Leon Turnbull Photography

Hike number three of my vacation. Winter backpacking. In the snow. Yes, you heard that right. Am I utterly mad? The destination: Canyon Creek Falls in the Trinity Alps Wilderness.

The forecast said 29 degrees. This would be the coldest I’ve ever backpacked. There would be snow as well.

I was not worried about freezing to death. I had two sleeping bags and plenty of warm clothes. I had my snowshoes as well. My pack was heavy. I did not weigh it (I was afraid to).

It was only 25 degrees when I arrived at the trailhead. I had to climb 2000 ft. up the canyon. Would it really only be 29 that night? I wondered.

There was no snow at the trailhead. I did not know if I should wear my hiking boots or my snow boots. If I chose hiking boots it would be easier for the first half of the hike but then my feet would be wet and cold for the second half. If I chose snow boots then it would be uncomfortable for the first half but my feet would be warm and dry for the second half. I chose warm and dry feet. It was a very good choice.

I finally hit the snow at about 4000 feet but there was not much. There was also a well worn path through the snow. The entire way. I did not even need my snowshoes. I did not need my spikes or gaiters either (which I also brought). That’s a heckuva lot of weight I did not need to carry. However, on my last hike at Lake Tahoe I did not bring the snowshoes but then I needed them and so I could not finish my hike that day. I did not want the same thing to happen on this hike. I did not know what the conditions would be like 2000 ft. higher (so in other words, I don’t regret carrying them).

However, my memory failed me. I have done this hike once before and I remembered there being plenty of good camping at the upper Canyon Creek Falls. When I arrived, I only saw one small camping spot. That does not seem right. What happened to you, memory? Well, I had no choice. It was getting late. There was a bit of snow on the ground but not much. I setup my camp in the snow and ate my dinner. Then I went off to go photograph the upper Falls and the far upper Falls.

Far Upper Canyon Creek Falls (pictured here) is probably my favorite of all the waterfalls on Canyon Creek. There are three other ones that are bigger, but this one is just so pretty. It is 65 ft. high. Lo and behold, I saw plenty of terrific camping spots right near this waterfall. How did I not remember this? Well, it was too late to change my spot now. It was already very close to sunset. I took my photos and then went back down to photograph the upper Falls. It was pretty much dark when I arrived there and I’m not sure my pics of the lower falls will turn out very well, but I knew I would not have time in the morning cuz I still had to get down to the lower Falls. One reason I wanted to come back here to backpack is so that I would have more time to relax and enjoy the waterfalls. It did not turn out that way. I could not relax. There is just not enough daylight in the winter, and there were too many waterfalls to see and photograph. But I will definitely be back here in the future (in the spring).

It was dark at 5pm when I got back to camp. I went right into my tent to warm up and go to bed. I did watch a movie first, but it was still very early when I “attempted” to sleep…

Hike Number Two of my vacation.

So I’m back home from my Christmas vacation. I go back to work on Monday. Eck. My goal for this vacation was to have six “successful” hikes. By “successful”, I mean that I actually find waterfalls on the hike. Well, I only had five successful hikes. Plus four unsuccessful ones. I am a bit disappointed because I really thought that I should have been able to get to some of those other waterfalls. On three of them the problem was just way too much brush which I could not pound my way through. (I was not expecting so much of the stuff).

I did see many waterfalls (some of the hikes had multiple falls), and that includes three new waterfalls. The first was Lower Cherokee Creek Falls (last post). The one shown above is the second of the new waterfalls: Upper Camp Creek Falls, 62 ft. high. This is a brand new discovery by waterfallswest.

I forgot how awful the Camp Creek road is. It is extremely narrow and steep and there are zero turnouts. If anyone is coming down the road you are dead. (and it’s not uncommon because there are workers from the powerhouse often coming down the road in their big trucks). It was late when I got to the Camp Creek bridge. I wanted to hike from there to the upper Falls, although driving the road would have been possible as well. I chose to hike it.

It actually wasn’t too difficult (for once) to get down to the waterfall. It was steep but not too bad. The problem was that there is no good angle to photograph the falls. I did my best. It is a beautiful slide, but you can’t get any angle in front of it. After photographing, I climbed back up to the road and literally ran back down the hill to Camp Creek bridge. I had no time and it was almost dark but I really wanted to go to the middle Falls at least (the third “new one”). At the bottom of the middle Falls is where they drain the water from the creek into the powerhouse. What this means is that you cannot get in front of the waterfall to photograph it. In other words, there is not any good angle to photograph this one either. I did not have time to explore so I took a quick shot and got out of there. It was dark when I got back to the car. It was a lovely afternoon in Plumas National Forest.

Because of stupid COVID, we cannot go to Canada for Christmas as we normally do. I think this is the first year since we were married in 1999 that we are not going to Canada to visit my family. It is upsetting. We also had plans to go up there this past summer, which of course also got nixed. Those plans were moved to next summer, but it seems unlikely we will be able to go then either.

Anyway, I decided I still wanted to take two weeks of vacation this Christmas. We can’t go anywhere, so I want to do a lot of hiking. I have many hikes planned, possibly including a winter backpacking trip. Brrr.

My first hike was a bust. I have brand new snowshoes and wanted to try them out. I actually had a fantastic snowshoe hike, but I could not get down to the waterfall. It was too steep and dangerous in the snow. I should have known that, I don’t know what I was thinking. At least the snowshoes work well.

My second hike was a bust. I was trying to get to a new waterfall on Cherokee Creek, but it was just too darn brushy. I gave it a good effort, but just could not do it. I was bummed but I had one more hike planned on the same day. Would I strike out completely?

I was pretty sure I could get to the lower falls on Cherokee Creek, even though I did not know exactly where they were located. The issue was going to be if it was even 20 ft. high. I knew it would be close, but I just was not sure. Twenty feet is the minimum standard I use for categorizing waterfalls on my website.

It is a very easy hike and pretty much completely flat the entire way, following along the North Fork Yuba River. I saw a couple other groups of hikers on the trail, or rather one couple hiking, and one family biking. It’s definitely flat enough to bike. I also saw an abandoned tent. I just don’t understand people. You can backpack into a camping area with your big tent (it was big), but you cannot pack it out with you, so you just abandon it? Why???? I find this kind of thing so darn frustrating.

After a couple miles of hiking I arrived at Cherokee Creek. From there you need to go upstream. I figured there would be an obvious path and there was. This is (apparently) a popular swimming hole in the summer. There was one tricky spot in which a landslide destroyed the trail, and (of course) there was a dangerous drop-off. I managed to find a way past this. It would have sucked if this is what stopped me from getting to the falls. I arrived at the waterfall at 4pm. (I started at 2:30 but was taking my time, taking a lot of video and such). I could tell right away that the waterfall was not a big one, and definitely not much bigger than 20 feet. I measured it to be 23 ft. high. It is certainly a pretty little thing.

Sunset was at 4:45pm. This is the time I started back, and I was booting it, hiking as fast as I could. Almost all the hike back was in the dark, but I made good time and got back  to the car at 5:30pm. It was a good day in Tahoe National Forest.

I drove up to Lake Tahoe this weekend, hoping to hike up to Susie Lake and do some snowshoeing. Well. .. Fallen Leaf Lake Road was closed. I knew they close it in the winter when there is snow, but there is no snow yet. Also, the forest service website says the trailhead is open. So what the heck? Why is it closed now? I was a bit upset that I could not drive into the trailhead, but more upset that the forest service did not indicate the road was closed. It is a long drive from Sacramento to Lake Tahoe. What should I do now? The closure would add 8 miles of road walking to my hike and it would also mean I would be hiking back in the dark, but I could not think of a different hike that I wanted to do, so I decided to go for it anyway. I have done this before but there was a lot more snow at that time and snowshoes were required. Today, however, I decided to leave my snowshoes in the car because I did not want to carry them 8 miles and I figured I would not need them anyway. I would just go to Grass Lake instead of Susie Lake, so that should be very doable without snowshoes. Ummm, not quite.

I arrived at Upper Glen Alpine Falls (pictured here) about noon and had my lunch there. Surprisingly, it was in the shade so I was able to take some decent photos of it at noon. Well that’s good. Now I don’t have to come back here later in the day to take photos, so that will save a half hour of walking in the dark. It was a fantastic day so far. I was happy and very much enjoying God’s beautiful nature.

I continued on up to Grass Lake. I did not make it. There was a lot more snow than I expected, it was soft, and I was sinking in. It was getting to be quite dangerous. With snowshoes, I would have easily made it. I am so DUMB. I should have brought my snowshoes! Oh well. I turned back, stopping at Upper Glen Alpine Falls again to take some more photos.

I did not see anyone on the trail all day. No one wants to hike an additional 8 miles to go here. Except the mad man of course. When I got back to the road, however, I saw quite a few people walking up the road. They were all parked back at the gate where I did. I was very surprised to see so many people because it was late in the day. All these people would be hiking back to their cars in the dark. I barely made it back before dark myself and they were all quite a way behind me.

When I got back to the gate, I found that the gate was open. Well this is very strange. All the cars were parked on the other side of the gate as I was, so why didn’t they just drive up the road if the gate was open? Why was the gate closed in the morning anyway? Why was it open now? What am I missing here? This makes no sense.

There was an even stranger thing. My car was in the middle of the road! What? I had parked on a hill, so obviously I made sure to set the parking break, however, it was icy. My back wheels were on ice, but my front wheels were on solid ground; I figured it would not be a problem. It looked fine to me. Apparently not! My car must’ve slid down on the ice to the road. Thankfully, it did not block the road but it was sticking out a little bit. It looked like a very bad parking job. I am so DUMBER. Anyway, no damage done. I drove home. It was a great day at Lake Tahoe.

I hurt my back again just before Thanksgiving (yes, I have been doing my back exercises every day). It was not too horrible, but the two difficult hikes I had planned for the weekend both got squelched. I did a lot of reading in bed. By Saturday I was going stir crazy and anxious to go on at least one easy hike, so that is what I did. Lower Battle Creek Falls was my destination.

It was Saturday afternoon of the long weekend (Black Saturday?), so I expected to see a few other people on the hike. Whenever I drive by here I usually see cars parked at the trailhead. There was no one at all. I would have this easy hike all to myself.

It’s a short hike on a logging road down to the bridge and then a short trail down to the falls. When I first came here some years ago it was just an obscure path, not a trail. Few people ever came here. It is a trail now. Not just a trail, it is a super highway. It feels like you are hiking on the PCT. No joke. I’m not sure I really like that. There is erosion on the trail now in some places due to all the traffic, especially the last steep part down to the creek.

There is a shrine along the trail for some guy who died here more than 20 years ago (I definitely have not seen it before – in fact, it does not seem old at all). I don’t know (obviously) but I was thinking he probably died jumping off the waterfall (which would be stupid). I imagine plenty of kids do this in the summer. It seems to be a very popular place now.

However, it’s much better to come in the winter when no one else is around. The creek flow is low but the waterfall is a straight plunge of 32 ft so it is beautiful even at low flows. It definitely seems much more than 30 ft. to my eye. Over 40 ft high for sure, I thought, but I measured it again and it was still just 32 ft. It did not grow 10 ft. since I was last here. Oh well. It is very gorgeous anyway.

The super highway trail continues a bit below the falls. I followed it for awhile but then it abruptly ends at a cliff. Does it go down the cliff? That would be nuts. It seemed like it did go down but I did not try it. I returned to my car and got back just after sunset. When I got back, I noticed some trash by the road. Was that there when I started the hike? I do not remember seeing it there. I picked it up. There was still ice in the drink cup! So that means while I was on this short hike, some loser drove by, stopped at the turn out, dumped their trash, and then continued on. That is so bloody annoying and irritating. Other than that it was a beautiful EASY hike in Lassen National Forest, and my back held up very well.