Leon Turnbull Photography

– Hannibal Smith
So … what a great hike this weekend. One of the best hikes I have had in quite some time. Why was it so great? The waterfall was certainly not spectacular with the low flow in the creek. It was a killer hike down to it too. Lots of ticks. Fresh mountain lion scat. Poison oak. Does that sound like a fantastic hike to you?

Well it does sound pretty good to me, but mostly it was because I did not think I would have any chance in a cat’s meow to ever get to this waterfall. I knew there was a waterfall here because the rafters stop here on their way down the Middle Fork American River. I never heard of anyone ever hiking to this waterfall. I never heard of any trail to it. Certainly it was not possible.

Then I heard recently that there was a powerhouse down at the bottom of Canyon Creek. Hmmm, surely if there was a powerhouse, there must be a road to it as well. This is logical. They have to get to the powerhouse somehow, don’t they? (never mind that they could take a very short boat ride across the river). I studied Google Earth for hours looking for such road. I could not see one. The image quality of this particular area in GE is quite bad. Well if there is any road, I determined it would come from one of three directions. I picked the most logical one and decided to try it. If I struck out, I figured that I could just go on a different hike in that area instead.

I chose wisely my friends. I was so pleased. I drove up to Georgetown on Saturday morning, in the early morning hours. I only had to 10:30AM to finish this hike. My daughter’s birthday party started at noon at Sunrise Rollerland (near the Sunrise Mall). It would be close but I was sure I could do it. The road crosses Canyon Creek and I got out (in the dark) and checked the creek conditions. The creek was flowing quite strongly. I was happy. I continued driving up on rough dirt roads until I reached my proposed trailhead. There was a gate here, and lots of no trespassing signs. Humph!

Well I knew no one would be around so I decided to just go. I was pretty sure that this was a public road anyway, at least to begin with. As it turns out, this is a public historic trail, the Wendell T Robie Trail. I had no idea this trail went here, and it actually goes all the way down to Canyon Creek and continues along the river to Sliger Mine. As I said, I had no clue about this. I did not think there could possibly be a trail here since no one had ever mentioned hiking to this waterfall. Well what do I know anyway. As for the gate and signs? They are illegal, I am sure of it. Someone has built a new house down here, and put up the gates and signs to keep people out, but they have no right to block access to a historic trail, and the trail does not even go anywhere near the house anyway. It really bugs me.

So anyway, I was quite pleased to find out my route continued all the way down to Canyon Creek. That is the understatement of the year thus far. I was ecstatic. It was steep though, eventually losing 1600 ft. in elevation by the time I reached the river. The last 1000 ft. were particularly nasty. Nothing dangerous. Just straight down steepness. Hiking back up the trail was nightmarish. The road is clearly not used anymore by the powerhouse people. I suspect at one time it was, though it is so steep and narrow, I don’t think you could ever drive a vehicle down it, but they must have used it for something or other.

Once down at the creek, I needed to work my way back upstream to the waterfall. This part I figured would be easy, since the rafters come here all the time, I was certain there must be a good trail leading up to the falls. Ah, no. No trail at all. The only way to do it is to hike right up the creekbed. It was slippery, there were cascades and big boulders that you had to climb up, crossing the creek back and forth a few times, and also poison oak that you had to go through in a couple places. It was actually quite fun.

It took awhile but I finally got up to the waterfall, cascading down into a beautiful deep pool. There was about half the flow in the creek that was up at the bridge crossing. No doubt this is due to the water being sucked out of the creek into the powerhouse. It is a pretty waterfall but it would look much better at higher flows, and I really would like to come back here someday. The only thing is, I do not think it is going to be possible to hike up the creekbed at higher flows. I will probably try it someday anyhow. Could be fun.

On the hike back up, I saw what appeared to be fresh mountain lion scat along the trail. At least I think it was mountain lion. Whatever it was, it was very fresh. Two weeks ago, a mountain lion was stalking a hiker in Colfax and eventually had to be killed. I have been on edge since hearing about that. I was prepared today, with my bear spray very handy as I hiked (hoping that bear spray also works on mountain lions) – normally I am more worried about ticks and poison oak. Anyway, I did not see anything but quail, squirrels, and a deer. And I did make it to my daughter’s birthday party on time. What a great day.

Usually I like to go hiking every Saturday morning even if it is just a short hike close to home. But sometimes you just need to sleep in. I am sick with a bad cold this weekend, and sure did not feel like getting out to hike. My family is out of town for most of the weekend, so I am all by my lonesome (with the dog and the two meddlesome cats). The longest I went outside on Saturday was to take the garbage out. On Sunday morning, I had to get up at 6am to let Kaya dog outside. Then I went back to bed until 7:30am. When I got up again, I saw that the door was wide open. Bodie cat knows how to open it if it is not completely closed (smart cat). The two cats were both outside (they are indoor cats). Fortunately they did not go very far but I guess they had a good adventure with Kaya this morning. Sigh.

So I spent a lot of the day Saturday (besides watching hockey), studying my topo maps to find potential new waterfalls. I like doing this. Call me crazy. But I did find a few new possibilities close to home that I want to go check out. Possibly a couple real nice surprises too. I just need to wait for some rain now. It has been two months of no rain. We had just a small piddly little storm last week that did not even give us a foot of snow, and I don’t see anything now in the long range forecast into March. Double sigh.

This shot is from early January at Bear Ranch Creek Falls. I am surprised I had not posted this one before now. There is only possible spot to shoot this falls, and only one composition available. I have tried to look for other comps. This is it. Enjoy.

There is a path from the road at Devils Falls going down to the bottom where the creek dumps into Shirttail Creek. There you will find this pretty little thing. It is a two tiered waterfall, and I did not measure it but I do not think it is 20 ft. high. I only photographed the lower tier, being as I thought it the most prettiest. I do think it might be more interesting at higher flows with both tiers together, if that is, you could find a good view point of both tiers together. Could be tricky.

You might think it funny that I had never been down here before, since I have been to Devils Falls many many many times. I always thought it did not look all that interesting when I peered over the edge from the road before. This time, I was sufficiently bored enough so I decided to go down (just for the heck of it). I think I was right about it not being too interesting down at the bottom, in the sense that the waterfall was not very big. But on the other hand, even small waterfalls can be pretty, and this one certainly was.

There is finally some rain in the forecast next week. It has been a long time coming. Much too long. It has felt like summer lately, and it is totally killing me! I even noticed some wildflowers starting to bloom. Really?? If you are one of those people that like this weather, then ummm, don’t talk to me. Unfortunately I don’t see any big storms coming, only small ones. We need big storms please. Ah well it is better than what we have had thus far this year: nothing on a stick (as my wife always likes to say to me – usually in reference to what is for dinner).

This weekend I first went to Upper Chamberlain Creek Falls, wanting to get a good shot of it from up close. When I was there last year, there was so much flow I could not get a good angle to photograph it. This time, it was barely flowing at all, and I was quite disappointed; I am not sure if I will share that photo or not. I didn’t think it would be great by any stretch of the imagination, but I thought it would be at least as much as nearby Stevens Creek. Not so. It was certainly not worth braving the poison oak and all the ticks. I must have flicked at least 30 or 40 of them off the grasses as I walked along the trail. Eck.

I decided to go over to Devils Falls next since I was in the area, taking the long route from Windy Point. By the way I did not see much evidence from the forest fire last summer. Right around Devils Falls there is a lot of charred remains but even the very close Mexican Gulch was not touched. I’m certainly glad Windy Point at least was not burned because of the beautiful wildflowers that display there in the spring (p.s. it is not spring yet!).

I am not really all that keen on Devils Falls anymore, since I have shot it to death. But it keeps coming back to life, and in fact it usually has decent flow most of the year (not to mention that it is so very easy to get to – except for that awful narrow road). This time, though, I did something different. Shocking. I went to the very bottom of the waterfall (below the road where it dumps into Shirttail Creek). I have never been down there before which is an oddity for me (as it is not hard to do). There is another small waterfall down there, not anything to write home about, but it is a pretty little thing, so I think I will likely post that shot next.

I was also scouting a new location with a potential new waterfall. I found a possible route down to it, but I did not want to make a huge effort, since it would likely be only trickling. If it rains much in the coming weeks, I will likely be back to try it. I’m not telling where it is yet, but if you see me post yet another shot of Devils Falls in a couple weeks, then you will know that I struck out. Stay tuned and let’s hope for some rain and new waterfalls being found.

Here is another view of Iowa Canyon Falls, the same waterfall I just recently posted. I think this is a much better viewpoint than from up close at the base of the waterfall. The angle at the bottom of the falls was just too severe and it was not possible to see the entire waterfall from there. Nonetheless, I was really happy to finally get to the base of the falls last time, it was not too difficult, and I am planning to go back and do it again, when (a) the flow is a bit less so there is not as much mist, and especially when (b) the water is not so cold, so I do not freeze my toes off again. I think I might be able to find a nice (or at least a different) view from down there when there is not so much mist.