Scotchman Peak, ID 05-16-2020

After months of staying at home, one activity remained on my calendar that I hadn't canceled.  I had planned on hiking Scotchman Peak in Idaho with my son and his girlfriend.  Having been isolated except for weekly masked grocery store visits, I felt I could make this trip still with no/minimal risk to myself or others so off I went.

We left the Spokane area Saturday morning and got to the dirt roads leading to the Scotchman Peak trailhead where we had our first big win for the day - a moose!  A lone cow moose suddenly appeared in the road ahead of us, maybe 50 ft away.  When we moved she moved ahead on the road, but when we stopped she just started munching brush.  We didn't want to seem like we were chasing her, so after easing forward a few times she finally moved off through the bushes, vanishing as fast as she had appeared.  For such huge animals, they sure are quiet and graceful.

We felt we had taken a wrong road at one point, despite having both All Trails and Idaho Trails Association directions.  We stopped the car at a heavily rutted area that we didn't have the clearance for, and checked it out on foot.  It was definitely the wrong way, but while there, we met 3 other vehicles of people that also had gone that wrong way.  The biggest issue I think with finding the trailhead is that the roads are not marked, or not well-marked, so you're guessing.  Once reaching the trailhead, there is a large stream bed to go through, so if you don't have high clearance or are nervous, definitely be prepared to park on the near side and use a handy log to cross to the trailhead on foot.

I had never hiked this trail before, but was told it was steep.  After weeks of no conditioning but my indoor treadmill and walks around my yard, I was really feeling it in no time!  At first the trail was snow-free and there were glorious flowers all over - woodland star, Indian paintbrush, glacier lilies, blue-eyed Mary, calypso orchids and more.

After about 1 3/4 miles we started getting into patches of snow, and as we climbed further up, the snow got deeper and completely covered the trail.  It was fairly mushy, which was great most of the time because you could easily kick in footholds for the steepest bits, but also the occasional unexpected posthole would happen - usually around stumps and logs.  It was HARD work, but actually really fun.

The views were stunning, and though we didn't make it all the way to the peak, we had a great workout, wonderful company, and perfect weather.  I would like to go back and try this one again when I'm back in trail shape and there is less snow.
Apple Watch Stats:  6.45 mi RT, 2871 ft of elevation gain

The way down was much quicker as we glissaded where possible.  Cold on the backside, but super fun!

Thank you to Bradley and Jessica for some of these photos!

White Chuck Bench 05-04-19

AppleWatch Stats:  6.62 miles RT, 612 ft of elevation gain.

I don't think I'll ever do a trip report or post in the hiking Facebook group about this hike.  This is the 2nd Saturday morning I've done this hike and not seen a soul until my way out- and then the soul I saw was the same person with his trio of hound mix type dogs.  Finding a hike that I can successfully imagine that my dogs and I are the only ones in the world for more than 5 minutes at a time is getting increasingly rare! lol

It was a gorgeous morning!  There were a few clouds when I started out, so the peek-a-boo views of the peaks were a little obscured, but it is a forest hike anyway so I didn't go expecting views. Some reviews of this hike state that it goes down to the river, but it does not - at least not in the first 3 1/4 miles.  You do get glimpses of the river, but stay up within the forest.

There were wildflowers here today!  Tons of bleeding hearts, trillium, violets and other little flowers, accompanied by butterflies.  Birds were abundant too, but that is about the only wildlife we ran into.  The dogs alerted to something early on - most likely a coyote from the way Cedar snarled - so I kept them both on a leash.

This hike crosses a few really lovely little creeks.  One has a great bridge over it, but the others you can expect to get your feet a little wet.  One is particular strong and tricky to cross.  I know I carried Cedar and Luna last time, but this time I let them find their way since I had a grip on their leashes/harnesses.  There are a couple places where the current goes pretty rapidly through some holes that a smaller dog might have trouble with, or a person might get their leg into if you aren't paying attention.

Another pleasant surprise today was the abundant variety of fungi!  False morels, some real ones that were long past their prime, and some other odds and ends that were fun to see.

Sometimes this trail wends through open areas full of salmon berry bushes and maples, and other times is in larger forest - there are some nice old gnarly cedars in here.  There are a few places that you climb a little, but very barely - this is a pretty flat hike.  It seems to go on forever - someday I'll find the end.  I try not to exhaust the dogs too much.

On the way out, the clouds had left the snowy peaks shining in the sun.  What a perfect day out!

Franklin Ghost Town and Cherry Creek Falls 4-14-19

AppleWatch Stats:  Franklin Ghost Town: 2.6 miles RT, 304 ft of elevation gain, Cherry Creek Falls: 5.07 miles RT, 773 ft of elevation gain.

Today's adventure was supposed to be quite different.  I left the pups at home (due to expected ticks and snakes) and headed toward Ellensburg with the intent of hiking both Umtanum Canyon and Umtanum Creek Falls.  I left early and as I rocketed along I-90 I started seeing signs that said traction tires were required, chains required on large trucks, etc.  The weather was getting nastier as I went up in elevation and I didn't want to slide around on the pass or get stuck on the other side, so I turned around.

Since this is the time of year I typically go visit Romulous and James at the Franklin Ghost Town/Mine, I headed that way.  I thought the daffodils might be blooming, but they weren't.  Also, sadly a gun range has been put in somewhere near the cemetery so the nearly continuous popping of firearms takes away from the peace of the place.  Still, I was glad to have gone and not missed my annual visit.

I did see flowers blooming, bleeding heart and salmon berry flowers, as well as a little blue flower I don't know.  There were not many people up there and the ones I did run into were really friendly.

Since I didn't have my dogs pulling impatiently I took my time and wandered around looking at the rusty remnants and building foundations.  I was really bummed to see some asshat tagged most of them with red spray paint.  : (

Once I finished that hike, I decided to catch another on my way home, so I headed for Cherry Creek Falls out of Duvall.  Neither of these hikes have much elevation gain, but this one was a little longer than Franklin.  It was super muddy in quite a few spots, but there are handy streams to stick your boots in and wash that mud off.  Most of the streams don't have bridges, so you get to pick your way over.

There were flowers here too.  In addition to the bleeding heart, I was happy to see trillium blooming in the forest.  Most seemed about spent, but there were clumps here and there with fresh white petals.

There are a couple wrecked cars along this trail too. I'd love to know their story.  The first is fairly close to the road, and obviously along what is a gravel road that is now closed to motorized traffic.  The yellow one though, is a bit farther off it seems.

I was super lucky to have the falls all to myself for almost 10 minutes - not another soul there when I arrived, although I met plenty of people along the trail. Cherry Creek Falls was full and roaring, with mist coming off of the frothing cascade.

I was sad that Cedar and Luna missed the hiking since they could have done these, but it was a great day anyway.