Easter Stroll

Instead of hunting for easter eggs today I travelled back out into the sagebrush to hunt for wild flowers. Walter and I took Nancy and Elliot along with us to the Miller Ranch/Fishtrap Lake area. It was nice. The very early flowers are up such as lomatium, butter cup, blue bells, yellow bells, and prairie stars. The arrow root and hookers balsam are coming up, yet not blooming. We could find the wild onion leaves by the smell but no blooms on those either. The day was actually rainy and cold and felt more like fall. We roamed around the highland area checking out all the ponds (we could hear frogs) and then headed down to the lake where we discovered TONS of empty beer cans. We filled my pack with cans but could not pack all of them out because there were so many. BLM land tends to be sort of trashy in the popular areas because there is very little oversight. Nancy took a nap in the grass while I looked at the desert flower book. We are wanting to go back next week to see the changes. We found some really cool fronds coming up through the rocky soil and I would like to know what they are. I am sure they will flower. Here are some of the pictures I took from our blustery walk.

Fishtrap Lake

Fishtrap Lake again

Fishtrap Lake from above

A cool and weird tree stump

Pond

Another pond

Nancy and the Boys

And still another pond

Coyote den

Lakeview Ranch...Out in Coulee Country

The weather here has been so incredible; 50's and 60's during the day, lots of sunshine and blue sky. For recreation today I was thinking of heading east to the Montana Idaho divide for some warm air snow shoeing, but Walter got mad at me and said, "Are you insane? We get a burst of spring and you want to go walk around in the snow?" So I changed my plans. I drove out to the Central Washington desert near a little town called Odessa for a walk through the sagebrush and basalt canyons. Lakeview Ranch is now owned by the BLM. When they got possession of it back in the early 90's I went out there to do some archaeology. I have not been back in 16 years. It was a pretty cool reunion.

It was hot today and I actually got a bit of a sunburn on my arms and neck. I gave Walter my t-shirt because I was worried about him getting a burn and did not worry about myself. Oh, well. What's a little mitochondrial DNA mutation. I must say, I had an excellent time and just felt a breath of Spring air push into my body. We started out on a trail behind the ranch buildings and then just wandered around, up and down the cliffs and draws, finding little ponds and lakes hidden behind the basal spires. Since there are very few trees out there, we had to seek out shade against a north facing cliff. That was really cool. The two big lakes, Pacific and Walter (isn't that funny) are actually bone dry. We saw tons of ducks and other birds and actually saw about 5 mule deer that we scared away from one of the ponds. Oh, and we found a dead turtle and I thought about carrying it home but it was sort of rotten and squishy and I did not have an extra plastic bag to put it in. Ultimately we ended up going in a big circle, with 1/2 of our walk off trail. I love being out in the scablands and just taking off. So here are some of our pictures.

Weather Buffet

Walter and I just got back from a quick trip to Idaho. We rented a cabin at Farragut State Park and blew off a bit of steam. We had no trouble relaxing. The cabins are tiny and bare. The ones at Priest Lake and Heyburn have microwaves in them so that is what I prepared for. I was wrong. I was desperate for something warm to eat last night so we drove into Athol to the pizza place. I was actually just going to settle for mini mart food but we found the KKJ pizza shop. It was a good dinner and breakfast. The worst part was that I did not have any hot coffee. We did a fair bit of hiking around. Most of the trails near the lake are pretty free of snow, but the ones higher still have quite a bit, though not too hard to walk on in just boots. The weather was a bit of everything: sun, wind, snow, rain, and a totally clear sky last night with bitterly cold temps. During one of my nocturnal trips to pee outside (no bathroom or running water) I heard an owl hooting at the same time I saw a shooting star. That was cool. We saw lots of deer and even more deer poo, watched a hawk search for dinner in a field, Walter was tormented by the ground squirrels that mocked him and then ran down their holes before he could get there, and had our first encounter with a skunk. I did not actually see the skunk but I could certainly smell it. I could see the tall brush moving around about 10 feet away from us. So here are some pictures of our trip and then some of snowshoeing last week. The first picture is of Walter sleeping next to me on the double bunk bed in the cabin.

Our little cabin sort of in the woods

Happy, happy Walter

A view across the bay

Sunset on the mountains

Sunset and the passing storm clouds

Walter napping during a snow picnic

A six to eight foot tall root ball with snow on top

Tree branches and moss in my face

Cedar Tree