Leon Turnbull Photography

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!

If I am going to get up super early in the morning to go hiking, I need to be motivated. Some weekends I feel more like sleeping in than getting up to go hiking. Funny that. Sometimes, it does not take much to motivate me, other times it takes a sledgehammer. This weekend was one of those sledgehammer type weekends. I did not feel much like driving a long way from home to go on a big hike, so I was initially thinking I would just go somewhere close to home, but I wasn’t really much into that either when I thought about my options for close to home hikes. As I pondered my dilemna, I thought about Deadwood Creek. I had heard of a big waterfall on this creek a couple years ago, and have been wanting to try to get to it for a long time, especially since a friend recently sent me some photos of the waterfall (actually, photos of him kayaking off the waterfall – he is one of my crazier acquaintances). It seemed to be a good time to try it. Even though it was a long drive from home, I was now motivated. The plan was set. This was on Tuesday. Now I just had to wait for the weekend to arrive!

Saturday arrived, and I was still motivated. Excited even. I got up early and started the long drive out to the trailhead. Did I say it was a long drive? Deadwood Creek is way out in the land of nowhere, many miles past Clipper Mills (if you know where that is, and you probably do not). It is about an hour drive past Marysville, well you probably have heard of that town at least. It was a freezing cold day, below 20 degrees, and as I drove past Clipper Mills, I came upon snow. Oops, I did not anticipate this. The last few miles requires driving on a dirt forestry road. With snow on the ground, would I even be able to reach the trailhead? The answer was a big fat NO. The road had obviously been driven on, however, there was a big snow patch stopping me from proceeding. If I had more clearance on my SUV I could have made it, but I did not want to risk getting stuck way out here, that would be very uncool. So … what do I do? Go home? After driving all the way out here to nowhere land, and not even able to start any hike at all? Nope. Well, I suppose I could just hike along the dirt road to the trailhead. It would be about 3 miles. So instead of a difficult 3 mile hike, I would have a difficult 9 mile hike. I had the time, and most importantly, I still had the motivation. Time to hike.

With the late start and the extra long hike, I would be getting to the waterfall much later than expected (if at all), but from my prior calculations I knew that the sun would not be hitting the waterfall until at least noon. I had loads of time. If it were otherwise, I would not even have started the hike. Photography is perhaps THE most critical part of my waterfallin’ exploits. I absolutely hate getting to a waterfall and not being able to take a good photograph of it. Sometimes it is just not possible to get to waterfalls in good lighting conditions, but I do a lot of preparation beforehand to make sure the odds are in my favor. For this one, I should certainly have lots of time but already it seemed the sun was high in the sky and shining down into the canyons. Did I make an error in my calculations?

The trail down to Deadwood Creek and the North Yuba River is a dirt road, descending a whopping 1200 ft. in 1.5 miles. It was going to be a killer hike back out of the canyon. At the top of the trail I saw bear prints in the snow. Aren’t these dudes supposed to be sleeping right now? Hmmm. The hike down was fairly quick, and I saw no bears or other wildlife, except for some horrid squirrels and the thunderous quail. At the bottom of the canyon there is a powerhouse; they suck the lifeblood out of Deadwood Creek above the waterfall and siphon it down into the powerhouse along the river. Argh. Why do they need a powerhouse here? It irks me to no end. Frankly, I was not even sure there would be any flow at all in the creek. Not because of the powerhouse, but because it was so darn cold. I really thought the creek would be completely frozen. That would be just splendid. Drive all the way out here, hike all the way down to the creek, and then find no waterfall at all.

When I finally got to the bottom, I could see (happily) that I was wrong about the flow in the creek. It was flowing, and at a pretty darn good clip to boot. The last section down to the falls is steep so I used my rope to help me scale down the treacherous slope. I felt like a canyoneer. Once at the bottom, I needed to cross the creek and make my way up to the falls on the other side. Deadwood Creek Falls drops 43 ft. into a large and deep pool, and I was able to get down right in front of the falls. It was icy and cold and magnificent. And the water in the pool was just wow, such an incredibly intense blue green color. I was so happy how my photograph turned out, and how my camera portrayed this amazing scene before me. And the hike back out of the canyon? Much easier than I anticipated. I had heard horror stories about the hike up, a hike that would suck the lifeblood out of you worse than the powerhouse. Not so. It was not easy by any means, but the grade on the trail was mostly very good, with plenty of switchbacks. I have done far worse hikes than this one. It was surely a beautiful cold winter day in the North Yuba River canyon.

Here is one more view of North Fork Falls in the snow. Which do you like better?

We are getting a huge storm this weekend here in northern California. Up to 8 feet of snow over the weekend in the Tahoe area, up to 14 feet in the Shasta area. This storm will bombard us right through almost to Christmas Day. It is going to be crazy crazy!