Leon Turnbull Photography

Well I think God was trying to tell me something on this backpacking trip. I mentioned that my belt buckle broke five minutes into the trip. In addition to this, my sunglasses broke, my tent mesh got a big hole in it (to let in all the mosquitoes), my hiking pole broke, my tripod broke (it was still workable but not very well), and my phone battery was almost dead (faster than it should have), but that is not the end of it.

I woke up early with the intention of continuing my hike up the canyon, even though my foot was extremely sore and I could barely walk on the big blisters. I looked at the river and saw that it was much higher than the night before, and this had me even more concerned, which I will explain in a bit. Nonetheless, the idea was to hike up to the upper Rancheria Falls, take photos, then come back and pack up, and continue the hike up to Tiltill Valley and Vernon Lake.

There is not a good angle of the upper falls from this side of the river, so I figured I would cross above the falls on the bridge and try to get down to the bottom on the other side. I only got halfway down. In order to continue, I would have to trounce through a huge swath of poison oak. Ummm, no thank you. I did not want to get to the bottom that badly. It was a pretty good view from this halfway point beside the creek, which was absolutely roaring and incredible, so I took some photos, then decided to go back up and try going down on the other side. That was actually quite do-able and I made it all the way to the bottom, and found a ledge right in front of the falls which was amazing. You cannot see the entire waterfall from there but it is still a spectacular viewpoint. And that is when it happened: I realized I had left my extra memory cards for the camera back at the car. Doh! Major stupidity strikes again! The sun was coming out, so I frantically deleted some photos that I did not need in order to take some shots of the upper falls from this location, but that was the final straw. I could not continue my hike now, no matter what. I would not be able to take any more photos if I continued on, so what would be the point? With my foot being so sore and the river rising I was already trying to really justify in my mind how wise it would be to continue, but now I knew I had to go back. I enjoyed eating my breakfast at the bottom of the falls as the sun came out, then walked back to my campsite to pack up.

It was a long and hot hike back to the Hetch Hetchy trailhead. When I finally got back to the Wapama Falls bridge, I found quite a big difference in the river. I got very wet crossing the bridge (remember, I was completely dry crossing it the day before). It was extremely misty, and water was starting to splash onto the bridge. It was cold (but felt great on the hot day). I found out later that the Tuolumne River had risen from 900 cfs to 1400 cfs overnight (Falls Creek is proportionally similar to the Tuolumne, so it is a good measure). That is a huge increase in one day, and it is much more substantial than I had expected. If it increased at this rate, then in a couple days Falls Creek would be in the danger zone, and it could be potentially deadly to cross the bridge, especially considering that I was planning to cross at Vernon Lake, which is more dangerous to cross than at Wapama. I could be stuck on the wrong side of the creek with no food and no way to get home for days! Could this be why God wanted me to go back early? I suspect so. As it turned out, the river did keep rising during the week but not quite at that initial rate. Had I continued to Vernon Lake, the creek may have still been crossable, but it would definitely be on the edge of the safe level.

When I got to the car, my foot was very sore, and I was extremely tired. There is no way I could do any more hiking anytime soon. Thankfully, I had cold soda in the cooler. I downed three of them promptly, then went to eat a whole pizza at my favorite place back in Groveland. Nice.