Leon Turnbull Photography

One thing I can tell you is … You go to be free … Come Together … Right now … Over me.

So what happens when one incredible creek splits into three significant channels and then comes together at three separate waterfalls? Absolute magnificence, that is what.

The middle falls on West Cherry Creek looks huge from below. It is a strange thing. I thought there is no possible way I’m going to be able to climb up it. When you get up to the bottom of it, I found that it is not that big and it is not difficult to climb to the top. I suppose the actual drop is about 50 ft. or so, but it is hard to gauge the actual height. As I said the creek splits into three separate channels up at the big waterfall, and flows separately for quite a while until it comes to the middle falls, where it joins back together at three waterfalls. My favorite waterfall of the three was the one on the 3rd channel, on the other side (shown above). I got to this spot at the bottom of the falls on the 1st channel, and used it as a foreground for my photo. It is an amazing location. In order to see the main waterfall on the middle channel, I had to climb up above the falls, then cross the first channel. I had to go quite a ways above the falls before I found a safe place to cross the first stream, then hiked back down to the main falls (I have many more photos to process).

I slept very well, and took my time packing up in the morning. I was not in a rush to leave. I did not want to leave, it was so beautiful. But alas, eventually it was time to hike out of the canyon. It is a steep 1300 ft. climb back to the logging road. It took two hours (1.5 miles), the same as coming down. I felt good, and did not even feel that tired until some point along the long downhill slog of five miles on the logging road back to the car. Now I was tired and ready to go home.

There were hundreds of butterflies along the road. It was very cool. They would fly all around me as I walked along. They were smart enough to get out of the way before I would step on them. It made the boring walk on the logging road quite entertaining.

Finally, I got back to the car. I saw that someone had been up the road, and cut back some of the downed trees blocking the road. But he missed one of the trees, which I thought very odd. Why did he not cut this one, and how on earth did he drive by it? So weird. Anyway, I made the long drive home, stopping of course at Pizza Factory in Groveland, as I always do. It was a glorious trip into the Emigrant Wilderness.

 

 

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Last year, I took my son backpacking to West Cherry Creek, the upper part of the canyon. I said at that time that West Cherry Canyon was one of the most stunning places I have ever seen. This year, my top goal was to backpack into lower West Cherry Canyon. This past weekend I accomplished this feat, and again, I found the lower canyon is just as magnificent as the upper canyon. It was absolutely glorious and I found three fantastic waterfalls.

I am watching this Youtube channel of a Sierra backpacker whom I really like, but in his latest video, he said something that I found a bit odd. He basically said that he has nothing more to show on his channel. He has seen it all and shared it all from the Sierra Nevada. Really? The truth is he has not even scratched the surface of the Sierra Nevada. There is so much more to see. No one can see it all in a lifetime. Not even John Muir. I wish that all the followers on his channel would come over to my “waterfall madman” channel instead. I assure you, I have plenty more to share from the Sierra Nevada.

Lower West Cherry Canyon is a perfect example of this. There are no trails down into this canyon. I saw no evidence that anyone had ever been down there (well, almost none). I was a bit surprised by that. As I said, it is one of the most stunning canyons I have ever seen. I wanted my son, Jadon, to come with me again, but he refused to come this year. It was a little harder than upper West Cherry, but I am sure he could have done it.

The first part of the hike is along a dirt logging road and is very easy, gently gaining a few hundred feet in elevation. I could have driven further, but there was a downed tree blocking the road, so that meant I had to hike five miles on the dirt road. No big deal. I had all day. There were actually many trees down on the road, so it was not just the one that was stopping me. I saw a bear. A big brown one. It was only about a hundred feet in front of me, and it did not see me at all! It just continued meandering across the road and off to the other side. Because it did not see me, I was able to get my iPhone out, and I got a small snippet of video of the bear before it went off into the bushes on the other side. I’m not too sure how well the video turned out, but at least this time I have proof that I actually saw a bear (in case no one ever believes me).  I wonder if this is the year of the bear for me? A couple years ago, it was the year of the coyote. I saw plenty of those creatures that year. So far this year, I have seen three bears in two backpacking trips, so maybe it is the year of the bear. I hope so!

After five miles, I came to the spot where I needed to drop off the road and down to the bottom of the canyon. It is a 1300 ft. descent, and as I said there are no trails. Not true! I started out following a bear trail down into the canyon. It was definitely a bear trail and not human, because there was plenty of bear scat all over the trail. At least it was going the right direction, but them bears do not generally go where I want to go. Eventually I lost the bears and continued straight down. Now I came across the remnants of what seemed like an old human trail. This was the only human evidence I saw all weekend down here. It was very faint and hard to follow, but I guess it means others have definitely been down here at some point in the past. The descent is only 1.5 miles to the bottom, but it took two full hours. It was difficult and very slow going. There was some brush near the top that took some time to negotiate. Near the bottom, it opened up into granite rock (with stunning views), but it became quite cliffy. It should have been flattening out and getting easier. Instead, it was the opposite. It took a long time to find ways around these big granite drop-offs.

Eventually, I got down to the river – er I mean creek. West Cherry Creek was huge. I am not certain if peak snow melt has occurred yet in the Central Sierra, so I’m thinking the flow in the creek was around peak flow for this year (4400 cfs on the inflow to Cherry Lake – of which the west branch is half).

My initial plan was to camp up at the big waterfall. However, I could easily see that it was going to be very difficult to get up there, and perhaps it might not even be possible. There was another big waterfall I would have to climb up and it was bigger than I imagined (the second of the three waterfalls). I was also very tired from the hike down. I decided to go downstream to the third waterfall and have lunch there. After a rest, I would hike up to the big waterfall and find a campsite. I also wanted to see if I could even get down to view the third waterfall (I was not at all certain it would be possible).

The third waterfall on lower West Cherry Creek is located at the confluence of West Cherry and Cherry Creeks. When I arrived there, I found the most perfect campsite. It is a stunning location at the confluence with tremendous views upstream and downstream. I could also see that it was going to be possible to get down to see the third waterfall after all. Without a doubt, this was going to be my campsite for the night. I had my lunch, then setup my camp and relaxed for the rest of the afternoon. I absolutely made the correct choice.

After dinner, I went upstream to photograph the first two waterfalls. It was not too difficult to climb up to the top of the middle falls and continue up river. However, we had an obstacle to overcome. Below the first waterfall, West Cherry splits into three separate channels, all significant, and continues on these separate channels for some distance until they come back together at the middle falls (which, as you can imagine, is three different waterfalls coming together at one spot – an incredible sight and I will share those photos later). I tried to continue upstream, but it became too difficult because of that first channel. It was clear I had to cross it. In some spots, it would be impossible to cross this creek, but I found a safe spot to wade across, and once across, it was easy to continue up to the first waterfall. However, I had to cross that creek again just below the first waterfall. It was a bit more difficult, but I managed to get back across.

Now I had a marvelous viewpoint of Lower West Cherry Creek Falls, 60 ft. high, and raging to all ends. I had about an hour to wait for the sun, so I explored a bit above the falls, and then rested, snacking, and just enjoying the moment. It was glorious.

After this, I went back downstream to photograph the middle and lower falls, then went to bed, very tired and very happy. I slept extremely well that night to the sounds of West Cherry and Cherry creeks.

 

 

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For our last day, we went back to Ireland. This day was a bit of a bust. Half of it was a bust anyway.

Our first stop was a lighthouse which we could not get to see because the gate was closed. Lame.

Next we went to see Glenevin Falls (pictured here). It is a very easy half mile hike, and we were the only ones on the trail. The light (again) was perfect, which is good because the trail/parking does not open until after 9am, so in other words you can only come to this waterfall in the middle of the day. It is a very gorgeous 60 ft. high waterfall. Nekoda and I hiked to the top of the falls; there were some nice views up from the top, but no other waterfalls to see. There is a lower falls as well, but it is on a side creek, and the side creek was only just a trickle.

After the waterfall, it started to rain a bit. We went to Carrickabraghy Castle, which was quite interesting. It was very cold and windy there. A lady we met there said it was the coldest spot in Ireland. I don’t know about that but it sure felt like it.

We then went back to Portrush and went to the Carrick a Rede rope bridge. We were told by a local that this was worth the money and we should do it, however in my opinion it was a total tourist scam. My wife liked it, but it cost us 22 pounds to walk across a very short and uninteresting rope bridge. No thank you. But you took my money anyway. Argh. What a waste. You can’t even take your time and take photos on the bridge, because they herd you across and back as fast as possible; however, I ignored them and went across slowly anyway, trying to take some video. I don’t think it worked though, because my family were herded across quickly, so they were not on the bridge very long for me to take video of them. Argh. Again.

The next day it rained. It was not just raining, it was very windy. This was the day we had to drive back to Belfast early in the morning for our flight home. I was watching the weather all week long, and I was concerned because all week it said there would be high winds. Our flight to London was delayed two hours because there were huge delays at Heathrow. Are you ready for it? I HATE British Airways!!  The delay was not BA’s fault, obviously, but they boarded us anyway and made us sit in the cramped plane for two hours. They knew the flight was delayed. Why couldn’t they let us sit in the comfortable airport lounge for a couple hours before boarding us? So when we finally got to London, we now only had two hours before our next connecting flight to San Jose. It took the full 2 hours to get to our next flight, and we barely made it. Why ??? Because British Airways would not check our baggage through to San Jose. So stupid!! We had to collect our bags, then go through security again, and re-check in our baggage. They make you use their stupid automated check in machines, and their machines do not work! They have hardly any staff there to help you, so here we are waiting for help cuz their stupid automated machines do not work, and the line behind us is getting longer and longer. Argh! So bloody stressful! The actual flight was uneventful, but I could not get very much sleep, so I was over tired when we arrived in San Jose. The next part was not BA’s fault, but going through U.S. Customs was also an absolute nightmare. The lines were huge, and they had very few officers on duty. It took over an hour to clear customs. So stupid! Then to top it all off, the car parking machine stole my credit card and I had to call for help to get it back. Oh my gosh!

You wonder why I hate flying so much? The last time I got in a plane was 10 years ago in 2009 when we went to Alaska (that was not a good flight either). I said to my wife after this trip to Scotland/Ireland that I don’t ever want to fly again. She hates that I said that, but it is just too bloody stressful for me. I already have a stroke risk, I do not need this in my life. I very much enjoyed Scotland and Ireland, but the flying I just hate. It is not worth the stress to me. I think I will just stay in the western USA and Canada. It would have been a million times better if not for the stupidness of British Airways and U.S. Customs. Maybe in ten years I will try again. Stick around and you will find out.

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On Day 7, we crossed the border from Northern Ireland to Ireland. It is a little strange how you can cross into another country without any border control whatsoever, and then all of a sudden things are quite different. You are now using the metric system (kilometers instead of miles). The currency is now Euros instead of pounds. Ireland also seemed a lot cleaner to me. The litter on the trails we hiked in Ireland was negligible. Maybe it was just the particular trails we were hiking on, but it was a noticeable difference.

Our first stop was Glenveagh National Park. From the parking lot, you have to take the bus into the park to the castle and gardens. We were on the first bus of the day when it opened. My wife and kids wanted to take the castle tour, and I wanted to hike to the waterfall. It is a 3 mile one way hike to the waterfall. It was not flowing very well (as I expected, though I was still hoping for much better); nonetheless, it was a beautiful hike to the end of the lake. Again, God provided cloud cover for me just as I arrived at the waterfall viewpoint.

There were a lot of ticks on the trail! These were the first (and only) ticks I saw in any of these countries. Before this trip, I had no idea Ireland even had ticks. The trail was very wide so it was easy to avoid them, unless you happen to go off the trail to take photos (which I did of course!). So, I did get a couple ticks on my body, but I saw them in time before they did any damage. I wondered why there would be ticks here. They are not going to attach themselves to any humans because the trail is so wide (except for stupid humans such as myself), and there are very few animals in this park (no sheep, no cows, very few deer). How do they survive!?!?!

When I got back to the castle, I expected my family to be waiting for me. I was right on schedule for our designated rendezvous time. Where were they? I wanted to get on the bus and get going to the next destination. I wandered around the gardens, but saw no sign of them. I asked the lady in the castle if there were currently any tours going on and if my family might be in them. She said the tour ended in five minutes. I waited. They did not show up when the tour ended. Ugh! I thought they must have taken the bus back to the parking lot and were waiting for me there. Why they would do that I had no idea, because there was no way for me to contact them or know that they had done that. I decided to catch the next bus back. It would suck if they were not at the car because then I would have to pay for another bus ticket to come back to the castle. I waited at the bus stop, and just as I was about to have a heart attack, I saw them, sitting on a bench. Apparently their castle tour had just ended now. Thanks lady for giving me that misinformation about the tour ending in five minutes, and almost giving me a heart attack.

Following this we went to the Dunlewey Church ruins nearby. I saw this on a video by photographer Nick Page, and thought it looked very fascinating. It was close by so why not. It is definitely a very cool old church, and well worth the stop.

Then we went to see Assaranca Falls, 300 ft. (pictured here). The road out here is one of those narrow single lane roads. The locals coming towards you in their vehicles do not bother to slow down. Ah! This really freaks me out. It is a beautiful waterfall, but it is a bit popular because it right is by the roadside. There was a group of east Indian guys here being way too loud and taking way too long to photograph the waterfall. Why are they taking so long? It really ruined my experience at this falls. I like to enjoy my waterfalls in peace and quiet. My wife agreed with me on this one. She said she could not get a good photo of the waterfall herself because of them, and others who came by apparently had the same problem. I decided to cross the creek to get a little bit of peace, but it was not much better.

We continued up the road to the Owenwee River Falls. The road gets very narrow and steep after Assaranca. I did not want to drive further up the road, so I parked in a pullout and walked up the road. My daughter said this was the “weakest” waterfall she has ever seen. What does that even mean? It was not really weak, you just need to get up closer to it. As I photographed the falls, a sheep continued to “baa” at me the entire time. Seriously? You don’t want me to photograph your personal little waterfall, sheep? Why not, eh? Am I intruding on your personal space, like those east Indian guys at the other waterfall? (I think the answer to that is, yes).

We then went to see the Maghera sea caves since it was low tide, and you can only see them at low tide. This was planned. I knew it would be low tide at this time. You don’t believe me? Ah, well it is true, I did plan it this way. However, I also thought it would be raining, according to the forecast. It did not rain on us. We continued to have perfect weather. The caves are quite interesting, but not huge. The last one requires you to climb up a steep hill to get to it. The cave does not go in very far, but it has a very large chamber. Nekoda and I went up first, the others were waiting to see if we found anything interesting, and if it was worth their effort to climb up the hill. We waved them up. Tara came, but Jadon decided he did not want to climb the hill; he really missed out. It was a pretty cool cave.

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There is one thing that perturbed me about all my hikes in Scotland and Northern Ireland: there was a lot of trash on the trail. I found that the trails had more litter than even in California. It would not surprise me if a lot of this trash was caused by Americans littering in foreign countries, and there may have been some of that, but I believe the vast majority of it was done by locals. I find this very upsetting and sad. Cranny Falls, for instance, which we went to next after Glenoe Falls, is mostly a locals trail, not a tourist trail, and there was a ton of trash on this trail. I always pick up trash when I am hiking as I hate seeing litter on trails (it is my number two pet peeve). My wife and I picked up more than our fair share of it, trying to clean up the trails in Scotland and Northern Ireland, but it got to the point where I was just sick and tired of it all. I think the Scottish and Irish hiking trails societies ought to be thanking us personally (if there is even such a group in those countries – ha ha).

We did find the people in Scotland and Northern Ireland to be very friendly. On our hike to Cranny Falls, my wife asked some locals about the berries she saw on some plants. Are they edible, she asked? No! they replied emphatically. That is poison ivy. Don’t eat that. We want you to enjoy your stay in our country!

After Cranny Falls, our next stop was Glenariff Falls, where there are two beautiful waterfalls on a nice loop trail in Glenariff Forest Park, an upper falls – pictured here (60 ft.) and a lower falls (40 ft.). You have to pay for parking at this park, 5 pounds. It is worth the fee, but again, I found so much trash on these trails. If I am paying this much to go into the park, why aren’t they keeping the trails clean? Where is my money going to? Why can’t they keep their parks clean in Northern Ireland? I found this to be even more upsetting than the trail at Cranny Falls (where the parking was free).

My daughter took a wrong turn on the trail here, because she decided to go off the trail to take a “short cut”, and thus she missed the “waterfall sign” pointing the other direction. I was way behind (taking video) and did not see her, but my wife saw her go off the wrong way and yelled at me, so I grabbed my camera and ran after her. It took awhile to catch her, she was far up the trail. So much for that short cut. It was a fun hike, but not exactly easy. There is a long climb from the lower falls back up the car. By the time we got back to the car, the local cafe was closed because it was almost sunset, which is where I had hoped to eat dinner. We had to drive a bit, but we eventually found something better: a pizza place in some small town. Yum.

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