Leon Turnbull Photography

After the debacle at Yosemite I felt I had to get in one more good hike before going back to work. Wrights Lake in the Desolation Wilderness was the ticket. 

Getting to Wrights Lake early in spring is impossible. In a normal year it is not accessible until at least mid June. It is usually among the very last of the roads to open. Yet I’ve always wanted to get up there in spring. By mid June the creeks are not flowing much (and we won’t even mention the mosquitoes). This year, this awful drought year, Wrights Lake is already open. It actually has been open for more than a month now. I finally got the determination to make the trip. I hoped with the recent two feet of snow which is now melting profusely, the waterfalls would have some good flow happening. 

I hoped to see three new waterfalls all in good light. Eleven miles of hiking. In order to do that I had to get up at 3:30AM. Ugh. I almost didn’t make it but I forced myself. 

There was snow on the ground when I arrived so I decided to carry my very heavy snow shoes. I didn’t need them to start at 7000 ft but I would be climbing up to 7900 ft. I did not use them until I hit 7900 ft, at which point I found a lot of snow all of a sudden. I certainly needed them, I would have been skumped if I did not take them. 

The first falls was at Umpa Lake. Just a small one, it was nice but the flow was low. I was expecting a lot more snow melt and it was a bit disappointing. After that I scooted over to Gertrude Lake. I calculated I had until 8AM before it would be in sun. However it took much longer than anticipated to get over there, and I arrived at 8:30AM. Too late, right? Well maybe not. The lower section was in the sun but the upper section was not. I crossed the creek and quickly climbed up to the upper tier (which was slightly crazy and involved almost breaking my foot stepping into an unseen hole).  But I was able to get a shot. The third falls is on the same creek but further down stream. It was the nicest of the three but it was in full sun when I arrived. Which really bugged me because I had calculated it would be in shade until 11AM. I thought I had lots of time.  Not even close. The same thing happened to me at nearby Crystal Basin Falls a couple years ago. There is something weird in the terrain there. I can’t explain it. 

Well I had my lunch at the lower falls then made the long hike back to the car, getting sun burned in the process. But it was worth it. A glorious day in the Desolation Wilderness. 

My annual pilgrimage to Yosemite this year was mostly disastrous. But all was not lost.

I had big plans. Starting with Friday evening after work, I left immediately for Yosemite. I arrived right on time for my evening hike except for one thing: the road was too rough to drive any further. I could have walked from there to the trailhead but it was still a couple miles away, and it was getting too late. I would have been walking back in the dark and that is not anything I desired. I salvaged that evening though by going to one of my favorite spots, the confluence of the south and middle forks of the Tuolumne River. It is an amazing area with three magnificent waterfalls side-by-side-by-side. I love this location but it is not one I had intended to go to this time. I consoled myself by getting some new and different compositions of these waterfalls. More to come on this later.

The rain started at 1 AM, and it rained pretty much nonstop all night and all through the next day. I was sleeping in my car so I was dry, but not warm. I don’t know what it is with me and sleeping bags and the cold. My wife insists I am from Mexico although really I am from Canada, so you *might* think that the cold would not bother me. I bought a new sleeping bag for this trip which is rated at 20°F. So that means, I would think, that if it is 20°F then I would be snug and warm in my sleeping bag. Not for me! The temperature got down to only 46° and I was still freezing cold. The next night it was about 36 degrees. I will leave it to you to imagine how I fared that night.

When I woke the next morning I knew it was going to be a rough day for hiking, and I was right. My anticipated hike was going to be a glorious one, but I knew I would not be able to make it in the rain. I did try … however the snow level was at about 4700 feet elevation, much lower than expected, and my hike was at 6700 feet. I had no chance of getting there. I tried another hike at around the 4700 foot level, and I hiked about 8 miles in the heavy falling snow, but I did not get to any waterfalls. It was just too tough in this weather and I got very soaked. I had a big backpack trip still planned and now I somehow had to get everything dry before the next morning. The rain was not letting up either.

I arrived at Hetch Hetchy in the afternoon. My idea was to hike to Wapama Falls in the evening, and then the next day do the same hike again except all the way to Rancheria Falls. The reason for going to Wapama Falls in the evening was to photograph the waterfall in good light. This falls is in the sun most of the day and getting good photos of it is very difficult if not impossible, considering that the park is not open until well after sunrise and closes well before sunset (that, by the way, is one of my big pet peeves). It is also especially difficult to photograph when there is so much mist and it is raining, but that’s another story. I was the last one off the trail and back at the campsite just before dark.

I survived the night. It was a close thing. I wanted to sleep in the next day, take it easy in the morning, and then casually make the hike out to Rancheria Falls. In the morning I packed up my gear and was just about to load the big weight upon my shoulders when someone came by and told me that the dam was closed. There was a rockslide. What?!?! Are you kidding me?? I went down to talk to the Ranger who told me the slide must have happened during the night and they did not know when the trail would be open again. She said it was a big slide … yeah right. It was so big it did not even make the news. I could be wrong, but I suspect that it was just a small slide, and indeed if I had started my hike early in the morning before the park opened I think I probably could have gotten past it without any problems. In fact, there was another backpacker in the camp who was doing the same thing as I was. When I woke up he was gone, and I think he got an early start and was able to get by the rock slide without issues. Although perhaps he is the one that caused the rockslide. Who knows. Anyway, there was nothing to do but go home. Clearly God did not want me to hike to Rancheria Falls that day, but why I do not know, because it would have been awesome. I thought about going somewhere else, but I was tired so I just decided to head back home and try again another year.  At least I was able to get my annual pilgrimage lunch at the Pizza Factory in Groveland.

I had no intention whatsoever of going to the South Yuba River Falls again. However, my planned hike failed miserably and this was my only consolation prize.

I started my hike at 5:37 AM in the dark, seven minutes late. It was 37°. I was trying out some new light clothing I just purchased, in preparation for my upcoming annual Yosemite pilgrimage. This would be a good test. It was a long sleeve merino wool shirt and the REI Revel cloud down jacket. They are both light as a feather and I thought for certain it was too cold to wear this, surely I would need something else as well. And yet, as I prepared to start my hike I did not feel too cold at all. Once I got going I was warm, actually even too warm. The new clothes are top notch and passed the test with flying colors, however the wool did give me the itch. I am not a wool person. I wonder if I put a cotton T-shirt underneath, if that will be better? I suspect that the cotton would totally negate the effect of the wool. Anyway I might try it.

So on to my hike. It was dark. I saw and heard no strange or evil animals, such as Sasquatches or flying pterodactyls. However, after a couple miles of hiking I came to a swamp. The road became a swamp. There was no (dry) way around this and there was an unmarked stream crossing my path and I had to wade across it, and it was deep, up to my waist deep. And cold. Geepers, it was cold! Shortly after crossing the stream, I found that the road was turning away from where I expected it to go. According to my topo map, the road should’ve continued up to where the waterfalls were. It should have been an easy hike, but instead the road turned back towards the river. I searched around the forest this way and that for another road, an overgrown road, anything. It was not to be, I had to turn back, there is no way I could’ve continued another 2 miles through the swampy area with no trail to follow. It was time to go home.

But wait! It was still early and I was only about a mile from South Yuba River Falls. I did want to go back there anyway to attempt to get closer to that waterfall. Remember, the last time I was here there was a full on blizzard, I was dead tired from snowshoeing all the way to the falls, and I did not have the energy nor was it safe to get down closer to it. There was no blizzard today. I had no idea when the South Yuba River Falls would be in the sun, but I knew it would be in the sun early. Would I make it in time?

I scooted my buns down to the river and when I came to the campground shortly before the falls, I found a truckload of campers there. They were all still asleep, except for one man and his dog. I could not understand how they got through the swamp area with the vehicles that they had. It was utterly impossible without getting stuck. The water on the road would’ve been 2 feet deep, there is no way they could’ve done it. I would have asked the man about it, since my curiosity was peaked, but I figured they must have gone on a different road. However, on my way back I searched for such road and I found no other way to get around the swamp. I did find a way myself to go around the swamp, but I was on no road. So how did they get there? Mysteries.

As for the waterfall, I arrived in the nick of time and made it down to the riverside. I had about 15 minutes to photograph it before the sun came over the hills. It was a marvelous consolation prize and a great morning to hike.

If the new falls on the North Fork American River was my number one destination to get to this spring, then this one was my number two: the Middle Fork American River. I suppose you didn’t know there was any waterfall on the Middle Fork American River, who did? But yes, not one waterfall but two waterfalls!

I actually tried to get to this one a couple weeks ago when I went to Picayune Valley Falls, but I failed and failed miserably. I bonked big time. It is only a mile up the canyon but a gain of 1000 feet in elevation, and terrible terrible brush. It is absolute madness to try to get up there. I was at first trying to get to Picayune Valley Falls (which is 4 1/2 miles), in time to get good lighting conditions, but I had a late start, so I was hoofing it the whole four and a half miles as fast as I could, and by the time I got there I was not a little bit tired. After that I tried to go up the Middle Fork Canyon, and I only got halfway, mostly because I went up the wrong side of the river which was just far too brushy and far too tiring.  Even after taking a rest and lunch, I could not take another step upwards. But no matter, I can always try again another day. And so I did.  And this time I would not bonk.

But that does not mean it was not ridiculous. I tried the other side of the river this time, and it started out much better, but as I ascended the 1000 feet it became more and more brushy. And when I say brushy, I mean crazy brush. Eventually I had to cross the river again back to the bad side. That’s how bad it was. It is perhaps a good thing we have a drought right now because otherwise this river would be raging and I could forget about crossing it. I do not mean that of course, the drought is just plain awful. It took me a full one and a half hours to hike the 1 mile up the canyon, but finally I got to the waterfall. It is a dandy one too, a lovely cascade 49 feet high. The sun was just starting to hit the falls when I got there, but I took some quick pictures before it was too late. I had no time to explore any further, because I had to get back to Auburn in time for my nephew’s birthday party. And as it was, I was late to that but it was worth it, I finally got to the Middle Fork American Falls. There is a smaller lower Falls on the river as well, and I took pictures of that and will post it soon. It was a great day in the Sierra, full of madness.

I am very pleased to present the ninth and final waterfall on the great North Fork of the American River. My favorite river in the world. It has been awhile in coming. Technically, it is the first waterfall on the river, but it is the last one found and documented. This was the number one destination on my list for this spring, when I first discovered this waterfall last summer, and once the snow started melting (what little we had), it was time to make the trip. Actually I was probably a couple weeks too early, I do not think this has reached peak flow yet this year.

The hike starts out at 6200 ft. elevation where of course this is no snow at all, and quickly and steadily climbs up to 8000 ft. elevation. A tough climb indeed, but it is steady gain, nothing horribly steep, and I made very good time. Nonetheless, it was sure nice coming back down the mountain later. Around 7800 ft. I hit the snow, and a lot of it. I expected perhaps 1 ft. of snow at the most and was thinking it would be quite easy to walk on. Instead, I found 3 ft. of snow. This made the walking quite difficult, and I sunk in plenty of times. I tried to follow on the coyote tracks which did not sink in, but apparently I am heavier than coyotes. I should have had my snowshoes, but I didn’t even consider it because I did not think I would need them (plus, I really would not have wanted to carry them up the mountain anyway). Up at 8000 ft. is where the North Fork of the American begins at a small, ordinary, and ice covered mountain lake. The river was just a trickle up here. It is funny how this little trickling stream can become a raging river a few miles down hill. I was fascinated in seeing the river at its true source. From the lake, the trail descends (though there was no trail seen under 3 ft. of snow), and the river slowly but surely picks up steam until I get to the river crossing at the top of the waterfall. It was simple enough to rock hop across the river, and the rocks looked completely dry. Until I stepped on one that is, and found out too late that it was not dry, but instead it was wet and very slippery. And indeed I slipped, smashing my shin on the rock. Oh the pain. I stood there for a good five seconds trying to recover, then realized my boot was still in the river and getting my foot quite wet, so I picked it up and hobbled across to the other side, and continued the recovery for another five minutes. No real damage other than a very bruised shin. It could have been worse.

On the other side, I made my way (much more carefully) down to the falls. There was a lot of brush to negotiate on this side, and it was a bit steep, but I got to the bottom where I found this little beauty. This waterfall has a total height of 107 ft., but it is in three separate tiers that can only be viewed one at a time. The nicest is the bottom tier shown here, which is 40 ft. high. It does not look 40 ft. high, but I measured it a couple times. So it must be true. That’s what I say, anyway. It would be nice to see this waterfall at full blast, and I am sure I will be back sometime in the future to the source of my favorite river. It was a magnificent day in the Sierra.