Leon Turnbull Photography

My hike on Saturday was a bust. If I had made it where I was hoping, it would have been glorious, but that darn canyon wracks my nerves every time.

I had thought that if I could just climb up this certain ridge, *somewhere* deep within the American River canyon, after about a 600 ft. ascent, then I could easily get down the other side to where this *certain* waterfall was located. From the topo maps and GE it looked quite do-able. The worst part, it seemed, would be the ascent, and possibly quite cliffy, but definitely very steep with lots of poison oak. Well as it turned out the ascent was no problem, there was (surprisingly) even a trail to follow. There was just one sketchy section near the top, but I got past it to the top of the ridge. All right, I thought, I am actually going to make it. It will be a cakewalk from here. Then I looked down the other side. Nothing but cliff. It was much much cliffier on this other side, and no way was I getting down it in one piece. Ugh! Struck out again on this waterfall. Will I ever get to that one? Yes, I say, yes. But not today.

Well, after that mess, I really did not want a complete shutout from the weekend, so I went on a second hike. This would be an easy one, Hidden Falls in Auburn. I have been to it before, but I was hoping for something a bit different, thinking perhaps I could get down to the bottom of it. I knew it was steep at the overlook, but obviously had forgotten just how steep it was. When I arrived, I realized there was no possibility of getting down to the bottom safely. I could almost do it, maybe, with a rope, and I think some have perhaps done it, but it just seemed a bit too cliffy and unsafe, so I settled for the usual photo, settling my tripod up right beside the poison oak. The creek actually had more water flowing than last time I was here, and I was quite surprised to see this much flow.

What really bugged me, however, was the overlook here seems to have become somewhat of a garbage dump. A lot of people have just thrown their garbage down from the overlook, into places where it is impossible for anyone to go pick it up, and yet there is a trash can literally within a two minute walk of the overlook. What a$$holes. I hope those people get bitten by ticks and get lyme disease. Speaking of which, the ticks are definitely out now. I saw quite a few of the little buggers this weekend. So much for them dying off in the drought.

Now onto your El Nino update: if you missed my post earlier this past week (and thanks Facebook, it seems most people did miss it), *unofficially* El Nino 2015-16 has become the largest El Nino in recorded history, surpassing 1997-98. It is not official because El Nino is measured in three month segments, so we will need to wait a couple months for the official results, but when it comes out you are going to see that this year’s El Nino is not just a little stronger than 98, but a heckuva lot stronger than 98. It still has not even peaked yet. It is a monster. But will that translate into rain/snow? Well that is up to God of course, because He is the one that brings the rain, not El Nino. But He did bring us a monster El Nino. The very few storms we have had thus far this year have not had anything to do with El Nino, however I have heard an unsubstantiated rumour that this may change in early December, and we will start seeing those much anticipated El Nino storms. Stay tuned for that.