Leon Turnbull Photography

New Year’s Day … Get up and get at ’em … That’s what I say … No sleeping in for this party maniac. Ha ha.

Yeah folks, I was in bed at 9PM on New Year’s Eve. I don’t care squat about staying up for the end of year. It’s just another day to me. But if I have a day off work, I want to get out and go hiking. That’s how I roll, man.

With the lack of rain and how utterly and inhumanely dry it has been, you may wonder why I would even bother. Well heck, it is my favorite time of year to get out hiking. I am not going to let the STUPID weather keep me from doing what I love to do. Besides, waterfalls are still flowing. You just need to pick the right spots to go to. If I had gone to, say, Traverse Creek or Dutch Creek, I would be sorely disappointed. But Silver Falls on Otter Creek is a much larger drainage, and it would still have some decent flow. So that is just where I went. And by golly of gollies, it was actually flowing, just like I said.

I was almost in Placerville before I realized I had forgotten my wallet and phone back at the house. Argh, my wife would be worried. I would not be able to send her any messages. Too late to turn back now. Let’s just hope I don’t put the car in the ditch out in the middle of nowhere.

The road out to the trailhead is rough rough rough. And muddy muddy muddy. With the no rain situation, you would think there would be no mud. Think again. When I was here last year, I had to stop because of a huge mud hole. The same mud hole was there today. I tested it, however, with my hiking pole, and determined I could continue driving through it this time. When I was here back in 2009, I don’t remember any mud holes on this road. The road seems to have gotten much worse over the years. Or else my memory much worse. You decide.

And now a new problem presented itself: the road was gated just before getting down to the trailhead with a large NO TRESPASSING sign. What the hey? This is a public road and a public historic trail. How can anyone put up a big gate preventing access to this public trail? It is totally illegal to do this. Not only this, it added a mile to my hike because I had to park further back. Argh! When I got back home, I checked my maps. To the best of my knowledge, it seems that the forest road briefly crosses private land just before it gets to the trailhead, and that is where the gate is, but the trail seems to be all on public land. Unbelievable. Totally illegal gate.

That gate was annoying but it sure is not going to stop me. Off I went down to the waterfall. The trail, though it is old, public, and historic, does not get very much traffic. It does have brush and poison oak overgrowing onto the trail, and a few fallen trees to negotiate. A few ticks as well. And mountain lions.

When I got down to the creek and started working my way up to the waterfall, I apparently found the local lions’ dinner spot. Bones scattered all over the place (deer bones, I think). And that means … it was either mountain lion or Sasquatch that was here enjoying the waterfall view while munching on a tasty snack or two. No sign of Mr. Cougar was to be had, and that was surely a good thing. I continued to the waterfall.

As you can see from the photo, Silver Falls was not raging by any means, but nor was it dry as many creeks are these days. In fact,  the flow was only slightly lower than when I was here last time, which was in January 2009. Pretty darn nice waterfall. Interesting to note also: that grate (or whatever it is) at the base of the fall was not here last time. Wonder how it got there. Weird.

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There was a bit more snow and ice at the Upper Iowa Canyon Falls. It was a magical setting. Quite easy to reach the upper falls because the water was so low but the shade and snow made the exposure difficult to handle. But I like the final result.

I did not spend too much time here because I had to get to the church. My kids were practicing for the Christmas play (the actual play was on Sunday). My son Jadon had one of the lead parts and he did a fantastic job. I was very proud of him. Nekoda did great with her part as well.

Please check out my latest Waterfall Madman Video (Episode 2 – Curtain Falls). Try to watch in HD 1080p if possible:

http://youtu.be/QoEdWdwupDA

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God is awesome. He has answered our prayers in a big way this week. We had a lot of concern recently that my wife Tara might have cancer, and I won’t go into details but the test results came back negative on Friday. Praise the Lord. But it is not just that He answered that prayer, He did it in a very special way, answering another prayer at the same time, and that was re-invigorating our marriage practically overnight. After 15 years, we both feel like we are newlyweds again, and it is a real miracle. As I said, God is awesome.

This waterfall, however, is not awesome. It is not really very big either, only 14 ft. high. Nonetheless, it is a pretty one, and I think it was much prettier in person than seeing it in this photo. In the spring when the creek is flowing better, it would be even better I suppose. I think I would like to come back here, now that I know the proper way.

It started out being an easy hike down a logging road. Then the road disappeared shortly before reaching the creek. The main road continued off in the wrong direction. After a bit of searching I found an old road leading down to the creek. It was very overgrown. Why is nothing easy? I thought this would be a simple and easy jaunt to the creek and down to the waterfall. After scrambling through the thick brush, I came upon an easier path and made my way down to the creek, but I chose the wrong side of the creek to hack my way downstream. It was far too brushy. I followed what I think was a bear trail but the bears did not make it very easy for me. Eventually I came to a small cascade and no way to get down to creek level because of the massive honking boulders along the creek. The waterfall location was still downstream and I had no way to continue. So back I went. The old “road” continued on the other side of the creek, so I rock hopped across making my way upwards and onwards. There was poop everywhere. Not bear poop. Not mountain lion poop. Cow poop. What on earth would cows be doing out here in the middle of nowhere? I did not see any of the wild, killer cows. I made my way to an open area and descended down to the creek where I found this waterfall. The last section down to creek level was a bit too iffy, and I had not much time because I had to get back to the church for band practice (I made it on time but with only one minute to spare). There might possibly be an upper section here that I could not see, and thus I wouldn’t mind coming back in the spring. It certainly is a pretty little thing.

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Wake up 3:30am. Drive to Feather Falls trailhead. Arrive in dark. Start heading out to the waterfall.

Sound crazy? Nuts? Insane? Wait til you hear the rest of the story.

First off, this may be TMI but when I arrived at the trailhead I had to use the outhouse facilities there. I noticed a rat crawling around down in the hole. I’m not kidding you. Needless to say I went very quickly.

That was the freakiest thing I saw this day. Which is probably good because I was biking in the dark. Not hiking. I was hoping to be at the falls by sunrise and since it is about 5 miles one way, biking is the quickest option. It is actually a very nice trail to bike, going out is mostly downhill, but fairly gentle, so coming back afterwards is tough but not killer. It is easier to hike out and back but much quicker to bike.

I was also trying out the new camera I just bought. A GoPro Hero head cam. Why would I get such a thing? Well, I have a grand idea of documenting my hikes for the public to view and follow me along. This one is going to be really good I think and definitely not boring, so be watching for it soon.

I arrived at Feather Falls a bit later than I wanted. I first went down to the viewpoint. The falls was flowing really quite well, much better than I expected. This late in the year and after two years of drought I thought it would be as low as I have ever seen it. Not so. It was exquisite.

After photographing from the viewpoint it was time for part two of my adventure: crossing the river above the waterfall and try to find a spot on the other side to photograph it. I have never seen a photo of Feather Falls from the other side. Now I know why. (actually I lied – I have seen one very very old photo, but that is it).

I figured the worst part by far would be crossing the river and with the falls flowing higher than I expected, I thought it might be impossible. People have died here including one last year. It is kinda freaky crossing a river above a 410 ft high waterfall but actually it was very easy (don’t try it in the spring though).

Next up was to climb the ridge on the other side and make my way down to a point where I could see the falls. After studying Google Earth I really expected this to be a piece of cake. It looked so open and non brushy. Not quite. It was extremely brushy. I found a trail going in the right direction and thought I would be in luck. At first I thought it was a human trail but after awhile (and after passing a number of bear droppings) I realized it must be a bear trail. Eventually I was stopped by the brush. I could go no farther but I did get to a point where I could see the waterfall. It was too obscured to take a picture but you will see it in the video. So it was not a huge success but at least I got a view of the waterfall (albeit somewhat obscured).

The bike ride back to my car was quite tiring (it didn’t help that I did all that scrambling on the other side of the river). All uphill and 5 miles, but I made it all the way. It is a good thing I am in shape right now from biking to work every day. Otherwise I might still be out there on the trail somewhere.

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This is yet another of the many marvelous waterfalls in the Rainbow Pool area that was recently ravaged by the Rim Fire. This is the third waterfall on the South Fork Tuolumne River, plus the one on the Middle Fork makes four waterfalls in this one location. Such an amazing place. And hopefully it still will be. I measured this falls to be 26 ft high, though it seems a bit smaller to the eye when you look at it. The first time I was here last year, I missed this one because the road was blocked by a huge landslide. The landslide was happily cleared away this year and I could get down to this little dude. Sweetness.

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