Leon Turnbull Photography

Life has been too stressful. Getting out on a backpacking trip this weekend was an essential activity for me. It is still early season, most areas are still snowed in, and those that aren’t snowed in are closed because of the virus, so picking the right place to go is a difficult task. I chose to go back to the Hell Hole.

I have been to all the waterfalls on Grayhorse Creek before, but it was at low flow. I’ve been wanting to go back at high flow for a long time. I would just camp along Grayhorse Creek and go up to see all the waterfalls in the evening. A quick trip, but a good one.

It is a short hike to Grayhorse Creek; I arrived about noon and setup camp on this side of the creek. The views from here are magnificent. Since I had so much time before I needed to go up to the waterfalls, I decided to hike to the end of the reservoir in the afternoon. That meant I had to cross Grayhorse Creek. It was getting pretty close to peak flow for the year, and the creek was flowing very strong (Kyburz on the SFAR was at 1200cfs). I was not sure that I would be able to make it but I was able to cross at 1PM without any difficulty. The only problem I had was that my feet were frozen off by the time I got to the other side. The water was cold! It was a warm day, though, and they thawed out pretty quickly once I got out of the stream. I hiked along to the end of the reservoir and to Hell Hole Falls. I was hiking IN the reservoir, along the river. The reservoir is very low right now, and it is easy and pleasant to do this. The light was bad of course, so taking good pictures of Hell Hole Falls was not possible, but it was nice to do this hike, and the waterfall was flowing pretty good. I did not go up to Kada Falls because that requires crossing Five Lakes Creek, which would have been very difficult to do, and I did not want to take the time and effort to do that. I returned to camp.

Begin Rant …

The trail to Grayhorse Creek is a popular road with jeepers. Their machines are horribly loud and you can hear them for miles. I knew all this of course, so I cannot complain “too much” that there were jeeps down in the reservoir. Had I known there would be so many, however, I would have chosen a different place to camp. Are we not supposed to be under quarantine still? There were at least two large groups here, and they were absolutely NOT social distancing. On my way back to camp, I had to pick up their beer cans that they threw out in the middle of the reservoir. I know it was them because the cans were not there on my way out. A couple other things I noticed on my drive out to Hell Hole: At Stumpy Meadows reservoir, the boat ramp area is closed yet I saw at least 15 cars in there, and they had just pushed the closed sign out of the way. In the town of Georgetown, I saw at least 30 motor bikes, and the bikers were just hanging out and definitely not social distancing. These small towns don’t seem to care about the rules, their restaurants and non-essential stores are open, yet they do not want the rest of us going there. Georgetown is just one example I have seen (Tahoe, Mammoth Lakes). I have been responsible and following the rules. Recently, I have seen a couple people post their hikes in Lassen Volcanic NP (which is closed). So you can hike into Lassen by back roads and that is ok? No it is not. The park is completely closed. I could hike into Yosemite if I wanted to, in fact I have a great route that I really really want to do, and I am sure I would not see anyone in the park, but it is illegal to go there. The irresponsible people are ruining things for the rest of us.

End Rant …

Back at camp, I made my dinner, relaxed a bit, and then headed up the mountain. My first stop was (lower) Grayhorse Creek Falls. With the creek rushing so fast, it is impossible to cross and impossible to wade upstream. That means the only way down to the falls is via a very steep and cliffy traverse. Rope is a necessity. I anticipated this beforehand, and I brought my rope with me. Normally, I hate to bring rope on a backpacking trip, it is just too much extra weight; this time, however, I brought both my water shoes and rope, and I needed them both. I would not have gotten to this first waterfall without the rope. Even so, once I got up to the falls, I found a huge tree fallen in the creek, literally blocking half the waterfall from view. So I had to settle for a secondary view of the falls, on a scary ledge, and even this view was partially obscured by trees.

I continued upstream to the multitude of waterfalls. Waterfalls coming out of the ying yang. I even found a new one that was not there on my previous trip up the canyon. (picture coming later). As I hiked up the canyon I came across the local resident. He was following the stay at home order. A big, beautiful, brown-colored bear was standing on its hind legs, looking down on me. He was huge. As soon as I saw it, he scampered up the mountain away from me, too fast for me to get out my camera. Oh, how I wish I was prepared with my camera.

It was 6:45PM when I finally got to the uppermost waterfall. This was much later than I wanted, but there were just too many waterfalls to photograph! I was pretty sure that I had been up to this uppermost falls before (pictured above). I remember the little trail going to it, but when I looked back at my previous photos, I could not find a picture of this one. That is very strange, and I don’t remember what happened. Anyway, I took some photos this time. It was now 7PM, and I hurried back down the canyon. It is a long descent, and finally got back to camp just before dark.

I had a good night except for one big problem ….

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Recently, it seems, people are becoming more and more rude. Do you see this as well? Someone recently posted a photo of a waterfall and called it by an incorrect name, so I politely (very politely) corrected him, and he went ballistic on me. What the heck? Why would you be so angry about this? Remember the Bassi Falls winter photo? I posted it in a Facebook group, and I was called out by someone saying I should not post it because it is dangerous to go there in the winter! What? First of all, it’s not dangerous to go there. Secondly, who cares! Basically this person was saying no one can ever post any winter photos of any place ever!

Are you feeling too much fear because of the virus? You do not need to live in fear. God is in control of this. But even so, that is still absolutely no excuse to be so rude to other people. You may not be able to or you may not want to go hiking right now. That is your choice, but hiking is an essential activity, and if other people want to hike right now, that is their choice. There is nothing wrong with that, and it is not against any rules or orders. Do not be rude towards them, or show hate towards them. Please. Love, not hate.

This is Canyon Creek Falls #1, 42 ft. high.

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I really wanted to go out for a hike this weekend, but I did not want to go far or do anything hard. My daughter Nekoda also wanted to come with me, and she also just wanted a very easy hike. So, I decided to go back to Iowa Canyon Falls, a very easy one that I have been to multiple times before. But in typical madman fashion, it did not turn out to be quite so easy.

The road was gated due to construction. This would add 3 miles round trip to the hike, and a steep uphill climb walking back up the road from the river. It was late in the day, so we might even have to walk back in the dark. Well, I was okay with this. Was Nekoda okay with it? Yes, she said let’s go for it. So we did.

It was a very pleasant walk going “down” to the river. Much of the road follows the creek, and there were quite a few spring wildflowers along the road as well. Once down at the river, we saw a lot of construction going on. What the heck are they doing down here? It was a big mess, and it seemed like a major construction effort. I have no clue. It is almost as if they are building a powerhouse down here or something. Indeed, I just looked it up (being curious) and it seems they *are* building a powerhouse here. Ugh.

It is a short jaunt from here to walk up the creek to the falls. There were ticks and poison oak, a plenty! But we made it up the waterfall overlook, and Nekoda sat on the rocks while I took my photos. I also really wanted to go to the upper falls (which I think is a lot nicer than the lower falls), however … the poison oak was absolutely ridiculous along the short trail to the upper falls. It was horrific! Nekoda did not want to trounce through the oak to the falls, and I did not want to either, so we turned around and hiked back up the road to the car. The climb back up the road was not really so bad, and we arrived back at the car well before dark. It was a quick and short hike to a pretty little waterfall.

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When I checked the weather forecast on Friday morning, it said it would start raining by 8AM on Saturday. I checked it again on Friday evening,  and it now said 7AM. Heavy rain. I really really wanted to get up to the Big Waterfall (at least) before it started. Preferably, I wanted to get back across the creek before it started. If the rock was wet and slick, it would be a lot more tricky to cross the creek. So I prayed, Lord please hold off on the rain until I cross the creek. After that, have at it.

I set my alarm for 5:45AM. I did not sleep very well. I don’t know why, I guess I just could not get comfortable. And worried about getting back across the creek. I did not want to wake up so early, but I wanted to beat that rain. It was not even cloudy yet, but I knew the rain was coming. It took an hour to get packed up, and then I started the big ascent up the mountain.

The crazy narrow side trail (the Six Inch Trail) to the Big Waterfall was lined with poison oak. It was completely unavoidable. Well, that is rather unfortunate. (understatement of the year). This trail never had poison oak before, from what I remember. The Big Waterfall is 144 ft. high, the biggest of the drops on this magnificent creek. I did not spend much time here, just took my photos and continued on up the mountain, still wanting to beat that rain. I stopped at the two waterfalls above this one to take more photos, and finally arrived at the creek crossing. Still not raining. I was able to jump back across without even getting my feet wet. That was interesting. (another understatement). I filled up my water from the creek and continued on.

I expected the rain to start any minute but it did not. It was after 10AM when I felt the first sprinkles. By this time, I was only five minutes from my car, but the deluge did not even begin until I got back on the freeway. The weather was perfect for the entire hike down to the river and back out. Thank you Lord! It was a short, safe, and fantastic journey to one of my favorite places in the North Fork American River drainage.

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Firstly, the bad news. Here are the April 1 statistics: snow pack is at 57% of average (northern CA), 58% (central Sierra), 45% (southern Sierra). Rain fall is at 55% (north), 53% (central), 51% (south). Despite what you may have heard, we did NOT have a miracle March. March precipitation was above average (thankfully), but it did not make up very much in the snow pack. So it is going to be a bleak year (as if it wasn’t already). Interestingly, the late March storms added a lot of snow to lower elevations, so despite the low snow pack, you cannot access anything above 5000 ft. elevation right now (if you were even going to go out). Storms are continuing into April, but that will end soon and the snow will start melting quickly and soon be over. Yosemite is closed. 🙁

Secondly, for my hike this past weekend, I need to say that I did not break any rules or orders. I did not interact with a single person the entire weekend. I did not stop anywhere in between my house and the trailhead. I did not put anyone at risk whatsoever, including myself. I should not have to say any of that, and I’m sure 99% person of my readers are good, but … There are two sides, of course, and they are both wrong: On the one hand you have the people who are irresponsible, and don’t care about getting the virus or about spreading it to others. (or they don’t believe they will get it). Then on the other end of the spectrum, you have those living in fear, and they are spreading their fear and hate to everyone else, shaming those who go out hiking (even though they are being completely responsible). At this time in our history, we must be united. We must be helping each other and loving each other. So please everyone, stop spreading hate. Start spreading love.

I had hoped to go to higher elevation this weekend, but the low elevation snow stopped me in my tracks, and I could not get anywhere near the trailhead. I turned around and went to Plan B. This is one of my all time favorite creeks in the North Fork American River drainage. There are no less than seven magnificent waterfalls on this creek. It has been quite a few years since I have been down there. In fact, it has been 11 years since I went all the way down to the river. I’ve been wanting to return for quite some time now, and I’ve been wanting to camp down there so I would have more time. This would be a good weekend to do it.

There were three big problems, of course, and not necessarily in this order: (1) Ticks. This is Tick City. I have been down this trail more than once and had to retreat because the ticks were so bad; they were all over me, and literally forced me back. (2) Poison oak. Nuff said. (3) Crossing the creek. There used to be a bridge over the creek but it is long gone. If the creek is too high, it cannot be crossed (and I have had to retreat because of this also).

I got to the trailhead, and started my hike. It was a beautiful morning. There was a storm coming the next day, and I hoped to get out of the canyon before I got too wet. As you get closer to the creek crossing, you begin to hear the creek although you cannot see it yet and you are high above it. It did not sound very crossable. The North Fork American River was flowing at 800 cfs. In my notes, I anticipated that I should be able to cross the creek if it was 1500 cfs or less, definitely not any more than this. So it should be crossable, but it did not sound crossable.

Eventually, I arrived at the creek crossing. Well, hmmm, … It definitely looked a bit tricky, but it did look crossable. I made it across successfully and without incident. I do think 1500 would be too much, but maybe a little more would be fine. I had my lunch on the other side of the creek on the rocks. From here, things now get much more interesting as the trail descends steeply all the way to the river. Waterfalls galore. Magnificent views galore. Narrow trail. Huge (deathly) dropoffs. Poison oak galore. Ticks galore.

The ticks were actually very manageable. Surprise surprise! They were definitely out, hanging about on the grasses, but they were easily avoidable if you were careful. (and I was careful). The poison oak was a different story. It was all over the place. The urushiol oil was just oozing off the leaves, daring you to get close to it. On the way down, I somehow avoided touching it (thankfully), but on the way back up, I touched it multiple times. I scrubbed myself down when I got home. Hopefully, I do not get the rash.

I was hoping to camp either down at the river (preferably), or at the sixth waterfall (just above the seventh). There was no way to get down to the sixth waterfall that I could see, and there were no places to camp along the river (it was far too rocky). There was literally one small place to set up camp along the cliff, essentially right along the trail, above the river. It was a short walk down to the river from here, and the spot was tight, and uncomfortably close to giant poison oak leaves. It was a little windy here as well, so I had to set up the Zpacks tent much lower than preferable. It would have to do.

I ate my dinner, then went up to see the sixth and seventh waterfalls. I should have gone up to see more waterfalls since I had a lot of time;  they were further up the canyon, however, and I had planned to see them in the morning on the way back up. I think that was a big mistake since I had so much time and the weather was so perfect. In the morning, it would be raining. Oh well. I definitely will be back here again.

Shown above is the seventh waterfall, 26 ft. high, located right at the confluence with the NF American River. It is a magnificent place. I was camped essentially right near the top of the waterfall. There is a better campsite on the other side, but very deadly to cross the creek above the falls. Not taking any chances on that, I chose my small spot next to the poison oak. I had a good night, listening to the multitudes of birds throughout the canyon. I still wanted to see the Big Waterfall in the morning. Hopefully, before the rain started …

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