where was I going, anyway?

Salt Springs Reservoir: My goal was to hike to Fantasy Falls. The very remote and very mysterious Fantasy Falls. I have tried twice before (day hiking), and failed. We will talk about this more a bit later.

I started hiking at about 8:30am. There was no one around at the reservoir, and I saw no one the entire weekend. Not surprising, really. It is winter. Who wants to go backpacking in winter? But still, one might see fishermen there. It is a long weekend after all. But nope. The reservoir was very low. Extremely low. It should be much fuller by mid February, but we have had a horrible winter thus far. We really need that miracle March again. Please let it rain, Lord.

It is about a 6 mile hike to the end of the reservoir (though the end of it was empty). There were ticks, poison oak, and gnats. I expected the ticks and oak, as I have been here before. But the gnats!?!? They were bad. Not nearly as horrendous as at Tehipite Valley, not even close, however they were very annoying. Why are there gnats in February? There should not be any gnats in February! I can deal with ticks. I can deal with oak. I can deal with gnats (except at Tehipite). I cannot deal with all three at the same time. Anyway, I had no choice but to deal with all three of them. I managed to avoid getting any ticks on me, and I had thought I had completely avoided the oak, but apparently not. I do have a rash.

When you get to Island Slide Falls you come to a dead end. There is no way to continue up the river to Fantasy Falls. The cliff comes straight down into the river bed. I could not cross the river. It was flowing at about 250 cfs and was not crossable. The only way is to go up and over the cliff. Getting up is not a problem, but getting down the other side is a problem. Actually, it was a huge problem because the other side is one immense and entire cliff. There is absolutely no way down. I scoured the entire length of the cliff and I found zero possible ways down. Now it was almost sunset. I had no choice but to retreat and go back down to Island Slide Falls, and camp there for the night. This was strike three for me. The first two tries were day hikes: the first time I ran out of daylight and did not even attempt getting over the cliffs. The second time I went the wrong way and again had to retreat. This time, I really thought I had a great route and was very confident I would make it all the way. I was not counting on that huge cliff and there being no possible way to get down it.

Well, I found a nice little spot close to Island Slide Falls. I barely had enough time to setup camp, eat my dinner, and take photos of the falls before dark. It was a very tiring day, but it was beautiful beside the waterfall and the North Fork Mokelumne River, and the sunset on the river was spectacular. It was a long weekend and I still had a couple more days. What could I possibly do the next day?

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This weekend would be more of a scouting trip than anything else. It is almost mid November and it still has not rained. No rain in the long range forecast. I am depressed. However, I still wanted to go on a hike and find a new waterfall. I was pretty sure this particular waterfall would not be dry, and I hoped it would have decent flow. But would it?

It is a very long drive, I would not want to come out here to see a dry waterfall. The last 3 miles are extremely rough, and I decided to drive them instead of walk. My car did not appreciate it, but my body did when I got back to the car. I would not have to walk an additional 3 miles in the pitch blackness. At least I made sure to put batteries in my head lamp this time.

It is a pretty easy hike to the waterfall, all downhill for 3 miles, and all of it is on a dirt road except for the last part. Coming back up afterwards is a different story, but it is only 1000 feet gain, so it is not really too difficult.

I came to the first crossing of the river, one branch of it. It was completely dry. This is not a good sign. It is obvious that in the spring this branch has tremendous flow, the road is even washed out here from a flood. Perhaps it is from the flood of 2017, or perhaps some other time, I do not know. What I do know is that coming out all this way to see a dry waterfall would make me a very unhappy camper, but this is the smaller branch of the two, so maybe the other one was not dry. This is a river after all, not a creek. I would not expect it to be dry, however it is pretty close to the source so who knows.

As I approached the top of the waterfall, I could hear water. It was not dry! I crossed the river at the top of the falls and made my way down to the bottom on the other side. There was a lot of ice in the river even though it was a very warm day. I thought this was a bit odd.

I was not expecting much, but I had hoped the flow would be a bit better. Nonetheless, it was still very pretty. One very pleasant surprise: the waterfall was much bigger than I expected. When I found this on Google Earth, I estimated it was only about 40 feet high. It is not 40 feet high. It is a towering 69 feet high! In the spring this will be absolutely spectacular. I will definitely come back. It was a very successful scouting trip in Tahoe National Forest.

 

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It was an extremely windy afternoon and evening.

PG&E had shut off power throughout California due to wildfire prevention. Our church on Sunday morning was without power and we had service in the dark. Despite the power being off, PG&E still started a massive wildfire in Sonoma county. Good thing your new policy works so well, PG&E. Not.

Indeed it was very cold and very windy. It was so windy it felt as if every other tree was going to fall on me as I hiked. It was so windy it felt as if I was being blown clear across the state. There were many fallen branches and twigs on the road (and falling onto the road) as I drove to my destination. It was an obstacle course to avoid them. I do not normally like hiking in such windy conditions. I’m afraid a tree is going to fall on the road and block me in somewhere. Or worse: a tree is going to fall on my car. Or even worse: a tree is going to fall on me. However, I had not hiked in quite a few weeks and I was feeling the big itch to get out into the wilderness.

Most of my hike would be off road. No trail. Just hiking through the woods, with the wind howling and shaking the trees. Thankfully, there was not that much brush I had to whack through. It was mostly open and nice. When I was out in the open, I felt really happy, but the few brushy parts got me anxious for some reason. It was getting late and I did not want to be hiking back in the dark through thick brush. Well it was a nice idea but …

I arrived down at the river after 5PM. It took two hours to hike that two miles through the forest. I was taking a lot of video along the way, which always adds a lot of time to the hike, but I estimated it would take 1.5 hours to hike back to the car. I figured I needed to start back by 5:30pm at the latest to avoid having to hike back in the dark. Hmmm.

Middle Bear River Reservoir Falls is a really nice one, dropping 41 ft. over a big huge rock. It looked very unique and very interesting. I was very pleased. I went to the upper falls last year (also very nice). This year I wanted to try the middle falls, and overall, it was not that difficult to get down to it, and I did not have to cross the river either. I took my photos as quickly as I could. I did not have much time. It was 5:40pm when I started back.

Here’s the problem: Somehow, I totally miscalculated the time for sunset. I had written down in my notes that sunset was at 6:40pm. It was actually at about 6:05pm. I was wondering why it was already so dark as I hiked back up the mountain. I know I am in a deep canyon, but it should not be this dark. By about 6:20pm, it was pitch black (just like the rest of California). I was not even back to the brushy section yet. Now I had to hike through that stuff in the dark, which is exactly what I did not want to do. Not much I can do about it, though. I got out my headlamp. It did not turn on. The batteries were dead. Why did I not check this before my hike! I did not even think I would need it for this hike, which is probably why I did not check it. Well, at least I had my iPhone light. Not quite as nice but it worked. I managed to make it back through the brush and got back to my car at 7PM. It was still extremely windy. Thankfully, no tree had fallen on my car. It was a great little hike at Bear River Reservoir.

 

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This is Upper Cascade Falls, 151 ft. high. It is a fascinating little slot canyon here, and the viewpoint is incredible. Imagine this at peak water flow.

Even though it was windy, I slept pretty well. I was very tired. I had initially intended to get up early and hike in the dark, going back on a different and longer trail, and also seeing one more waterfall along the way (which is why I needed to hike in the dark). However, I was just too tired and did not feel like getting up and hiking in the dark. I decided that getting a couple hours more sleep would be a better plan. I hiked back on the same trail, 12 miles back to the car. Most of it was downhill, thankfully. Surprisingly, I saw quite a few other backpackers coming up the trail. A bit odd because it was a Sunday. I arrived back at the trailhead at 12:30pm. I got home at about 4PM, ate dinner, and went to bed at 7PM. I was so tired, and slept for 10.5 hours that night. It was an awesome trip into the Hoover Wilderness!

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After packing up camp, I ate my breakfast and set out. I had about 9 miles to hike to where I intended to camp that night at Cascade Falls.

There was another group of backpackers hiking along the same trail as I was hiking. We kept passing each other along the trail. I would rest, they would pass me. They would rest, I would pass them. This kept going on ad infinitum and got to the point where it was a bit ridiculous. At least they were not going to the same place that I was going.

The hike was pretty much all uphill, and even though it was not a huge elevation gain, it was very tiring. By the time I got to Cascade Falls, I was spent.

There was no camping at the lower (main) falls, so I kept climbing up the mountain to a spot in between the lower and upper falls. This was where I expected to find my place to camp. You most likely did not know there was an upper falls here, and probably did not even know there was a lower falls here, even though the lower falls is marked on the maps. At the very least I am sure you have not ever seen it or seen any photos of it (I will explain this below). The trail seems to be well maintained but not well traveled (at least, not well traveled on the waterfall section). It is very rocky in places and also very sandy in other places. The sandy part is because of all the mules that go on the trail. They beat up the trail to death, making it very sandy and difficult to hike on. Not to mention all the crap they leave behind that you cannot avoid walking on (pet peeve). I was not sure which I hated more, the sand and mule crap, or the rocky terrain. Believe it or not, I think I prefer the sandy terrain. The rocks just kill my feet horribly.

It was very windy when I arrived at the campsite. I was expecting this, and worried about setting up my tent in the wind. I have a new tent, the Zpacks Duplex. It is expensive, but it saves two pounds. Is it worth two pounds in savings? Well, the jury is still out on that, but the reviews on this tent are very good, and so far I like it. However, it was blowing around like crazy in the wind, much too much for my liking. I read about a trick on the internet, to set it up lower to the ground when the weather is like this, so that is what I did. It worked and held up just fine in the wind, however I think I should have set it up a bit higher than I did. I will know better for next time.

After eating my dinner, I went down to the lower falls. The reason you most likely have never seen any photos of this waterfall: you cannot get down to it! Well, let me explain. The trail goes right by the falls on the north side of the creek. You most definitely cannot see the waterfall from this side. It is way too cliffy, impossible to get down to the creek level, and to top it off, the waterfall is hidden behind a corner with cliffs on each side. No wonder I had not seen any pictures of this waterfall before! But the waterfall madman is not to be outdone so easily. I did not hike 12 miles to see nothing! It seemed to me that I would be able to see the waterfall from the ridge on the other side of the creek. So I went back down the trail all the way to the bottom, bushwhacked over to the creek, crossed the creek, climbed up the steep and crumbly embankment on the other side of the creek, and started climbing up the ridge back to the waterfall.

And voila! The madman strikes again! I came to an awesome viewpoint of Cascade Falls, an absolutely gorgeous 59 ft. high three tiered waterfall. What a perfect view!

I did not want to go all the way back down to the bottom and cross the creek again back over to the main trail, so I just continued up the ridge on this side. I knew I could get across the creek easily at my campsite, and in fact, I should have come down this way to begin with, but I wanted to see if I could get down to the falls on the trail side of the creek first (which, obviously, I could not). It was very easy climbing up the ridge back to my campsite (well, relatively easy).

After crossing the creek at my campsite, I continued upstream to the upper falls. This was much easier getting to than the lower falls (thankfully!), and I found a great view of the upper falls (on the edge of a cliff, of course), which is 151 ft. high, and reminded me a lot of Twin Island Lakes Falls. (photo is coming). The lower falls reminded me a lot of Carson Falls (because of all the cliffs and scrambling around to get a good view). It is funny how some waterfalls are so similar to each other.

The upper falls is hidden and not right by the trail. I suspect 99.99% of the people hiking this trail have no idea there is a waterfall here. I saw no evidence anyone had ever been here before. I also thought it funny how close these waterfalls are to the Pacific Crest Trail, but probably 99.99% of the people hiking the PCT have no clue there are waterfalls here, and even if they did know, they would not take the time to go down to either of them. This is why I would never want to hike that trail. I would miss seeing far too many great waterfalls and other sights. Anyway, I headed back to camp and to bed on this windy night.

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