Leon Turnbull Photography

I got up in the middle of the night to go to the bathroom, and my tent zipper broke. I was fiddling with it in the dark for quite some time, and I could not get it fixed. I did not think I’d even be able to get back in the tent, but mostly I was worried mosquitoes would get in to the tent. There was now a big hole and no way to close it. Finally I opened the zipper, got in, and then closed it so there were no gaps. Now I was worried I would not be able to get out in the morning. I did, but the zipper is in bad shape now. I cannot afford a new tent. Maybe my wife can fix it (I hope).

It was supposed to be below 40 degrees at night. I brought extra warm clothes and sleeping gear, which added quite a few pounds to my pack. Argh. I did not need them! It was not cold at all, nowhere near 40 degrees. Thanks, Mr. Weatherman.

I got up at 5AM. I wanted to get an early start back home. I HATE driving through Placerville. It takes like 45 minutes to get through that stupid town, especially on Sundays with all the Tahoe traffic. Maybe if I got there before noon, it would not be so bad. I packed up my gear, had breakfast and headed up the hill. I had to climb 1200 ft. back to the PCT, from there it would be a long but easy hike back to the car. On the way down, it took 6 hours. On the way back, it took 4 hours. And that is with that big uphill climb! I was booting it back hard, but I still don’t know how it took so much less time. Nonetheless, even though it was before noon, Placerville still sucked!

This was a surprise waterfall, found on an unnamed creek flowing down into Pleasant Valley. It is at least 20 ft. high. I had to cross the creek to get down to my campsite, and it was the biggest by far of all the creeks I had to cross; it had strong flow for an unnamed creek. It was not dangerous or anything, but the water was up to my knees when I crossed. I am calling it Raymond Peak Falls. It is a pretty thing.