Leon Turnbull Photography

I wasn’t really too much into hiking this past weekend, but I forced myself to get out. I’m still not feeling so great. But I did get out, and I found this new waterfall in Bear Creek Canyon, near Placerville. It was a lot of effort to get to it, but definitely worth it. It is 40 ft. high, and definitely much better than I expected.

My original plan was to hike down into Bear Creek Canyon from above. However, it is all private property along Bear Creek Rd., and there was no access down into the canyon. So as I was leaving to go back, this guy came up to me. Here was our conversation (pretty much exactly):

him- what are you doing here (rudely)
me- just out for a morning drive. do you know if this is all private property around here?
him- yes, it is all private property. you need to get the F*** out of here. you have no F***ing business being here.
me- well, sir, I am leaving now. But I am on a public road and not trespassing.
him- I don’t give a F***. you have no F***ing right being here on this road. Leave the F*** now.
me- yes sir, that is what I am doing. Have a Happy Easter.

Actually, I wish I had said Happy Easter – but you get the general idea. What a total jerk.

Anyway, so I decided to go to Traverse Creek Falls instead, so the morning would not be a total loss. I’ll post that photo for you later. But once there, I decided to go downstream in an attempt to find the Lower Traverse Creek Falls. I’ve known about this lower falls for awhile, but I’m still not sure exactly where it is. This was my first serious attempt to find it. But I did not end up going far enough downstream. It is apparently much further downstream than I had thought. So that waterfall remains a mystery for another day. On the way back, I debated about going up Bear Creek to find the waterfall there. I was not really into it, but in the end I decided to go for it, as I was not sure when I would ever be back down there. So off I went. Scrambling up Bear Creek was not easy. It was quite overgrown, there was plenty of poison oak, and it involved criss-crossing the creek several times. On my way back out, I slipped and fell into the creek, hitting my jaw hard onto a log. The jaw is not broken, but it is badly bruised. And now I have a nice red mark on my jaw and neck. Good times. Anyway, after what seemed like forever (it took a full hour to hike up the creek a half-mile), I finally was rewarded and came upon this beauty of a waterfall, dropping 40 ft. down into a deep pool. Whew! It was one heck of an effort to reach, but I’d definitely have to say it was worth it. One of my favourite things is finding new waterfalls that not very many people know about or have been to. I also know there are more waterfalls above this one too. I’m not sure how to get up to them, but that’ll have to be a trip for another day.