Leon Turnbull Photography

I learned last week that the Bowman Lake Road was already open for the year (as of the end of March). This is shocking. During a normal year, this road is not open until June, sometimes even July. It seems they plowed the road this year so they could work at the dam (they = PG&E), but no doubt it is also due to the very low snowpack this year.

I decided to take advantage of this and drive up to Bowman Lake to see it in rare, early season conditions. I was expecting there to be quite a lot of snow up there, similar or more to what I experienced the previous week in the Trinity Alps. The road was plowed to the dam only, and I expected to have to walk from there through the snow. I brought my snow shoes. I did not need them. There was no snow.

As you may know the Bowman Lake Road is pure torture. I have said this before and I will say it again, the road leaves your bones rattling for days afterwards. The potholes and rocks you have to drive over are ridiculous. It takes forever to drive the five miles to the lake (and even longer if you want to keep going to Faucherie Lake). It is the bumpiest road.

There was some snow along the side of the road as I drove up in certain places. If they had not plowed it, I’m sure the road would still be closed. I find it extremely funny how snow accumulates so much in precise locations and takes forever to melt, but just a few feet further and there is no snow at all. Actually, it is not funny. It is annoying. If the snow on the road in these few spots would melt quicker, the roads would be open so much sooner in the year. I am very happy they plowed it this year.

But as I arrived at the lake, I found almost no snow whatsoever! If you think about this, it is really awful. There should be tons of snow up there right now. Where oh where are you, snow? You could easily drive past the dam to the end of the lake. And so I did. There were some puddles to drive through, but the road is so hard, it does not turn into mud. I drove to the turnoff for Weaver Lake and parked. I could have kept driving up this road too, but I wanted some exercise. Plus, I was sick of driving that darn awful road. My head was rattling off its post.

I knew there was a waterfall at the end of Weaver Lake, and I had not been up here before, so I was hoping to get to it. I really thought it would be very easy to get to it. At the end of the lake are some crazy cliffs, much similar to the cliffs on Table Mountain in Oroville. I continued on the road past the lake, down to the bottom of the cliffs and cross countried it over to the waterfall. This part was easy smeasy. However, as I approached the waterfall, I realized I would not make it. The brush got very thick, far too thick, the sides of the gully got steep, far too steep, there were trees and bushes in the way of the view of the waterfall, far too many. There was no way to get close to this thing for any sort of decent view. And I tried. I tried going through that thick brush. Not a chance. I settled on this shot here, for which I had to stand in the middle of the cold creek to shoot. After this, still desperate for a better view, I went back up the road and on the top of the cliffs, thinking there might be a good view of the falls from above. You just can’t get close enough to the edge of the cliffs to see the waterfall, however. I crossed the creek above the falls, and tried the cliffs on the other side as well. Again, it just did not work. It was close, baby. There was almost a great view of the waterfall from the other side. Almost only counts in horseshoes and hand grenades, however. Not in waterfall hunting. I want to go back here someday and try again. I think there might be another way. There must be another way.

Well, I had to get back. I was due in Grass Valley for my nephew’s birthday party. I had wanted to go on a second hike while up here. Heck, if you’re gonna drive up this bumpiest road, you should at least go on one other hike. But I spent far too much time at Weaver Lake trying to find a view of that waterfall, and now I was out of time. I’ll be back here again, though.

You win some and you lose some in waterfall hunting. This one was a loss but even losers can be interesting.

My topo maps indicated that there “might be” a 40 ft waterfall on Otter Creek near Georgetown. No, I do not mean Silver Falls which I have been to before, this would be a different one. Surely it was worth checking out at least. This is what I love to do. Find new waterfalls. For this one on Otter Creek … I was pretty sure there had to be a decent waterfall down there, the question in my mind was could I get down to it?

I found a trail leading down to the creek. It was only a mile but with 1000 ft elevation loss it was certainly not for sissies. Surprisingly though, it was a pretty good trail, not overgrown, and I saw only one tick. Good so far. Once I got down to Otter Creek I knew the waterfall was about a quarter mile downstream and this is where the fun began (or not). The trail ended abruptly, a full scale bushwhack was in order. There was a bit of a path as it seemed people had gone down there before, but the going was difficult, it was very cliffy, and worst of all was the poison oak, which was overwhelmingly insane.

I came to one point where I had to cross the creek. I took off my boots, put on my “non slippery” water shoes, took one step into the creek and promptly fell onto my butt, getting most of me quite wet, but my camera was safe in my backpack (which is all that matters of course). No one but the squirrels were around to see me spill, and I am sure they were laughing hysterically. Dang those rocks were sure extremely slick. I continued down the creek (more carefully) to the waterfall. The non waterfall. My 40 ft high waterfall was a whopping five feet high. There was another little thing shortly below this one, which was ten feet high. My forty footer was non existent. And I was so sure there would be something good down here. I crossed over the slippery rocks in the creek again so I could get down to photograph the five footer. The ten footer was a bit too difficult to get down to so I skipped it but all in all this was not worth the extreme effort to visit. I’m sure I will be regretting it in a couple days big time when the poison oak rash sets in.

The hike back up was tough but I took it slowly. I had to. My belt buckle broke so keeping my shorts up was not as easy as it might seem. I addition to this, my shorts got totally ripped somehow (probably when I took a dump in that creek). Geez, good thing I wasn’t on the Yosemite Falls trail. The squirrels were having a field day. My GPS also wasn’t functioning very well. My old GPS broke recently and I had to get a new one. I loved that old GPS. It was so reliable and would function great even under heavy tree cover and in deep canyons. So I bought the exact same model this time (though they don’t even make this model anymore). You would think this new one would work exactly the same as the old one. No sir-ee Bob. I lost a signal down in this canyon and it just did not want get a good satellite lock down there. I know my old one would not have had this problem down there. This is really bad news if I can’t rely on my GPS. Ugh. Good thing I was able to find my way out of the canyon without a GPS today. I just followed the chattering squirrels.

I set my clock ahead an hour on Friday night. One day early. All part of my plan for the weekend. Actually, Thursday would have even been better, but of course I had to work on Friday, so I couldn’t do it then. I also went to bed a little earlier than usual on Friday night, so I really only lost half an hour. By the end of the day on Saturday, I am fully adjusted to the new time, so that will make getting up to go hiking on Sunday morning very easy, and with sunrise an hour later now, I will get an extra hour of sleep back as well. Does that make any sense at all to anyone but myself? P.S. Don’t tell my pastor I might be skipping church on Sunday.

I drove up to Foresthill on Saturday morning, anxious to get a good hike in with my brand new hiking boots. They would certainly end up getting a good workout. I had a great plan, but this time around, the plan did not come together. I came to a locked gate, private property, and an ominous sign that said: no “warning” shots will be fired. Ah ok, I guess we all know what that implies. I will definitely not be hiking here. Time to implement Plan B.

Plan B was to hike down into Snyder Canyon. I found this waterfall when I was hiking to Blind Canyon last year. I could hear the waterfall from the road, but could I get down to it? It was very steep. Like practically vertical steep. At least that is what I remembered from my nightmares. When I arrived this weekend, and peered down into the canyon, I saw steep but it was not vertical steep. It was definitely do-able, but I could not see all the way down to the creek though, and it looked quite brushy down there. It was going to be a challenge but Leon the Waterfall Hunter was ready. Down I went. Weeeeeeeeeee ahhhhhh…..

The first part was not so hard getting down (getting back up was another story, however). I could not see any waterfall, but I could hear the creek, and I let my ears do the walking towards the loudest part of the creek. I knew there was a waterfall down there, but I was not sure exactly where on the creek it would be. Once I got down to the trees, I found a bit of a path, and it led me through most of the brushy-ness. Obviously people had been down here before. That in itself is a bit shocking. This canyon just seems too steep and remote, and who the heck would think there would be a waterfall down here anyway (besides me). There was a heckuva lot of poison oak down closer to the creek as well, and I eventually gave up trying to avoid it. Here’s hoping I don’t get the itch.

I could finally see the creek and a waterfall, and I made my way down to it. The last step was a doozy, I had to jump down from a rock to the creek level. Once down I turned around. Umm, how am I going to climb back up that rock? Oh well, let’s worry about that after I take pictures shall I? The waterfall is not a photogenic one, and it was not flowing very great, even after some recent rain we just had. This was the best view I could find, and I had to climb up a slippery rock to get to this spot, then slide back down the rock afterwards, all with camera and tripod in hand.

Now about climbing back up that other rock? There was just no way I could do it. I would be stuck down here forever. I looked around for another possibility, and I found one, managing to hook my rope around a tree branch and hoist my way back up the drop-off. It was a bit on the crazy side of things but it worked. Fortunately my wife will probably not read this because she is currently in Alaska. (don’t anyone tell her, ok) Haha. Back up through the poison oak, and up the very steep mountain. I was beat, but I made it. I can’t imagine I will ever be back down in this canyon, it is just too steep and difficult, but ask me again in a year, and I might give a different answer. I do think there are other waterfalls down there.

I went back to Slab Creek Reservoir this morning to try to get up close to Iowa Canyon Falls. It was not my first choice for hiking, but my first idea for a hike could not be done because it turned out to be on private property. So plan B it was, back to Slab Creek.

It was a BRRRRRRR …. very cold morning, the temps were below zero, there was ice on the road, and even snow in Placerville in some spots from the miniscule amount of precipitation we received a couple days ago. I am still hopeful for a big change to the current weather pattern by middle of February. So anyway, here I am down at the bottom of Iowa Canyon, trying to figure out how to get up close to this waterfall. The prickly brush lining the creek bed taunts me saying, yeah come on man, you can do it, we won’t hurt you, hee hee. Well I know better than to listen to those lies. It was wading up the creek bed I knew was the only way to go. Did I mention that it was a cold morning? The bridge over the creek was ice, I could slide the whole way across. Too bad I wasn’t younger, I might have had fun doing that instead of worrying about breaking my neck. I rolled up my pants and started up the creek (though first a bit through some of that prickly brush was a necessity – doh!). The creek was freezing. Yikes. The going was not too difficult however. I made it up to the base of the waterfall in short order. The last pool was a bit deep, coming up to my knees. Did I say it was cold? My feet were starting to get a bit numb, then I realized the only way to photograph this sucker would be standing in the middle of that freezing water.

I always attempt to photograph my waterfalls as best as I possibly can. That means being there in good lighting conditions, and just as important, finding the best composition that can be safely had. This is OFTEN not possible at waterfall locations. Some people have recently mentioned to me things like, this photo would be much better if not centered, or it would be better if you moved over to one side a bit, or it would be better if you did this or that. These people have never been to these waterfall locations, and do not realize those things are not even remotely possible. If I move over, I will fall off the cliff and die! There is one and only one composition of this waterfall, so it must be centered in the frame! Wake up and smell the coffee. Photographing waterfalls is often times much more difficult compared to other easy-to-get-to-within-a-very-short-walk-from-your-car general landscape scenes. Ok, end rant.

This waterfall is a perfect example. The angle from the base of the falls was severe. I could not get any closer to photograph due to the extreme mist from the falls, plus the angle was no good. If I moved to the left here, I would not be able to include the upper tier of the falls, and there would be too many branches in the way. If I moved to the right (which I would have liked to do), then that big rock would have obscured too much of the waterfall, plus I would have been standing up to my waist in a deep pool. This was the best possible composition, and it may not be a great angle, but it was the only one available.

There was only one problem with this. I had to stand in the creek to get this photograph. The freezing cold creek. So that is exactly what I did. I think I would have been fine if I did not have to stand in the creek to photograph. But by the time I was done (and believe me, I did not take very many photos), my feet were completely numb. Really bad. I don’t remember the last time my feet were so cold, probably not since skiing when I was a kid. I took my water shoes off and sat down on a rock, drying them with my towel, and trying to get some feeling back in my toes. I sat there about 20 minutes or so, and my feet were still numb;  I was getting a little bit of feeling back, but still they were very cold. I put my water shoes back on, now having to wade back down the creek, trying to stay out of the water as much as possible. Back at the bridge and walked quickly back to the car where I promptly turned on the heat and sat for another 20 minutes or so, trying to get my feet warm from the heater. My next purchase will be: waders.

I like surprises. At least I like surprise waterfalls. Surprise birthday parties not so much. This weekend I went to Slab Creek reservoir again. When I arrived at the parking area, I realized that my GPS was not working at all. I knew I had just charged the batteries so that should not be the issue, nonetheless I tried my backup batteries and they did not work either. What? The GPS was working perfectly fine just a couple days ago, and I know it was not dropped or anything. It just all of a sudden stopped working. Argh! Now it looks like I’m gonna have to buy a new one. Oh that is just peachy. Well, I did not think it was critical to have the GPS today. I wanted to see if I could hike up along the reservoir to Slab Creek inlet. However, I did not get very far. Not even past the dam. The reservoir was full so I definitely had no chance to hike up along the lake as I hoped to do. Strike one.

Next up was to try to get down to North Canyon Falls. This requires crossing the river below the dam. I don’t know why but I find this scary. What if they released water while I was on the wrong side of the river? Never mind that it would not happen. They keep the flow very constant and with no rain there would certainly be no release. Yet that reservoir sure looked very full. And why were the rocks all wet down below the dam if it hadn’t rained in a month? Hmmm. Anyway the river seemed too deep and fast to cross anyhow. Perhaps it could be done at the right spot but I was not motivated. I have to be motivated. Strike two.

I went up to photograph Iowa Canyon Falls next. I wasn’t really into doing this either. I already have a good shot of this falls but I figured I needed to get at least something this morning. There is too much prickly brush along the creek to get right up to the base of the falls (well, perhaps if I was motivated to do it!) so you need to climb up the bank and shoot the waterfall from a distance. I noticed that there were quite a lot of ticks in the grass but I was wary of them and I did not get any on me. Little freakin’ buggers. Ugh.

As I hiked back up to my car afterwards, bummed from a somewhat disappoingting morning thus far, I saw a trail going off the road and back down to the creek. Hmmm, that is interesting. I could see a small waterfall down there and it looked like the trail was going down to it, however another part of the trail continued up the creek, but I could not see what was around the corner. I did not think there would be anything but I decided to just go see anyway. I guess I was motivated enough to do this, despite the ticks and poison oak. I am sure glad I was because what to my surprise when I saw this nice waterfall hiding around the corner! Not a little one either, but a beautiful 33 foot high cascade! Getting up to it was a challenge though. There was a lot of prickly brush to get through. I also saw four old cars down here, two right in the creek and two on the hillside. I’m sure they’ve been there for fifty years or so. You really don’t like your car so much you have to drive it off a cliff into a creek! Crazy. It reminded me of back home in BC when I was a kid, people would drive their old cars off the cliff into the Columbia River. At the time, being so young, I thought this to be very fascinating. Anyway, once down at the creek I had to get my water shoes on and wade up the creek the rest of the way to the falls. This was to avoid all the prickly brush lining the creek bed. It was not hard but it sure was cold! Once at the waterfall I then had to cross a narrow fast moving channel to the other side to get the best viewpoint. Very carefully! Upper Iowa Canyon Falls sure is a marvelous cascade and it turned my morning from BLAH to GREAT. I do love waterfall surprises!