23 June 2018 Chair Factory Falls

Our afternoon was a caching walk along a greenway trail with the dogs. The caching was disappointing, but we spotted goldfinches and visited Chair Factory Falls. The name is odd, but the view is wonderful, especially when rain has recharged the stream.

Congratulations for practicing your 'hold my beer moment.' Jumping from the top of fast, tall falls is a great way to go viral for stupidity. This afternoon there were three people jumping off the falls.

20 June 2018 Antoine Peak

I was near Antoine Peak and decided to spend my last evening before travelling home at this park. Antoine Peak is hilly and always seems hotter than the other hiking options. That's a good combination for me. The trails were scenic this evening.

Sometimes I am still surprised about what can be found here. I have passed this spot on the trail many times and not seen any evidence of an old car here. There must be one nearby.

You'll never know what to expect or what you may find on one of Spokane's many trails. After the door art, I spotted a few flowers in bloom before getting serious about the trail.

I decided to head for a trio of geocaches including an APE cache tribute which was only a few days from one year since the last find.

The trio of caches wasn't going to happen. I chased after one only to find the trail no longer existed and was blocked by some blow-down. I backed my way out and went for the APE tribute. The views as I neared were very nice.

Once I got within about 800 feet all evidence of a trail disappeared. There was a little trace of a footpath leading down to the cache.

That faint path soon gave way to heavy, impenetrable growth

and a maze of downed limbs.

I eventually made the find, and started to make my way out of the growth and back.

Unfortunately, I had chewed up a lot of time on the hunt. I didn't need any reminders of the presence of cougars in this park, but spotted the remains of a deer to provide motivation to keep moving.

I made a spirited trip back and arrived at parking just as the last sun slipped away.

19 June 2018 Liberty Lake

I was back for another visit to Liberty Lake with hopefully an avenged DNF from a prior visit. This evening started with a new bird sighting. I had just left the parking lot and started on the trail when I spotted a violet-green swallow. It was a new bird sighting for me. Luckily, it was unbothered by my many attempts to capture a clean image.

It was definitely bird night as I spotted multiple woodpeckers as I approached the location of my prior unfound caache. I was able to capture a few images of the male and female pair as I worked to find the cache I missed on my last visit.

I had veered off the main trail for another cache find and was returning to the main trail when I spotted an osprey perched just off the trail. It was my evening for bird sightings.

Sometimes the lure of something is better than the reality. Who knows if that is true for floatplanes, but they have my attention whenever I see one. This one passed over the trail on the way to a landing on Liberty Lake.

The lupines were not as plentiful here as in Pend Oreille, but they were still a pleasant sight as were the park's other wildflowers.

Despite the late sunset I wasn't able to reach as deep in the trail as I hoped. I did manage to spot a nice stream on my journey. The rest of the trail and the much longer hike to Mica Peak will need to wait for a Sunday visit.

18 June 2018 Spotted Sandpiper

It was raining after work so I decided to find a few puzzles Ali had solved years ago. My puzzle hunt took me to a parking lot cache where there was a bird's nest with eggs very close by. I was cautious to not disturb the nest and moved on.

After a few finds, the rain had stopped and a little sun was visible so I abandoned my puzzle hunt and drove to a Spokane River parking area to walk the trail.

I walked out along the trail and returned along a path close to the river. I had spotted a shorebird and was trying to get a best image when a passerbye decided I needed company. The spotted sandpiper did not want company and left. I was able to capture a couple images before it left.

17 June 2018 Pend Oreille County Park

I arrived early Sunday afternoon for a week in the local offices. With the latest sunset very near I decided to drive the extra distance to re-visit the trails of Pend Oreille County Park. Ali and I had a brief taste of this park on a visit north to BC. Today I was alone for a wonderfully hot day on the trail. With plenty of water and a loaded gps, I hit the trails for six hours of hiking. The spring wildflowers were everywhere and the views from the ridge trail were wonderful. I left a few caches for another visit.

Columbia Lilies were everywhere here. They bloom as singles and multiple stems. The were very common on the flatter trails at the lower elevations.

I was walking along a spur trail in the lower elevation when I first spotted bunchberry and its companion clintonia from the east. The bunchberry was a carpet of green and blossoms along the side of the trail while the clintonia was still in budding.

It seemed my timing this year was always slightly off for clintonia.

Lupine are very common in my Spokane hiking journeys, but they were in bloom today and more plentiful at this park than I have seen at other area parks.

The trails I hiked took me through a series of climbs and descends. I was in a wet low area when I spotted a mountain ladys slipper orchid.

After the orchid spotting, I made the toughest uphill of the afternoon. Unfortunately, I also found a ground nest and was stung multiple times. I cleared the climb and spent some time resting to recover from the stings. Once I was moving again, I came on a super stand of lupine in bloom

8 June 2018 More Birds and a Few Turtles

It continued to be a great spring for birds. In the morning I spotted a red-tailed hawk and cedar waxwings at our office.

I stepped away at lunch to walk at the nearby park. Turtles and a great blue heron were there during my visit.

These pilings are quite popular with the local bird population.

Blue-eyed grass rounded out my lunchtime.