Leon Turnbull Photography

I did get the poison oak itch from my hike last weekend. Indeed, I got the oak in my eye. I could not see anything on Monday morning, and had to call in sick for work. This is the third time this has happened to me. Last time was about a year ago. Thankfully … I still had enough drugs leftover from the last time. My wife did not have to take me to the doctor again (which she was grateful for), and by Tuesday morning, I am all better. It would sure be nice if I could just buy these drugs without a prescription. It kinda sucks having to go pay the doctor $200 or so, in order to get a prescription for something I need, and then go pay $ to buy the drugs, so I can get rid of the poison oak in my eye. Also, it would be even better if I did not get oak in my eye in the first place! I have been very careful about avoiding oak, and honestly, I thought I was careful this time, and I did not think I would get any poison oak itch this time either. I don’t know what happened, but somehow I missed something in my cleaning up, or maybe I was just in too much of it. Anyhow …

After my hike to Wild Oat Falls, I got back to the car, very tired. It was raining. I really wanted to do a second hike (actually more than 2 hikes), but I was so tired from the first hike, very wet, and I did not want to go out in the rain any more. I had my lunch in the car, and checked my weather app, not expecting any let up in the rain for the afternoon. However, surprise, it said the rain was apparently going to stop in about 30 minutes or so, for a brief time. Well, I suppose I could do a second hike (an easy hike) after all.

My friend Mike told me this was an EASY waterfall. With a capital E-A-S-Y. Umm, yeah, not exactly E-A-S-Y. It was not H-A-R-D. However, the hike did gain about 300 or 400 feet, and the last part involved whacking through some brush and poison oak to the edge of a very steep cliff, looking down on the waterfall. I would not call that easy, especially the part where I am treading on pins and needles at the edge of the cliff, trying to photograph the waterfall. Anyhow, I managed to do it, and got back to the car before the rain started up again. It is certainly a very pretty waterfall.

I was back in the Bay Area for an exciting weekend adventure. This time, I was back to see the Devil. Mt. Diablo State Park, that is. It has been a while, a long while, since I was last here. I really wanted to try to get to Wild Oat Falls. Did I make it? Well, I think you know that already, but it was killer, very difficult, and poison oak infested. I almost blew it, though.

There was a big storm coming in, but it was supposed to be cloudy and showery all morning. It was not showery at all. It was also not cloudy. Well it was cloudy when I started the hike.

Whenever I am here, the trail to Donner Creek is especially muddy. Ridiculously muddy. But it was good to see the creek flowing well from all the rain. Praise God for the rain. We are now well over average for the year so far. The waterfalls should be  fantastic.

Thanks to my friend Mike, I had a good route planned for Wild Oat Falls, and it was my full intention to follow this route. But alas, that did not happen. Enter poison oak. Well, you see, I thought it might be good to go to Donner Creek Falls first. It is on the way and would be a bit easier (I thought) to go to those waterfalls first, even though I’ve been to them before. I should not have done that. But anyway, I did. I spent a lot of time, far too much time, scrambling around those waterfalls, and tiring myself out. Now the sun was coming out. The clouds were all gone. It was supposed to be cloudy all morning! Nope. Not Cloudy. By the time I could get up to Wild Oat Falls, now, it would be in the sun, and that is the waterfall I really wanted to get to. I blew it! I should have gone up to Wild Oat first! I knew it, too. Ugh.

However … all was not lost. I saw a path heading up the canyon from the Donner Creek Falls. I was not planning to go this way. I knew there would be a lot of poison oak this way. Guess what? There was a lot of poison oak. However, it was much faster doing this now then going my original route. I could not avoid touching the oak. I gave up trying, and just trounced right through the stuff. Hoping beyond all hope, that I will avoid getting the itch this time. (actually … I have not gotten the poison oak itch in a long time – knock on wood). It was a tough route, climbing up the canyon this way. The waterfall was much further than I thought it was. This was NOT the right way to go to it! I continued climbing, and finally I could see the falls. It was still in shade. Could I make it in time? I still had a long way to go. Finally I reached the viewpoint. It was still in shade. I was ecstatic. Wild Oat Falls is a stunning 83 ft. high waterfall. Such magnificence! I took photos and enjoyed the view. I did not go back down via Donner Creek Falls, I went back the way I had initially intended to come to this one. It was much much easier. And no poison oak! (but it was too late about that, anyway). It was a long hike back down the mountain. By the time I got back to the car, the clouds were back. It was raining. Yeah!

As of Feb. 1, here are your stats for the year thus far: Snow pack is 101% of average (northern CA), 103% (central Sierra),98% (southern Sierra). Rain is 96% of average (northern CA), 92% (central Sierra), 97% (southern Sierra). So as you can see, we are pretty darn average for the year so far. The good news is that February is starting out with a bang (the above stats do not include the storm that started on Feb. 1). I like being average. I have said it before. I wish we had average precipitation EVERY YEAR, instead of the huge ups and downs that we usually have in California. We will have to see how we end up at the end of this year with two more months to go in the winter. I am sure liking how February is starting off.

As for this photo, is it a pretty average photo of an average waterfall? This is Upper Merlin Falls, 53 ft. high. When I first went to Merlin Falls a couple years ago, I did not go to this upper Falls. Why not? It is not difficult! On that day, I totally wrenched my back on my first hike of the day. I could only BARELY hobble up to the lower falls (which is by the roadside). Going up to the upper falls was out of the question. Driving home that day was a nightmare. I am only now just getting back to this one. So many waterfalls to see, not enough time. Enjoy.

This is a new waterfall for me. Tobin Falls, 117 ft. high. It is a real beauty. At higher flows, it would be amazing. I found that the creeks on this side of the river were flowing quite a bit less than the other side, generally speaking. I think that is because there was no snow on the mountains on this side, and there was snow on the other side. Weird.

Anyway, to get to this one, you need to walk along the railroad tracks, which is always a bit unnerving, wherever you may be, but I saw no trains the entire morning. In the afternoon, I did see quite a few trains while I was hiking to Chambers Creek. Weird.

I love it when my birthday is on a Saturday. Saturday is my usual hiking day, so when my birthday is on a Saturday, I can hike all day and do what I love. Find waterfalls!

I headed back to Oroville. This time I left very early, and beat the construction traffic on Hwy 70. They were getting ready to start at 7AM when I drove through, but there were no delays. My plan was to head back to Murphy Creek Falls and try to get to that elusive upper falls. However … the creek was at about twice the flow it was last time I was here. I would have to cross that creek. I suspected this would be the case as I have been monitoring creek levels all week. It did not go down as much during the week as much as I had hoped, but I decided to try it anyhow. The creek actually looked crossable when I arrived at the trailhead. This might be good after all. I started up the trail, but then got to the small seasonal creek just before the lower falls. This little creek was flowing at least twice as high perhaps more. It was extremely dangerous, and I could not cross it safely.  I did not want to die, so I retreated back to the car. That is when I found a yellow sticker on my car from the highway patrol (not a ticket). I was parked legally, well off the highway, and gone for less than 30 minutes. Yet the officer apparently thought I had abandoned my car! Geepers!

Anyhow, Murphy was a bust. It was on to plan B.

Plan B was to go up to Chambers Creek Falls. I have not been to these falls in 12 years. It was time to return and get better photos of these waterfalls, and maybe see some parts I have seen before. I started the hike at 11:30am. So what was I doing from 8AM or so until 11:30? Going to see other waterfalls of course. All in all, I saw 7 waterfalls on my birthday, 3 of them were new ones. More on this later.

The hike up to Chambers Creek Falls is a huffer, gaining 1700 ft. in elevation in a couple miles. There were a ton of ticks along the trail. Crappers. Fortunately, the trail is wide, so it is easy to avoid them. As I thought about this, however, the trail suddenly becomes much narrower on the top half of the trail. Not so easy to avoid them now. But anyhow, I avoided getting any of the little bugger machines on myself. I find it interesting how they know to climb up on the grasses overhanging onto the trail? They do not climb up on the grasses off in the bushes. You need to do a lot of off trail scrambling to see all the waterfalls up here, and I did not see any ticks (or very few) when I was doing all that.

I finally arrived at the bridge over Chambers Creek. There are four waterfalls here. Only Fall #2 is easy to get to. The other three are killer. I ate my lunch at the bridge, and took photos of #2 (35 ft. high). As I was finishing up my lunch, a family came up the trail. The only other people I saw all day long. I don’t imagine they were planning to see the other waterfalls (which is good because they had two little kids and a dog and that would have been very dangerous for them – but those kids did really good climbing up this trail, it is not an easy hike). Anyway, I climbed up above the second falls, and then down to Fall #1 (105 ft. high). After this, I climbed back up and down to the trail, and made the very steep descent down to Fall #3 pictured here (94 ft. high). I was standing on a freaky ledge at the edge of the cliff to get this photo. I sure hoped the rock was secure on the cliff. But Fall #4 was scarier. I have not been down to Fall #4 before, and I did not think it would be possible. Yet I was able to continue climbing down the mountain, and I came down to a point where I could see Fall #4. Sort of. It was almost but not quite the most spectacular thing I have ever seen. You can get a glimpse of the 2 tiers of Fall #4, with #3 above. What a sight. But it is only a glimpse. There is no clear view of the thing. As it was, I had to stand in a very sketchy spot, just to get a photo of Fall #4. After this, it was back up up up to the bridge, and then back down the trail to the car. I got back to the car right at sunset. Then I drove to Chicago Fire in Roseville to meet my family for my birthday dinner. It was an awesome birthday.