Leon Turnbull Photography

Well I did have a big big hike planned this past weekend. It was going to be glorious. However, on Friday, we got over a foot of new snow along the I-80 summit precisely where I was planning to go. That is fantastic, especially in May, but I did not think I would be able to drive through all that new snow on roads that had not been plowed. I could not think of anywhere else I would want to go. So I gave up and slept in. (it was easier to give up than you might think – haha).

The next day I felt that I needed to do “something”, “anything”, nothing too hard, but at least “something”. I came up with the idea of going back to Rocky Canyon. I was pretty sure there was another waterfall on this creek, and with it getting some good spring flow now, I knew it was time to go back to it.

It is a steep climb up the mountain. If you don’t know where you are going, you get to go through brush as well. I went through brush. (on the way back down, I found the proper route – no brush- much better, but you do have to walk  a bit more along the crazy highway). I took photos of the lower falls. The last time I was here, my camera broke when I got to the falls. All I could take was a crappy iPhone photo. This time I got a better photo, but it is still a tough one to shoot. The terrain is very steep.

I continued up the mountain. One thousand feet up. Straight up. It is not a hike for pussy foots. I finally came to the upper falls, which I could see, but I screwed up. I tried to get down to the bottom but it is very steep, and very brushy, and even using my rope to help me get down, I could find no decent view of the cascade. What a wasted effort. Then it started to hail, and hail a lot. I packed up and got back up to the trail, where I put on my rain jacket. I was good now, and ready to go back down to the car with no decent shots. But the hail stopped, and I thought maybe I should try going further up the trail and see if there might be any more waterfalls up there. I am glad I did!

I found a very easy path over to the top of the falls, no steep terrain, and a clear view and shot right in front of this magnificent 49 ft. high drop. It was pretty much perfect. It was well worth the quick trip up from the valley, and the short but steep hike up to the falls. By the time I got back down to the car, it was snowing, and snowing  hard. I love that kind of weather!

Winter is over. Spring is here. It’s the end of the world. (in my view, anyway). Everyone, media and otherwise, is saying that El Nino was so awesome this year, El Nino saved us, El Nino filled all our reservoirs, El Nino gave us a such a large snow pack, El Nino made a huge impact on our drought, El Niño this, El Niño that, blah, blah, blah. Well what do you think? To be honest, I am disappointed. I was expecting a lot more from the super big El Nino. Let’s be very clear: El Nino *did* make an impact on our winter in California. If we did not have El Nino this year, we would have had another awful year, and I am very grateful to God for sending the El Nino to give us drought relief and a decent winter. Nonetheless, we still have serious drought. Southern California had a horrible winter again. El Nino is supposed to make a big impact to southern California, and not so much in the north. In fact, it was the opposite: the north fared much better than the south. What are the numbers? We finished the winter with 125% of average precipitation in the north (less than 100% in the Southern Sierra Nevada). The snow pack results are worse: 97% of normal in the north, 88% in the central, and 72% in the south. So basically, we only had an average winter in the north, and a below average winter in the south. And yet I still hear people complain that we had too much rain this year in California. Are you kidding me? I would have hoped that we would end up well above average from a super El Nino in both the north and south. It gives me trepidation for the future. Next year we will be either ENSO neutral or have a weak La Nina, so does that mean we are back to the drought?

Well enough of that, on to better news …

I knew there was another waterfall above Burstarse Falls. But how could you get up to it? If you think you know the way yourself then you will be disappointed, but if you want to know the proper route, then you will find it on my website.
http://waterfallswest.com/waterfall.php?id=upper-burstarse-falls-890

It is a killer climb, very steep, very difficult, very brushy, very crumbly loose rocks, and very cliffy. Did I miss anything? I really did not think I would get anywhere close to the falls. The total elevation gain on the hike is well over 2000 ft. and unfortunately I could not get the view of the waterfall that I wanted because it was too cliffy. No sense in dying just yet. I scrambled around for quite a while, and finally found a side view of the waterfall from the edge of a cliff to get this shot. Well, better this than nothing. It is a sweet looking waterfall slide for sure, 102 feet high, and the view from here is hard to beat with the Crags looming above you and an amazing view of the canyon. It did feel like I was at the end of the world.

It was a tough climb down the mountain, and I was dead tired when I got back to the car but I didn’t break any ankles on those loose rocks (it was close).

The next day, Easter Sunday morning, we were in church service, my kids were sitting in between my wife and I. I was sitting there rubbing my eye like crazy as it was very itchy. My wife is waving at me from the other end of the pew, as if to say what the heck is wrong with you? I’m like, huh? By evening, the verdict was in: My eye was all puffed up. I had poison oak in my eye. Oh crikey! I have only had poison oak in my eye once before, which was probably about 8 or so years ago. That was in both eyes, and it was so bad I had to go to the doctor. At that time, my daughter was very young and thought I was an alien from another planet. She would not go anywhere near me. Thankfully this time, she is older and wiser, and knows I am not an alien (or perhaps I have done well fooling her). Nonetheless, how did I get poison oak? There was no oak on this entire hike that I saw anywhere. I’m thinking it might have been on a different hike. That same afternoon, my wife, brother-in-law, and I went on a short geocaching adventure, and we did see poison oak. I absolutely did not touch it, but it was very “ripe”, just oozing with urushiol oil. At the time, I joked that all I have to do is look at the stuff and I will get poison oak. I seriously think that is what happened. The fumes in the oak leaves must have just wafted up to my eye. Invisible wafting oils? You no doubt think I am crazy, that is not possible, which is what my wife and brother-in-law think, but the only other alternative is I got the oak from the hike in which there was no poison oak. Either way, it is not fun. Oh and at the same time as all this, I have a mysterious bite on my back. It is all puffed up like a tick bite, but there were no embedded ticks, and I did not see any of them on my hike either. Invisible wafting ticks? Most definitely not fun.

It was not quite the shot I envisioned. But it was not too bad.

I was up at the speck of dawn, before 4 AM. It is a long drive up to the Castle Crags trailhead, and I arrived about an hour before sunrise. The weather report hinted of partly cloudy skies, but it was pretty iffy, about a 50% chance. There were some clouds around, but nothing, nada, at the trailhead. I sent up a little prayer, in fact I was pretty much praying for clouds the entire drive. I did not particularly want (actually had no desire whatsoever) to make a long hike in the dark with no prospect of a decent sunrise. So I started my hike in the dark anyway. Surely God would not let me down this morning.

The trail starts out with a bang, a 500 foot elevation gain up to the Pacific Crest Trail in a half mile. I made it up in no time at all, in fact it felt like I had only climbed 200 feet. I couldn’t believe I was already at the top of the ridge. The only explanation is that because it was so dark, and I was freaked out about lions hiding in every shadow, and I was so pumped on adrenaline that I did not notice the elevation in the hike. Well I did not see any lions, or tigers, or bears. Or anything at all. All I heard was the sound of fast rushing Castle Creek far below me, and the occasional sounds of little critters in the bushes (which also freaked me out).

So I arrived at Burstarse Creek on time, just before sunrise. I could not find the view that I wanted with the waterfall in the foreground and the Crags looming above. That’s because the view did not exist. I suppose I should have researched it a bit more beforehand but my writeup from the last time I was here said: “you will be able to see both the upper falls and lower falls from the trail (with the Castle Crags in the background providing an amazing backdrop)”. I did find that view but it was obscured and certainly not photo worthy. Nonetheless, I continued up the trail and found a decent shot to take with the Crags and a portion of the upper waterfall. And lo and behold there were a few clouds, and a little bit of color. Not much but thank you, Lord, for this. So it was not the shot I had envisioned, but it was not too bad.

I then proceeded up to the main waterfall, which as I said I have been to before.

So do you really think I came all the way out here again to Burstarse Falls just for a sunrise shot? Think again matey. But to find out what comes next, you will have to wait for my next post.

(as opposed to Beer and Whiskey)

Here is one more brand new discovery for ya. That’s two in one weekend (I am referring to MLK weekend, and in case you are wondering why this post is a week late, don’t – haha). Not too shabby anyway. This falls is in Whiskeytown National Recreation Area. Surprise. I bet you thought there were no other waterfalls at Whiskeytown, didn’t you? Wait, didn’t I just say that same thing in my last post?

A big huge storm rolled in on Sunday so that day was pretty much shot for hiking. By Monday morning the storm was done and I headed out, up to Whiskeytown for what should have been a fairly short hike. It never works out that way with the waterfall madman. You should know that by now.

The hike started out very pleasant. The weather was about perfect, following on the heels of the latest of the storms, the sun trying to break through the clouds. The trail led across a major stream (which I had to wade across – it was freezing cold but my feet were toasty in my wet socks), then it climbed up and up alongside the stream. The sound of the fast rushing creek was music to my drought stricken ears, and I’m sure that is what put me in such a good mood. Then the trail ended. Well so much for my pleasant hike. The route was very overgrown as I headed down down and down. Eventually the terrain just became too steep to continue, surprisingly too steep. I had to give up on that effort this time, but all was not done for my day just yet.

Remember a few years ago when a ranger “discovered” Whiskeytown Falls? It was a major news item, international news in fact. But why? What is the big deal about finding a new waterfall? How many waterfalls have I discovered in the last few years? Lots! And how many of them made big news? None! And here is a brand-new one in the same park! Will it make international news? Of course not. Well this one is not as spectacular as Whiskeytown Falls of course, but it is a really nice one nonetheless.

And there are other undiscovered waterfalls at Whiskeytown as well, I am sure of that. After my first hike failed, I decided to explore this other Creek, which is actually quite a major Creek, though it is unnamed. There was, unfortunately, quite a lot of poison oak, but I made my way down to the creek, and worked my way up stream. In short order I could see a waterfall. I had to go through a lot of oak, crawl over a huge log, and carefully make my way up along the steep side of the creek bed. I finally arrived at the falls. It is a pretty one, 36 feet high. I guess you could say that it is unfortunate that log is cutting off the top of it, but on the other hand, I think the log gives quite a bit of character to the waterfall (kinda like Lion Slide Falls, for example). So it’s not too bad at all. I would have liked to explore more, but I was poison oaked out, not to mention quite tired.

As I hiked back up the trail, I came across a deer coming down towards me. It saw me clearly, but instead of running away like deer usually do, it kept coming for me, straight for me. It totally freaked me out. What did it think it was doing? I am a human! We kill deer and eat them for breakfast! Well, not me personally. I even backed off a bit, to give it more space to pass me, otherwise it would’ve passed within a couple feet of me. It came to within less than 10 feet of me, then decided to go off the path and up into the woods away from me. Whoa that was crazy. First killer cows, and now killer deer? What is the world coming to?

Meet Double Falls. A brand-new waterfall I just discovered on Table Mountain in Oroville. And you thought there were no other good waterfalls on Table Mountain. This one is a beauty, 47 feet high and it was quite the adventure getting there.

I arrived at the trailhead just as the rain was letting up in the morning. Perfect timing. It should be great hiking weather now that the rain was supposed to be all done for the day. Yeah right.

I hiked first to Phantom Falls again. That waterfall was flowing a bit stronger than the week before. Everything was just a wee bit better this week (just like the Scottish – haha). I took more pictures of Phantom and then made my way across the stream at the top. I had to go even further upstream this time in order to avoid getting wet feet. The cow bones were still there. This time I found the rib cage of said cow, right in the middle of the creek. Freaky.

Hiking across the mountain, I made my way over to the top of Double Falls. I had to find a way to the bottom but of course I went down the wrong way. Being as it is so steep and cliffy here, I thought I should go down where the slope was gentler, and then hike back upstream to the falls. I accidentally scared up a bunch of cows on the way down. They took off like gangbusters down towards the cliff edge and then scrambled up the cliff to the top of the mountain. They thought they were mountain goats! Not kidding.

I made it down to the bottom, but there was no clear path upstream and it was very overgrown. I was hiking through a jungle. At least there was no poison oak (well, I didn’t see any but so then why did I get the itch after this hike??? ugh!!) Despite the crazy jungle, I finally made it upstream to the waterfall. It is a beauty, with two separate streams coming together and dropping off a cliff into a marvelous double waterfall. As soon as I arrived, it started to rain again. I thought the rain was done for the day! It is a difficult waterfall to photograph anyway but even more so in the rain, so I waited a long time for the rain to stop, but it did not want to. I finally gave up, hoping that I got a decent shot in the rain. Besides, I was getting far too wet sitting there.

Clearly people have been down here before, but I believe I am the first to document this waterfall. There was a path and on the way back I followed it up, going a different way back up the mountain. I was a bit concerned, because there was a very steep ravine that I saw on the way down. How would I get past that? It would suck to get halfway up the mountain, and then get blocked out and have to go all the way back down. It looked like that would happen as I approached the ravine, but then I saw the path continued and I was able to get across. It was actually much easier than the way I had gone down. No crazy jungle mass to hack my way through. It was a fantastic rainy day on Table Mountain.