Leon Turnbull Photography

It is October now. Just when you thought fire season was over … all of a sudden California is facing disaster. Multiple fires raging in the state. Awful devastation in multiple counties. Caused by high wind? Certainly it is the wind and dry conditions that have stoked up the fire, but wind does not create fire, so what did? It was actually quite surprising when I woke up and learned so many fires were all of a sudden raging in the state. These must all be human caused fires (not necessarily intentionally, but definitely human caused). Don’t you think so? It is certainly not caused by climate change as some would have you believe (whose initials are HC). By this time last year we had over 10 inches of rain in the northern Sierra foothills. This year, essentially nada, and with the hot dry summer we had it does not help with the fire situation. Last year was an anomaly. We do not normally get very much rain in October. IT IS NORMAL TO NOT GET RAIN IN OCTOBER. Perhaps we usually do get a slight bit more than this year, but not much more. I think this summer is an anomaly, like last winter was an anomaly. However, we sure do need the winter to get started, especially now with all those fires. It looks like we have a weak La Nina this year again, precisely the same as what we had last year. So that should mean we will get another big winter, right? I wish. Unfortunately, there are many other factors and some of those other factors are different this year, so it certainly does not mean we will have a similar winter. I am just hoping and praying we will at least have an average winter, and we do not get sent back into a drought. Please God, no more drought (for a few years, at least).

This is the waterfall at Hemlock Crossing. It may not quite be 20 feet high, but to my eye it is very close. I do not bring my waterfall measuring devices (rangefinder and clinometer) on backpacking trips because it is extra weight that I do not need to carry. 20 feet is my limit for including on my website, but I do make exceptions and this would be such an exception. It is the most well known waterfall on the North Fork San Joaquin river, and the one that everyone takes a photo of, and this is probably because it is the only one that people see since it is located right at the bridge over Hemlock Crossing, which is the end of the road I suspect for most people. I think most people do not go further than this and never see the myriad of other waterfalls on this river (or even know about them). So this is the one!

I was not ever a huge fan of Tom Petty but I did appreciate his music. Free Fallin’ was probably my favorite of his songs. It also happens to be a good way to describe waterfalls! Coincidence? Since I was camping here, I spent a lot of time beside this waterfall, watching it, sitting in the sun, and listening to music. I love how smoothly it falls (freely) off the cliff into the beautiful large pool. It certainly was very sad that Petty died so young. I tried to educate my son Jadon on his music, as I often do for various things. But he is a strange one and likes strange music. I cannot even tell you. He was not a fan of Tom Petty’s music. Oh well, I tried.

Dike Creek Falls, 40 ft. high. I did not think Dike Creek would be flowing well. I did not think I would have time to get to this waterfall. But I did have enough time, just arriving here before sunset, and I was very happily surprised: it is such an awesome 40 ft. straight plunge.

Spending the afternoon at Hemlock crossing allowed me to go back to this one waterfall I saw on the first day on Dike Creek. Dike was one of the creeks flowing much better than expected. I could not cross it without getting wet feet. Why was Bench so lame and Dike so nice? I did not get a good shot of this falls on the first day; standing in the middle of the creek, my tripod was not functioning properly and I could not focus because it was dark already. So now I had one more chance at it. This time I could get focus and get some shots from the middle of the creek. It is only about 20 feet high but it is kind of cool looking and reminded me of North Fork Goddard Creek Falls last year backpacking, particularly the need to wade up the creek to get to the Falls. It was a little bit fun.

Now about camping at Hemlock Crossing, I was very annoyed about one thing: Namely, I found horse crap in the middle of the campsite. Not only this campsite but also the one I stayed at on the first night. I had to use some sticks to flick it off into the bushes so I would not have to step in it. What the heck? If you are a horse owner why can’t you clean up your horses’ poop? This ticks me off to no end. Do you know what leave no trace means? The last thing a backpacker wants is to find a bunch of horse crap in the middle of his campsite when he arrives. So annoying! By the way I saw a lot of horse crap in the middle of the trail as well. Pet peeve number two. There was also garbage I had to pickup that people left behind (some of it intentionally left, some not). Come on people, get with it. This is supposed to be pristine wilderness.

Well anyway, I got up very early on the last day, as I wanted to get back home as soon as humanly possible. I still had a 1400 foot ascent ahead of me. I could tell the weather was changing. There was something different about the clouds that morning. An early winter storm was on the way. I hoped I could beat it back to my vehicle, but I had a very long walk ahead of me, and darn that slow climb out of the canyon. And don’t forget, there would be no water source for the next 10 miles. I drank as much from the river as I could pound into me before starting. As soon as I hit the first hill I knew I was in trouble. My legs were incredibly sore. I didn’t think I would make it up the Mountain. I thought I should just go back and stay forever at some place along the North Fork San Joaquin. It was certainly beautiful enough. I could fish, and eat berries just like the bears do. I could even hunt bear. Perhaps my family would come visit me sometime. Then they would want to stay forever, because they wouldn’t want to hike back up the hill either. Well, no can-do. I carried on. At least my backpack was lighter now with less food in it. Halfway up the mountain I collapsed, dying of thirst. My water bottle was empty. I was ready to give up. I lay there for the rest of the day. The snow pelted down on me. I was mostly dead. I’m just kidding, I did not collapse. Nor did I run out of water. Actually, I felt a lot better after I got warmed up, and made it up the mountain without too much trouble. 1400 feet in 3 miles. The rest is all downhill from here. It was a long downhill however, but I kept plugging away and eventually made it back to the car. That is when I collapsed, now really mostly dead. I recovered enough to make the long drive to Oakhurst and of course stopped at Pizza Factory to re-energize myself. I always have to stop for pizza after a big hike like this. It is the miracle pill. When I got home, I weighed myself: I gained 2 pounds. What? Even after pizza I thought I would be much down in weight, not up. You got to be kidding me. All that energy expended in five days of hiking, and I gain weight? Well, it is back to the gym for me I guess.

It was much colder up at the lakes overnight. I’m not sure if it got down to freezing but it was pretty darn close. I was not cold in my sleeping bag, but in the morning my tent was all wet (on the outside). I had to pack it all up in the dark and get going. There were a couple more Falls I had to hit up on the way down to Hemlock Crossing, 2300 ft. in elevation below me.

This was one of them. It is a magnificent 80 ft drop in a narrow slot. I did not go straight down to the waterfall from the lakes. I wondered if that would be faster, it almost seemed possible, but I’m sure I would have been caught on a cliff with no way down. Not a good thing. I went the regular and long way down to the bottom. When I arrived, I found no view of the waterfall. Which meant: you guessed it, I had to cross the river at the base of the Falls. It was a bit easier crossing here (then where I crossed the previous day). However, I somehow damaged my camera remote in the process. Ugh. This makes it much harder to take photos. There is always at least one casualty on a big backpacking trip. And this was it. Crackers. From here on out, I had to take all my photos manually. But it is an incredibly gorgeous waterfall, and I spent quite a bit of time here on the wrong side of the river. I have never seen photos of this waterfall before, and I suspect 99 percent of the people who come by here have no clue of its existence. If only they would subscribe to my website, then they would know about such hidden gems as these (hint hint).

After this, it is all downhill to Hemlock Crossing, and thus pretty easy, so I initially had high hopes of hiking all the way home on this day. However, I still felt tired. Plus it took much longer to get to Hemlock Crossing than I thought it would. By the time I got there (noon), I knew there was no way in kablookies that I could make that 1400 ft climb out of the canyon. One more night of camping was needed, and so I found a spot by the Hemlock Crossing waterfall.

I spent the afternoon relaxing in the sun and even took a very quick dip in the cold river at the waterfall. This was the sunniest day of the trip. Every other day was mostly cloudy (but not any rain). I tried to eat a bit more to gain my strength for the next day. I struggle to eat on backpacking trips. I am expending so much energy, but I don’t feel like eating very much. Freeze dried food is not particularly very tasty, but that is the best thing to bring on these kind of trips. I heard about this certain mixture, which is basically a peanut butter and jam goop, combined with regular trail mix. It is a bit on the heavy side, but it is quite good, so I brought some of it along with me this time. A quick energy mix. It tasted good now, I mean it. Anybody want a peanut?