Leon Turnbull Photography

It was not 32 degrees the first night. According to every forecast I read, every night was supposed to be that cold. I was prepared for the worst. I brought extra clothes for sleeping. I even went out and bought a new $80 merino wool shirt from REI the day before I left because I was freaked out that it was going to be so darn cold on this trip, even more than my June trip when I had to put on all the clothes I had brought with me just to keep from freezing to death at night. This trip was supposed to be even colder. I did not even need the darn new shirt! I was quite cozy in my sleeping bag all night long. I did not need or wear all the clothes that I had brought with me. It was certainly cold, but certainly not anywhere near 32 degrees.

I got up early in the dark and packed up. I needed to get to four more waterfalls in the morning before the sun got to them. After these four waterfalls, I had a 2300 ft. climb up to Twin Island Lakes. As you recall, my planning was meticulous for this trip, and I had a schedule to keep. An important schedule that nothing could break. Except, that is, for the rebelling of my body.

It was quite apparent right away that I would not make it to my planned destination. I was totally bagged from the day before. There was no way in any part of my imagination that I could climb 2300 ft. up to the lakes. I am in good shape. The best shape I’ve been in since I got married 18 years ago. I did not over plan this trip. I should be able to make these hikes, but I struggled more than I thought I should. Perhaps it was the high elevation? Or perhaps it was the extra pack weight? Or perhaps a combination?

Anyway, I got to the first four waterfalls as planned. I then continued up the trail to my next camping spot, which was just a meager 900 ft. elevation gain from the previous day. This was supposed to be my camping spot for Day 3, not Day 2. There are a number of waterfalls in this vicinity including a couple surprises. Once again, I found a superb camping area next to a majestic 50 ft. high waterfall on the North Fork San Joaquin River (pictured here). It was a surprise to me how incredible this particular waterfall was. I had actually thought the falls above this one would be the bigger and more spectacular one.

The trail from Hemlock Crossing up to Twin Island Lakes is what you might call seldom used. I do not think this river sees much human action, even in the summer. It is no wonder I saw no other person for four days. The trail is much overgrown, it is very difficult to follow, and in some places completely gone. It gets worse and worse the further you go. There are rock cairns in the rocky granite areas, and I was concentrating like mad to follow the trail. Where is the next cairn? I see nothing! Nothing I tell you! I was going slow, and got off trail more than once. At one such place, I got off the trail and ended up in a brushy section. This cannot possibly be correct, I thought. At this point, I heard a big animal in the bushes up ahead. There is only one animal that could make that much noise: A bear. Sure enough, it was a big brown bear. He took a good look at me. Then he continued up the hill through the brush. (Making much more noise). Awesome possum. If I had not gotten off trail, I would not have seen him at all. When I came back to the spot I had gotten off trail, it seemed so obvious which way the trail went. How could I have possibly missed this turn in the trail? I think perhaps God made me miss it so I could see the bear. Well, that is what I think anyway. However, the bear was pretty darn close to my intended camping area. That is probably not a good thing, actually.

I setup camp, had lunch, then took a much needed nap. I still wanted to do another evening hike again. To do this one, I would have to cross the North Fork San Joaquin River. I made the crossing at my campsite fairly easily. I had been quite concerned I would not be able to make the crossing, even this late in the season. I did not bring my proper water shoes. I already had too much pack weight, so I had to cross in my no traction water socks. Well, it was not too hard. I climbed up into Bench Canyon to where I would find a 400 foot high waterfall. Unfortunately, Bench Canyon was the one creek that had much less water flowing than I had hoped. This particular falls would be spectacular when flowing strong, but now it was just a bit disappointing. The falls of despair. Still though, it is 400 ft. high and quite an amazing area. It was a difficult 900 ft. climb up to the falls. I suppose I should not have done that considering how tired I was. But it is a 400 ft. high waterfall! I had to do it. I came back down to the river at a different crossing point. Umm, this crossing looks much harder than the one at the campsite. The water is quite a bit more deep and swift here. All I have are these stupid water socks. But I had to cross back to the other side! It would have been too hard to go back up to where I had crossed initially. I had to do it here and now. No choice. So I very carefully made the crossing, making sure each step was firmly planted. I made it across without any trouble.

I had another scare as well on my way back down from Bench Canyon. This one was worse than anything else. I thought I lost all my photos! They were not displaying on my camera. It showed zero photos on my memory card. What a disaster this is! Did my camera corrupt my memory card somehow? Oh man, I was in utter distress, the pit of despair. All those places I had just been to in the last two days, and now I have nothing to show for them?!? I did not know what to do about any of this. I wailed loudly. If anyone was in the canyon at all, they would have heard me. But we know there was no one around anywhere. I am sure the bear heard me though, and was probably scared for his life, and ran far away from my camping area (that’s a good thing). What will bring me out of the pit of despair? True love. Of the waterfalls. Actually, after fiddling with my camera settings, the picture display came back to life. Whew. I am still not totally comfortable with this Sony camera. I am just so grateful I still had my photos.

I was quite relieved. And I was quite tired. Thankfully, I could sleep in the next day. My schedule actually allowed it.

 

 

2 Comments

I had this trip in my mind for 3 months. I planned it out meticulously. The detail was calculated down to an hourly minutiae. I spent many hours working out this plan. I had 19 or 20 waterfalls to see in four days, and I needed to see them all in good light. Plans always go awry at some point.

The first (and not last) kink was the weather. All of a sudden a day before my trip, the forecast started to show extreme cold and even snow. I had prayed for no rain, I had prayed for no fires, but I did not pray for no freezing cold temperatures. Doh. God is just fooling with me now.

I decided to leave a day earlier than planned and return a day earlier. This would avoid the snow storm, but not the cold. Well, I knew I could handle the cold. In June, it was down to freezing at Cherry Creek Canyon. I survived. I just needed to bring more clothes. Leaving a day earlier would mean I would have to start my hike later in the morning and minus one waterfall.

I had brand new hiking boots that I had not yet worn on any hike. You know what they say: it is extremely foolish to go on a big hike with boots not yet worn in. I tried to soften them up at home as best as I could without going on any actual hike. As soon as I started the hike, I knew I would be fine. They felt comfortable and great. I love my REI Merrell boots. They are always so comfortable. I got no blisters on the hike. With my old (falling apart) boots, I would have gotten blisters for sure.

I was upset my pack weight was 37 pounds. That is two more pounds than my self imposed weight limit. Oh well, you say, what is the big whoop! It is only two pounds! Two pounds is a huge difference in backpacking, especially when you will be climbing over 6500 feet in elevation. Yet I had no choice. I had to take extra food for four nights and extra clothes for the cold. I could not figure out anything more that I could cut on the weight. I will just have to suck it up. Them two extra pounds are going to kill me, I thought.

About two miles in I met some backpackers camping on the side of the trail (nowhere in particular). They said they had to make an emergency stop the prior night, and would have to hike back down. Why? Also, they said they had been intending to go up for opening day? Huh? Opening day for what? For start of Fall Color? No. I guess they meant hunting? Are you even allowed to hunt in the Wilderness? I guess they are allowed, but in that case, I’m sure glad they did not make it. The last thing I would want to listen to in my wilderness experience is the sound of gun shots all day long. How awful would that be? And what are they going to do with anything they kill? Carry the big thing 15 miles back to their vehicle? Not with the weight they were already carrying. In fact, I found out the cause of their emergency stop: One of them was carrying 100 pounds of gear up the trail! Wow! 100 pounds! He was a big strong guy but 100 pounds? I think not. I had about 45 pounds last year, and that was far too much weight. Maybe 37 pounds is not so bad, after all.

These guys had not yet even crossed into the wilderness boundary. I mention this because after passing them and crossing into the wilderness, I saw zero humans for the rest of my trip. Four days. No humans except me, myself, and I. I literally had the entire North Fork San Joaquin Canyon all to myself. Nothing but me and the birds, lizards, and the squirrels. I do not count birds, squirrels, and lizards as wildlife encounters. Unless however if it is an unusual bird (such as a raptor – which I have seen of course but not on this trip), or an unusual squirrel (such as ROUS – Rodents of Unusual Size – which I have not seen), or an unusual lizard (such as a Tyrannosaurus Rex – which I have not seen). I did see a baby garter snake, so I guess that barely qualifies as a wildlife encounter. Oh yeah, and there was that one other creature I saw (you will have to wait for Day 2 for that).

Two of the three creeks I crossed on the way to the river were dry. This was a bad sign. In this very wet year, I would have expected all these creeks to have water. One of them looked like it had been completely dry for a month or more. I was counting on these creeks for drinking water. On the return trip I would have a tough uphill climb, and I would need that water. What was I going to do? Just die of thirst in the middle of the trail? How lovely would that be? I can think of better ways to go out than that. This could be a bad sign for the waterfalls up ahead as well.

Well, despite the extra weight, I felt good on the hike. However, I started feeling tired just before I got to camp. It was a very long 10 miles. The first seven were uphill, the last 3 were downhill, and a very steep downhill. As I said, that was something I was not looking forward to when I had to climb out of the canyon later. When I got down to the NF San Joaquin River at Hemlock Crossing, I found plenty of water. The side creeks dropping into the river were also flowing very well, no worries about waterfalls; most of the creeks had more water flowing than I expected, but there were a couple creeks that I was a bit disappointed in. I was later getting to camp than I wanted to. According to my meticulous plan, I had one hour to setup camp, eat my dinner, then I had another hike to do to see some evening waterfalls. The evening hike really did me in. I was so tired. (actually, it probably did me in for the rest of the trip and I had to cut out a couple falls from my great plan of unusual size – but more on that later). Essentially, I had been hiking for 7 straight hours with few rests along the way. Nonetheless, I saw four Falls in the evening, and all were beautiful. This one here was one of my favorites on the entire trip. It is an incredibly gorgeous waterfall on the river, about 50 ft. high. It is one of 12 significant waterfalls on this river, and perhaps the best. This is where I camped the first night, and listened to the sound of the roaring water as I drifted off to my much needed sleep. Sweet perfection.

 

2 Comments

Well I think we have all heard by now about the horrific Eagle Creek Fire in the Columbia River Gorge, Oregon, apparently started by idiot teenagers lighting off firecrackers in the Gorge. Over 100 hikers were stranded overnight, but thankfully all got out the next day with no injuries. Evacuations of nearby town Cascade Locks and other communities, the fire still out of control and spreading west, and even somehow jumped across the Columbia River into Washington state. The last I heard it had reached Multnomah Falls and the historic Lodge was threatened to be destroyed by the fire, and has continued almost to Latourell Falls. The awesome Fire-workers have been hard at work to protect the Lodge and have succeeded in doing so. People everywhere are outraged by this act. Eagle Creek and the Gorge is (or was) incredibly beautiful.  Opinions are rampant on the internet. Some say the Gorge will never recover from this. Lies and fake news are also widespread on the internet and social media. I heard someone say blatantly that Multnomah Falls was “already gone”, already burned, with no facts to support their statement (this was even before the fire reached Multnomah Falls). In this age of social media-ness, people are very quick to lie, and also very quick to believe anything they read without checking facts first. (especially with politics or religion – but this is neither!). Personally, I have been trying to verify facts about this fire, but it is difficult to verify anything. However, Multnomah Falls is “not gone”. The Lodge is not burned. The effects in the Gorge are not nearly as bad as some people would have you believe. The Gorge will be changed surely, but exactly how remains to be seen.

What about the kid that lit the fire? Thanks to one passing hiker that witnessed the act (according to her story in the news – which was upsetting to read), and to her bravery (in my opinion), authorities have apprehended the person responsible. There were multiple teenagers involved, but only one threw the firecracker. However, the investigation is still ongoing and no doubt will be for quite some time. If you follow the Story on the internet, people are calling for his head (literally). Someone said in jest that the names have not been released because half a million people in Portland want to kill him (or them). Everyone and their dog has an opinion on how to deal with these kids. I honestly think the world would be a much better place without the internet (and I am a computer programmer). There is too much hate, too many lies. I am very upset about this fire as well, and I am all for prosecuting him to the full extent of the law, and I do hope justice is served in this case, but within the law, not outside it. Let the authorities do their job, people.

This photo is no lie. It is Punchbowl Falls in the Gorge from a few years ago. What will this waterfall look like next year? Only time will tell the answer.

In other news, I have a big backpacking trip coming up at the end of this month. If all goes perfectly well, I will see 20 brand new waterfalls in 4 days, including (perhaps) a 400 footer and (perhaps) a couple 200 footers. I am sure it will end up being much less than that, but hopefully the trip will indeed go perfectly well for once: No injuries, no problems, no fires.

5 Comments

Our beloved dog, Kaya, of almost 17 years passed on this week. She was one month shy of turning 17. Kaya means “stay and never leave” in Inuit, and she really lived up to her name right to the very end. I have a lot of nice photos of her, but this was the ONLY one I could find with a waterfall, and it is just a crappy iPhone shot. So odd, I was sure I had more than that! You would think I would have more than that! This one was in Oregon, I believe. Anyway, I just wanted to share some short and funny memories of her with you. I’m sure you do not care about my memories of Kaya, but all of them are related to hiking, so they are not totally irrelevant to this waterfalls blog. Ha ha.

The scariest moment in her life (that I remember) was when she almost fell over the lower tier of Whiskeytown Falls. I was not paying attention to her while I was photographing the waterfall, and when I looked over at her, I saw her slip into the creek above the falls. She managed to clamber back up on the rocks just in time. Whew! I always wondered what would have happened if she had gone over. She would not have died, perhaps, but she probably would have been injured and I would have had to carry her all the way back to the car. 

She was a medium sized dog, not heavy, but heavy enough. She hated walking over any kind of bridge, especially if you could see the water flowing beneath it. When we went to Tamanawas Falls in Oregon, there is a bridge near the beginning of the trail. Somehow, she walked over it on the way to the falls, but on the way back she completely refused. The creek was flowing far too fast for her to wade across and she would not walk over that bridge. Period. What was I going to do? There was only one thing to do and that was carry her across. It was a very narrow and icy bridge. She was a good girl though and held completely still while I carried her, otherwise I could have easily slipped and we both would have been in the creek. Do you know the extremely narrow and freaky bridge over Canyon Creek at Gold Run? She crossed on that one no problem (both ways). To this day, I wonder how she ever walked across that bridge. It was early on. Maybe that’s the one that did her in for the rest of her life.

She was excellent at walking over rocks and boulders and such things that are not easy, especially for dogs. I am the waterfall madman, and I frequently go off trail. Kaya always followed me wherever I would go, and without any difficulty. If we came to big huge rocks that she literally could not climb up, she would run around like a mad woman looking for a way around that she could manage. There were times I might have to carry her over the rocks. She did not like that. She hated that. Better to go around if possible. A few years ago when she could still hike with me but when she was still rather old, I took her on a hike to Big Springs near McCloud. It was a much tougher hike than I expected and probably more than she could really handle at that age (don’t tell my wife), but she followed me without complaint the entire way, down the mountain, through the brush, and over the rocks. She did sleep well for the rest of the day. Once we went hiking with a friend and his dog to Deadhorse Falls near Red Bluff in winter. It was down a very steep hill into the bottom of the canyon through the snow. Kaya and I went down the hill very quickly, like gangbusters, while my friend and his dog had to go down extremely slow and careful. They were not used to the madman’s off trail antics. But Kaya did well to wait patiently for her new friend to catch up. That’s my girl, Kaya.

She hated swimming, but she liked going in the water. Only up to her belly though! She would not go in any water that was over her belly. That was sometimes a problem when he had to cross creeks to get to waterfalls. She was great at waiting for me patiently on the wrong side of the creeks. Usually she would lie down and take a snooze while she waited. As long as she could see me!

Kaya was also incredibly smart (and silly). Once at Upper Sheep Creek Falls in Washington, I could not for the life of me find the proper path down to the falls. It was Kaya who found the “proper” trail down, I would have missed it completely if not for her (honestly). She whipped down that trail like nobody’s business, then she came to one spot which was particularly tricky (or so she determined), and she would not continue. I could not entice her down this one spot no matter what. So instead, I went back up to her, and found a different way down (which I thought was much worse), but she had no problems going down this different, steeper, route. Silly dog.

What about wildlife encounters? She was essentially oblivious to all of them. My sister’s dog Pocah loves to chase squirrels as I found out recently in Oregon (apparently they do not have big grey squirrels where they live in British Columbia). Kaya, however, was not one for the big chase. Maybe she chased one or two squirrels in her life, but not many. Once while hiking in Auburn, we came across a couple bears on the path. They were incredibly curious about us for sure, and even got up on their hind legs to get a good look at us, but Kaya was far too occupied sniffing every little thing we passed along the trail (as she always did). Same thing when we came across the killer cows on Table Mountain in Oroville. They were certainly very wary of Kaya, but Kaya could care less about chasing them. (Pocah would have had a field day on Table Mountain). Always remember to stop and smell the roses. Kaya certainly did that. RIP.

No Comments

My brother-in-law (Lynal) had been waiting 20 years for this event, he said. He organized everything, including renting a nice house for us in Sunriver, Oregon, south of Bend. If it wasn’t for him doing all this, I would not have gone up into the totality of Oregon. I hate crowds and it was going to be absolute madness in central Oregon. However, I am so glad I went. It was a once in a lifetime opportunity to see a total eclipse. If you thought you had a good viewing of it in California you are wrong. Even if you were at 99% I’m sorry but you really missed out. No offense, but the difference between 99 and 100 percent eclipse is like night and day, literally. It is a huge difference. If you have a chance to go in 2024 you really must (however, it will not be on the west coast like this year).

On eclipse day, we left the house at 3:30am much to the chagrin of most of the family. Only Lynal and I were raring to go. Not even Pocah the dog wanted to get up (and especially when she realized there would be 8 of us piling into the van, leaving her nowhere to sit or lie down). But if we left any later, we would not have made it. Our goal was the Painted Hills park in John Day Fossil Beds National Monument. Traffic was not bad until we got close to the park. We arrived at 5:30am and were stopped in a big line up of cars. They would not open the gates until 6am, so Jadon and I left the rest of the family and ran up ahead of all the cars. We got ahead of all of them but there were still lots of people already in the park who had camped out along the road. We walked up past the main overlook and found a prime viewing spot overlooking the hills and next to some pro photographers with big huge camera lenses, from Japan I think. We were in the perfect spot for the total eclipse, and waited for the rest of the family to catch up to us. I watched the road with my big lens looking for a white dog coming up the road (it was too far away to make out anything else), and finally I saw a dog followed by a little girl in pink. That has to be my niece, Mya. And indeed it was. My other niece Hannah thought my perfect spot was not perfect enough, so she climbed up to the top of the hill to get to a better viewing spot. Perhaps she did find an even better spot to see the eclipse. There were a lot of people in the park, but it is such a wide open area that it did not feel crowded at all. The rest of the morning was a waiting game, but it went by quickly and it was a beautiful morning.

The moment finally arrived. It did not disappoint but it was not what I expected. The corona was huge and spectacular during the totality. I did not expect that. It was an eerie twilight light. It got chilly (my mom said it was very cold). We could see a couple stars. I thought it would be darker; so it was definitely different than I thought it would be, but it was very cool and awesome. Nonetheless, it was not the most amazing thing I’ve ever seen in my life. (Lynal said it was for him and I heard others say the same thing). I think McConnell Peak Falls was more spectacular, and I can think of other waterfalls I have seen that I would say were more spectacular. But I’m the waterfall madman so of course I’d say something like that. You cannot compare such things anyway. Apples and oranges.

The photo here was taken moments before totality. The colors were not as nice as I thought they might be, but the shadows were really interesting. I did not really try to take any photos of the eclipse. I did not have proper filters and I wanted more to just enjoy the experience. The few photos I did take did not turn out very well compared to the multitude of good photos I have seen of the eclipse. I will not be sharing them.

Traffic out was a nightmare. It took two hours to get there and four hours back. Yikes. Oh well. It was well worth the trip to see this once in a lifetime event.

 

No Comments