Leon Turnbull Photography

My friend Rob likes to call me the waterfall madman, for some reason or other. I don’t know why. Well I suppose I am a bit crazy sometimes. Like this weekend, for instance.

My adventure today took me back to Clipper Creek in Auburn, and this time was indeed crazier than the last time I was here, about 2 years ago. My goal was Upper Clipper Creek Falls, oh humbala, is it even possible? I was about to find out.

I started hiking in the dark from the Confluence (by the way, what is up with the $10 paid parking here now? Ugh!). The first mile is easy smeasy, climbing up on a wide dirt road, under the Foresthill Bridge, the tallest bridge in California (hoping nothing drops on my head as they do construction up there), then to the first crossing at Clarks Pool. I kinda thought this creek would be very difficult to cross because of all the recent rain, but the creek was actually really low, so it was easy to rock hop across it.

After Clarks Pool, things get rather interesting. The “trail” continues for another mile all the way to Clipper Creek. The trail is quite overgrown, with a ton of poison oak, and of course, ticks. If you wait too late to come here, say February or March, you may as well just jump off that Foresthill Bridge instead. Your fate will be much the same. The trail will be infested with ticks and seriously deadly (or deadly serious – or both). By coming in December, I thought to avoid such deathliness. The ticks should NOT be out yet in December … Well, the ticks WERE out already in December. I saw probably a couple thousand of them along the trail, hanging off the branches (well, maybe not that many). I was constantly brushing them off the branches with my hiking pole so they wouldn’t leap onto me and crawl up my private parts or who knows where. I only picked up 3 or 4 on my body, and got them off before they were able to bite me, so I managed all right, but another month and you can just forget it. Write your last will before you come. And as for the poison oak? Well, that is just not avoidable at all, though I did try, especially to not touch it with my hands. I scrubbed myself raw with Tecnu when I got back home, and I can only hope it is enough to keep me from getting the itch.

I took a different route than the last time I was here. There seem to be quite a few “trails” along the ridge over to Clipper Creek. This in itself is weird, because I just can’t imagine anyone (except for crazies like myself) who would do this hike. In fact, I have serious doubts that anyone else went over to Clipper Creek in the last 2 years since I was there last. Yet there are these old trails. The one I went on followed a much lower contour than the one I took the last time. I don’t know that it was any better. There was still a lot of oak. And there were also quite a few scary drop-offs which I did not like one bit. It took quite a while. Finally I got to Clipper Creek.

It is only about a quarter mile to the upper falls, but it is much brushier from this point. More brush. More oak. More ticks. I was not sure I would be able to make it at all. And yet … there was a trail to follow. Of course it was overgrown. I worked my way up to a side stream coming down from the left which I had to cross. It looked like there was a waterfall on this creek as well, but I did not stop to investigate. I crossed and continued up Clipper Creek. I made it. The upper falls was exactly where I predicted it would be. The slope was very steep so I could not get down to creek level and I had to photograph it from the side of the hill very carefully, hoping the ground would not give way and send me tumbling off the cliff (to my wife if she is reading this: I am kidding!). But it was a steep slope. The upper falls is only 22 ft. high. I expected around 40 or 50 ft. I am not sure but my gut tells me that it may continue around the corner but I could not get past the cliff to see it.

I was really hoping to photograph the lower falls afterwards, but it took a lot longer to get to the upper falls than I thought it would. By the time I got back down, the lower falls was in sun, so I just skipped it (I have photographed it before so it was no biggie). On the hike back out, I tried to take the higher contour that I took last time. Somehow, however, I got on another “trail”, this one leading on a contour much much higher. It seemed to just keep climbing higher and higher, trying to pass above the cliffs. I just kept following it because the trail was not hard to follow, but it was a tougher route. Finally it seemed to just come to a dead end, when I was almost back to Clarks Pool. It was fine all the way, and now it is going to end? What the hey? I decided to just go straight down hill to the main trail, hoping it was not too brushy to get down. I made it. It was definitely a crazy day, but I am sure happy I found the upper falls on Clipper Creek.

With all this rain lately, I wanted to get out a few more times to enjoy the waterfalls (before they all dry up), so I headed out one evening to Traverse Creek Falls. It has been awhile since I have been to this one, but usually I go at least once a year.

I arrived at the trailhead late in the day and started the short hike into the falls. I knew it was going to be interesting at the very first small stream crossing, at which I had to make a significant effort to jump across. Hmmm, I never had to do that before. At this point already I knew the creek was in full torrent mode, higher than I have ever seen it before. Traverse Creek Falls has four modes: Dry, Single, Double, and Torrent Mode. I may need to add a fifth mode: Super Torrent.

Along the way, I came across some people carrying kayaks back up the trail. They were out for the afternoon enjoying themselves on the waterfall. When the creek is high like this, kayakers like going over this 30 ft. high waterfall – crazy people if you ask me, but they seemed to be very happy on the walk back (happy that they didn’t break anything, perhaps?). It is too bad I did not arrive 30 minutes or so earlier, or I could have seen and photographed them going over the falls.

The trail descends steeply to Traverse Creek, at which point you need to walk along the creek bed to the brink of the waterfall, then climb past the waterfall and descend on ropes to the bottom. With the creek very high, it was quite a challenge to walk along the creek bed. There were some spots that the water was practically right up against the bank, making it difficult to continue without getting wet feet. Again, I have never seen it like this before. Hmmm. Much higher and I would not have made it at all (and I suspect it was a lot higher last weekend). I climbed up past the waterfall and began the descent to the bottom. This part was also very tricky because the ground was wet and slick. There are ropes, but there is one spot that is especially difficult when the ground is wet, and instead of risking it, I got out my own rope to help me down this part (the rope that is there is not in the correct position for this section).

Once down at the bottom, I set up shop to photograph the falls, before it got too dark. The waterfall was absolutely incredible, and there was a lot of mist making it very difficult to get in close to the falls to photograph. I had to move back a bit and shoot more of a wide angle shot of the waterfall. This worked quite all right. There was a bit of fog above the falls, and on the drive back home the fog was extremely thick on the road. I kinda wished there was more fog down by the waterfall. Oh well. On the plus side, I did not see any garbage this time down by the falls. Usually, I have to truck out a big bag every year cuz certain idiots like to come here in the summer and leave their crap behind. I am very happy to see that this place is not a trash heap anymore.

This is a shot taken just as the fog moved in over Canyon Creek Falls. Seconds later, you could not see a thing. I like this one much better than the last because of the atmosphere. What do you think?

The results from last weekend’s rain storm are in. Sacramento received 4.5 inches of rain, the foothills received 13.5 inches. The Folsom Lake reservoir rose from 37% to 53% capacity. Shasta and Oroville went from about 50 to 60 percent capacity. I actually expected the reservoirs to increase a lot more than this, but they are still increasing quickly. At our house in the Sacramento area, I measured 7 inches of rain at our house. It is interesting that I measured a lot more than the official numbers. The North Fork American River got up to 30,000 cubic feet per second on Sunday afternoon, incredible, and I wish I had gone out to see it on Sunday. Unfortunately, now we have one more storm tonight, and then things are going to dry out for at least a couple weeks. All the creeks will be back down to normal or below normal fairly soon.

A couple days ago I wrenched my back doing yard work. Oh crikey, what lousy timing. I should just take the weekend and recover properly. That is what a normal person would do, and if it was a normal weekend, that is probably what I would do. It was not a normal weekend, though. Huge rain storms are moving through northern California this weekend. Through the end of Friday, the Sierra foothills received more than 7 inches of rain. It continued to rain on Saturday, and there is another huge storm coming in Saturday night. Of course this all means, the waterfalls are going nuts, and there is no way I could NOT go out hiking on Saturday morning, bad back and all.

The North Fork American River gage at Lake Clementine reached over 16,000 cubic feet per second by Friday evening, more than 16 times the flow it had just that morning. This is a monster flow for this river. Why is it important? Because if the river has that much flow, then all the creeks flowing into it will also have monster flow as well, you can be sure of that. Canyon Creek is my favorite of these that flow into the North Fork. Seven significant waterfalls drop along this creek including a 134 ft. high beauty. My destination for Saturday was set.

Even though it rained all night, it was lighter rain, and the flow in the river started going back down Friday night, and by the morning it was down to 7000 cfs. This was still pretty fantastic, so I did not change my plan in the morning, though I have been wanting for quite awhile to get to this location when Canyon Creek is at monster stage. Indeed I have been waiting three years for the timing to be right. I will get there someday.

The idea was to not go down the main Canyon Creek trail. That trail would have been too dangerous in the wet weather, and I believe that the bridge is out anyway, so it would have been impossible. The idea instead, was to find a path down to a viewpoint of the biggest waterfall on Canyon Creek on the other side of the canyon. I know of a couple people that have made this trek before, so I knew it was possible.

It was raining when I woke up in the morning. And windy, very windy. These two things would make my morning rather interesting. And wet, very wet. I arrived at the trailhead without any problems, and started my hike. The first part of the hike is along old roads leading through the Gold Run diggings, and the road followed my GPS route perfectly. So far so good. The path leads over and across Indiana Ravine, and after that I needed to find a route over to the ridge I needed to scramble down to the viewpoint. Along the way I came across an old garbage can that was tipped over on the ground, with its contents strewn all along the ground. This is the middle of nowhere, why on earth would there be a garbage can here? What is worse though, is why people would throw their trash out here in the wilderness? Garbage can or not, obviously no one is going to be cleaning it up way out here. Some people need to use their brains a little more than they do. Stupid. Anyway, I picked up the can and put the garbage back in it, but it will only last until the next big wind comes along. Or the next big bear comes along (or the next little bear). I crossed Indiana Ravine and found the spot where I needed to cut over to the ridge. It got a quite a bit brushy through this part, but I made my way through and found a well trodden trail leading along the top of the ridge. I am sure this trail goes all the way back to the main Canyon Creek trail.

Now for the hard part. Getting down the ridge. I found a spot that looked promising and started scrambling down. I got down one or two hundred feet, and then it just got far too brushy to continue any further. I tried to find a way through the brush, but to no avail. I had to give up and go back. I could not believe that anyone else could have ever made it down here. It was just far too brushy. When I got back to the main trail, I was quite tired from all that scrambling, and my back was complaining. I did not want to give up, however. I decided to continue on the trail and see if I could find any other better way down the ridge. Lo and behold, after five minutes more of hiking, I came to a trail going down the ridge. A TRAIL! Not just any trail, a well trodden trail. Clearly quite a few people have been down this path before, not just one or two. I continued down the trail and although it had a couple steep parts, and poison oak scattered all about, all in all it was pretty darn easy.

As I descended, I caught glimpses into the canyon. What do you think I saw? FOG! It was clear to me that I would get down this trail to the waterfall viewpoint, and not even be able to see the waterfall! It was also raining quite hard now as I descended. So I prayed of course: Please God, no rain. No wind. No fog. Pretty please with a cherry on top? I could hear the waterfall now, thundering down the canyon. I could hear the river, thundering below. I could not see anything. Finally, I got down the ridge. You will not believe this. The fog had disappeared, I could see the waterfall clearly. There was no wind. And just as I arrived at the tremendous viewpoint, the rain stopped. I am not fooling you. Thank you Lord, this was just really incredible.

The 134 ft. high Canyon Creek Falls was thundering before me. It felt so close I could almost touch it. Yet really it was a good half mile away. The viewpoint is on some rock outcroppings on the edge of a cliff. I could see the North Fork American River off to the right, and it was magnificent. Directly below me, I could see what I think was the sixth waterfall on Canyon Creek, but the angle was severe from here for a photo of that. I quickly got out my camera and took some shots of Canyon Creek Falls before the rain thought to start up again. As I finished up, and started looking around for alternate views, the fog rolled back in. I could not see the waterfall at all! Wow. I figured that was it, so I put my camera and tripod back away, but waited around for awhile. Five minutes later, the fog rolled out and I could see the waterfall again. Alrighty then, I got my camera back out and took some more shots, and also some shots of the river as well. And then the fog rolled in yet again. This time I decided to pack it up for good, and as I did, the rain started. It rained for the entire hike back to the car. It was a crazy morning, but it was certainly an awesome one.

Black Friday. As most of you know by now, this is my favorite day of the year to go hiking. No one is out, everyone is either out shopping or sleeping. It is definitely my kind of day out in the wilderness.

I decided to go up to McCloud and visit the McCloud River waterfalls. Again, I was trying to get to a new waterfall up there. Again, I did not have my GPS, having left it back home, and thus making it very difficult to find the way where I wanted to go. Again, I struck out, due to me taking the wrong route.

I was trying to get to Big Springs, which is near the Lower McCloud Falls, but way off the beaten path. With my makeshift GPS (ie. My iPhone app), I found a myriad of logging roads leading over to the area of Big Springs. There were a lot of them, and very wisely I marked the junction of every road so I could find my way back. With a GPS I really should not have needed to do this, but I am so glad I was smart enough to do it, or I might still be out there.

My approach to Big Springs took longer than I wanted, and as I neared the river, the road deteriorated into a very overgrown path, and then a steep descent down a rocky creek bed to get to the river. I had my dog Kaya with me, who is quite old now, but she managed to get down all right. The last step was a doozy and she would not let me carry her down it, but we found an alternate (bushy) way. When I got down to the river, I realized that we were nowhere near the waterfall. I came the wrong way. Big Springs was still far upriver. Kaya was already over-tired, and I was worried about her getting back up. I could glimpse the waterfall, but it would be a lot of bushwhacking to get over to it. It was also getting too late, the sun would be hitting the waterfall very shortly. If I was alone and if I had my proper GPS, I would have continued. But as it was, I decided to retreat and try again another day. I found a better way back up the creek bed, but Kaya was plump beat by the time we got back up to the dirt road. Now I had another problem, my iPhone app konked out on me. I still had 30% battery left on it, but it would not work. It is sure a darn good thing I marked all those road junctions. There is no way I would have remembered which way to turn at the jumble of intersecting logging roads that I had to negotiate to get back to the car.

Once back at the car, I went to Middle McCloud Falls. This waterfall would not be in the sun until 9:30AM so I knew I had some time to get to it. Even though Kaya was beat from the last hike, she really wanted to go down to the falls with me. It is a short and easy hike (though still a big descent), and of course I could not keep her from coming along. Just try to stop me from coming, she whined at me. Now, over the past few months or so, I have noticed other photographers’ images of Middle McCloud Falls, shooting the waterfall from way back, which in my opinion, is not a very good composition of the waterfall. I did not understand this at all, but I did not think it through clearly. Why are they shooting from so far back? There are far better compositions of this waterfall that can be had from close up. I have some really nice ones myself on my website. Well … now I know why. When I got down to the falls, there was just WAY TOO much mist near the waterfall, and this is because the river flow was so much higher. When I was here before, the river flow was lower, and there was not nearly so much mist so I could get much closer to the waterfall. Today, not a chance. The ONLY photo possibility was from much further back (and there was still quite a bit of mist from back there). So here you go folks: a Middle McCloud Falls photograph taken from far back. If you’d like to see (and purchase) an image of Middle McCloud with a superior comp, go to my website, and I will be happy to oblige: http://www.waterfallswest.com/gallery/page.php?id=north.

After I arrived back at my car and was getting ready to drive home, I noticed three vehicles pull up into the parking lot. What the hey? Didn’t anyone tell these people it is Black Friday, and no one is allowed to be out hiking here except me!?!? Ah well, enjoy folks. I am going home now anyway.