Turnbull and Liberty Creek

On Monday Walter and I went out to Turnbull National Wildlife Refuge to see what was 'sup. I had totally forgotten about it until G and I drove by a sign on the way back from Fishtrap/Hog Lakes the other day. We walked around on a few different trails (there really are not that many) and checked out two of the first archeological sites I recorded (back during career number one). One was a camas oven which I could still clearly see and the other was a lithic scatter which there was no trace of. It is highly possible that I was in the wrong place but I don't think so. I am pretty good at remembering that stuff. The camas oven is basically just a pile of rocks that were thrown out the last time the oven was used. The native folk would dig a pit, fill it with rocks and wood, light it on fire, let it get really hot, burn out, then throw the camas in on top of it and cover it up. Sort of like a pig roast. Ever heard of one of those? The cool thing about Turnbull is that it truly was an area that could be considered the grocery store of the Indian folk. I saw a ton of edibles just starting to shoot up: onion, camas, stonecrop, lomatium, desert parsley, and maybe some bitterroot though it is hard for me to tell when it is not blooming. And of course cat tail which is quite tasty when cooked right. The arrowleaf balsam root should be coming up and that was a common food source prior to the flowers blooming (then it is just too stringy). Even more stuff will be coming up in the next few weeks. And yeah, I have eaten all of this stuff. My favorite is a plant the Wanapum's call "schkol schkol" but I did not see any out there yet. I have no idea what its common name is. I have never seen it in a plant book. It was a nice little walk.

Today we went and did the 7.5 mile Liberty Creek loop out at Liberty Lake. There was a lot of water in the creek. It was really great. We only ran into other people while we were walking through the campground to the trailhead. There are quite a few places where one could camp overnight, and it looks like lots of folks have done this at the Cedar Grove. There were a ton of trees down and we had to do a lot of scrambling once we got past the waterfall. I also discovered that up from the main waterfall that has the bridge over it there is another one. I think I only noticed it because of the trees being down and the bushes have not started leaving yet. It was really nice to hear water for most of the hike. We took our time and did it in about 4 hours. We had a nice rest at the Cedar Grove where we walked up past the bridge to a mossy little spot. Then of course we had another break and snack at the cabin on top. I could have sat up there all day. When we first started out the sky was overcast but it got sunny pretty quick.

The last mile or so back down to the main trail is really steep in spots and sometimes I feel like I am almost crawling down. After the trail gets to the bottom of the valley it is basically behind a large marsh and it was incredibly muddy. There is a bridge across the creek back to the main trail but it made no difference. Walter and I were both muddy up to our knees. It was such an incredibly beautiful day.

I only have a few days of Spring Break left, but I hope that this quarter I am able to get out and do stuff more. Having it stay lighter longer in the evening helps a lot. Walter and are still going to try and get in at least a short camping trip this weekend.

The first four pictures are of Turnbull. The one with just the rocks on it is are the remains of the camas oven. The next six are of our hike at Liberty Lake/Creek.