Leon Turnbull Photography

So I had a great old big epic hike planned this past weekend, but I slept like crap, the animals kept me awake most of the night, and my back started hurting again that night for no particular reason at all. I decided to sleep in a bit longer and do a much easier hike: Stony Creek.

The rain had stopped and the sun was trying to come out. This was unexpected. I expected more rain. As I drove up the road, I drove past a sign saying “Road Closed”. I couldn’t figure out why that sign was there anyway. The road is paved and not gated, it might make sense if the road was not paved. Anyway I figured it must be fine to continue on the road as it must be there because of snow, but the snow had all melted now, so therefore it was perfectly acceptable to keep driving, and besides, many other cars had already gone up the road in previous days. I made it almost all the way to the trailhead before I hit a big old snow patch. I parked along the side of the road and hiked.

It was 4 miles one way, but mostly easy going, not much elevation gain/loss on this hike. At the high point of the hike, I came along quite a bit of snow to trudge through, but fortunately it was hard packed and I did not sink in. Continuing on, I soon lost the snow as I started to descend into the canyon. After four miles of hiking I was close to the creek, I just had to get off the road and go straight down. This part was a bit hair raising.

The ground was thoroughly saturated, and not to mention I was hiking through the fire area, so all this made it very dicey to descend the steep hill. The ground was incredibly slick. I slipped once. I slipped twice. I slipped a third time right into a big huge hole. I could have easily broke my leg in that hole, but thankfully there was no damage. After that, I was a lot more careful. Indeed, I took one step at a time, making sure each foothold was secure. It was getting much steeper as I got closer to the creek and waterfall now. I certainly would not want to slip right off a cliff. It wasn’t cliffy actually, but it was steep for sure. I still could have had quite a big spill if I slipped, but I was done with slipping. I made it down to the falls.

I thought this waterfall was incredibly pretty, a 60 ft. high waterfall in two tiers. It was hard to see the upper tier, but the lower tier was pretty just by itself. The sun was really trying to come out now, but never quite made it, and I was able to take some nice shots of the falls before hiking back up the mountain. Then the rain started up again.

I picked up a lot of trash on the hike back up. I couldn’t believe the amount of beer cans I found, some of which were clearly burned in the fire a couple years ago, but some other ones were much newer. So annoying. I also found something very strange. Someone had left their weed in a container that was shaped like a moose, or a pig, or a pig-moose. I have seen a lot of stuff and trash left on the trails, but this is a first. People don’t usually just throw out their pot on the side of the road.

I got back to the car, and started driving home. I came back to that ‘road closed’ sign (remember that?), and there I saw a ranger driving up the road. Clearly he must have seen that I was on the wrong side of that sign, and I wondered if he was going to stop me, but he did not. I wonder, though, if I had finished my hike about an hour or so later, if he would have ticketed my car for parking in the forbidden zone. He clearly was very ticket happy today, that is for sure. Why would I say such a thing? Well, I drove back down the hill and wanted to check out Bassi Falls, to see if the road was open yet. It was not open, which I do not understand, because their website says it is open now. But there were some cars parked along the road, one of which was parked right in front of the gate. And guess what? He had a ticket from the ranger in his window. Poor guy shouldn’t have parked in front of the gate, I guess, even though there were no signs and it was obvious no one would be opening said gate. I’m just glad I got off the mountain before he got to my car. Heh heh. And what if he had searched my car and saw that weed? Oh my oh my. LOL.

No early morning hiking this past weekend. My daughter had a skating event which I had to go to. But afterwards … I wanted to drive up Foresthill Rd as far as I could go. Where would I end up? (besides in the ditch or off a cliff).

Well … the results are in … I know you all want to know … I made it just past Beacroft, not quite to Ford Pt. There was surprisingly not all that much snow up there, I was expecting a lot more and not be able to drive even that far. In a week or two you could probably drive up to and past Ford Pt, but for now there was a big snow patch. I parked there and got ready to hike, and as I was doing so, a couple separate cars came up and continued to drive through the first snow patch. Both of them very nearly got stuck. I was certain I was going to need to help push them out of their stupidity. Both of them made it through, however, then realized they had to turn around anyway because there was a second much more substantial snow patch immediately following. I left them to their amusements, and climbed up the steep hill through the snow to Ford Pt and to infinity and beyond.

From my car it would be a 6.5 mile hike ONE WAY. The elevation would be substantial, a lot of up and down hiking, up 500 ft., down 500 ft., up 300 ft., down 300 ft., up 12,000 ft., down 12,000 ft., you get the picture. All in all, it would be about 2600 ft. in total. I would not be getting back to the car before dark. I know physically I can do a 13 mile hike, but mentally not so much. I kept telling myself to turn back, I do not really want to do this, no keep going to the next junction, it’s not far, no this is utterly ridiculous, I will be attacked by mountain lions when I return in the dark. Well, my inner motivator won out and I kept going … onwards and upwards.

There was not a lot of snow, as I said, but there were many snow patches along the way, and a few of them were over 3 ft. deep, which I had to walk through. Without snowshoes. Fortunately, the snow was packed enough that I did not sink in. Otherwise, I might still be buried out there somewhere. I found an odd little bike beside the road at one point, against a tree, and beside it what seemed like a makeshift campsite, mostly just a tarp strewn over a bunch of camp items. Basically, just garbage left there, and far too much to pick up on my way back. It had obviously been there a while. But it made me wonder what happened to the biker? It was just a small little one gear bike but it seemed perfectly good. Why leave it there? Most likely he was eaten by a bear while he was sleeping there because he did not secure his food properly. That’s my working theory.

I arrived down at the bottom of the canyon a little after 5PM. I was expecting a waterfall twice as big, but I found just a small 26 ft. high falls. That is a heckuva long hike for such a small waterfall. Up to this point the hike was fairly easy, but the last section down to the creek was very cliffy and very brushy. I could not find a way down to the bottom. I searched around frantically, I had no time to waste now, and finally found a view of the upper most portion of the falls (20 ft.), from a rock which had steep dropoffs all around, but I got out to it carefully, setup my tripod, took my photos, then got the heck out of there.

As I said, I had no time to waste. It was now 5:40PM. I did not want to leave any later than this to hike back. I was tired but I booted it back up the mountain, only stopping for a couple short breaks along the way. The final 500 ft. climb back up to Ford Pt was in the dark, but I saw no critters, and I got back to the car at 8:10PM, about 30 minutes after dark.

This was the longest hike of the season so far, and I forgot one important thing about these hikes. It takes two days for me to recover from them. Getting to sleep that night was difficult because of my achy bones, and I had to get up early in the morning to play drums at church. Not just one service but two services. I was dead tired. There was no way I could stay awake for the second service. Fortunately, I was saved by my son’s Sunday school teacher. She always (or often) brings donuts for the kids, and had some extras today. Whew, that was the only thing that got me through that second service. Nonetheless, when I got back home I was beat and took a long nap in the afternoon. Sweet, however I was still tired at work on Monday, and next weekend I need to do it all over again. Ha!

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.

I lied to you. So sorry about that. Really. I said that I was not going back to Moore Creek again until spring at the earliest. Well I went back this weekend. I am nuts about this Creek this year for some reason. Go figure. Technically, as of this weekend it is officially spring now, so it is not really a lie. To me, though, spring is April and May, not March, and that is what I had meant. Anyway, I went back. And I found not one, but two more waterfalls on this crazy awesome creek. It was crazy awesome difficult to get there, however.

It is well over a 2000 foot climb in elevation from the trailhead. Wow. For the most part, it is OK because you are hiking on a road or  trail. It’s that last bit though that is killer. I had to scramble up the mountain side along the creek; it was not cliffy but it sure was steep. There was no snow and I really had expected to need my snowshoes for this hike. There was snow last time I was here, and we just had two huge storms, but it is all melted now. It is difficult to know when you are 2000 ft below your destination if you are going to need snowshoes, but I did not take them on the hike. Good decision. My back thanked me. Anyway, I found this 28 foot high waterfall. It was too difficult to photograph from below, due to all the trees and brush so I found a spot to photograph it from the side. Even though I was physically beat, I then climbed to the top of the falls and continued upstream another half-mile. I will never be back here again so I had to finish exploring this creek, and now I can say I am officially done with Moore Creek. I found another 20 foot high Falls upstream, and that one was almost identical in appearance to the first one, just a tad smaller. It also had too many trees and brush at the bottom and I had to photograph it from the side as well. So these waterfalls were not super awesome big ones, and it was way too hard to get to them, but I was definitely happy to have found them. It was much easier going back down the mountain but nonetheless I was dead tired when I got back to the car. I dunked myself in the freezing creek at the bottom to cool off. Refreshing!   It was another great day on Moore Creek.