This is our first play log! And I hope there will be many more to come!

This is our first time to Dusty Lake, our first time hiking in the desert in WA really.

We left Seattle Saturday late afternoon and headed east and ended up camping around Frenchman Coulee. Apparently it is a popular rock climbing area. It was a perfect camping spot surrounded by rock pillars. The moon rose over the rock pillars right when we arrived around 10:30PM. We pulled out the camera but it took us about 30mins to figure out the right set up: ISO 1600, F5.6 and shutter speed 1”.

Unlike most of the hikes we’ve done recently, the hike to Dusty Lake was very flat. Lots of wild flowers and song birds on the way. We got to the lake in about 1 hr, Matt fished for a while and we set up tent at a great spot between the ridge and the lake.

Sunset was short but gorgeous.

We had a little fire going near our camping spot. Mostly we only had dry sage wood, and sage wood fire stinks BAD! It reminded me of a phrase our friends Geoff and Genevieve’s kids would say: “poop-poop-pee-pee pizza”, and extra smoky.

We hiked over the ridge on Monday, got a great view of the Ancient Lakes and the waterfall and found a different trail back.

Animal Report:

Bull Snake – We ran into a decent sized bull snake going across the trail right at the beginning of the hike.

Desert Bunny – Tiniest bunny ever. Dark grey. Casually hopping pass our hangout rock. Matt was very tempted to catch it.

Painted Turtle – They were having a group sun tan session on a rock in Dusty Lake, sliding into water to cool off occasionally.

Tiger Trout – Matt lost two flies on this 20″ big trout but no luck in getting it to bite.

Rainbow Trout- Matt caught a rainbow trout on an olive leech. 15″.

Bird Report:

Great Egret – Spotted flying over Dusty Lake

Great Blue Heron – We saw it flying over us and landed on a cliff over one of the wet lands in the cannon.

Western Meadowlark – He was standing on the top of the rock and singing pretty songs, completely ignoring us when we walk right by him.

There were also lots of red-wing blackbirds, swallows and crows.

Flower Report:

Blazing-star

Sagebrush mariposa lily

Hooker’s onion

Great Weekend with Matt’s friends from Foster. Seven of us rented a cabin about 16 miles away from Leavenworth.

We did a 5-6 mile hike at the very beginning of the Icicle Ridge trail. The trail goes straight up for 5 miles, we turned around at about 3 mile.

The next day we went to the classic Icicle Ridge trail. It is a pretty easy zig zag trail on the side of the mountain. The scenery was pretty on the hike but not much variety. But it was all worth it when you get on the top. No icicle on the Icicle Ridge though.

Animal Report:

Ting saw raccoons for the first time! A sad story though. Look forward to see a healthy, prettier and happier raccoon.

Bird Report:

Western Bluebird – Surprised to see it on the top of the hill.

Flower Report:

Lupine

Chocolate Lily – Didn’t get a good photo…

We went mushroom picking with Mack!

It was our first time but Matt has done his research and Mack has done it before in Montana. Apparently people are very secretive about their morel picking spots and are not willing to share too much. We were totally really to come back empty handed but we were able to get quite a few!

We started off on a trail that is in a burnt area. We found a few tiny ones (size of my pinky finger tip) right on the trail, but after hiking up the trail for a couple of miles, we were not able to find any more. Our guess was that the area has been picked by other people already. Matt did find one pretty big one right near where we had lunch.

We switched to another place and I found an area that must have not been pick by other mushroom lovers. There were a few dozen good sized ones in an area about 12 square feet. We were able to find some here and there after that, but didn’t find another spot like that. We were very content though since we already have a small ziplock bag filled with mushrooms.

What we gathered after one morel hunting trip is this: they are mostly on flat ground, in shaded wooded areas where there are not a lot of grass or bushes. Burnt area is a good start and we just need to go somewhere other pickers have not been.

Mostly morels ended up in our belly the night of. Some sautéed with butter and garlic and some in creamy morel and asparagus pasta. The little ones were made into scrambled eggs for breakfast.

Other Mushrooms spotted:

Orange cup fungus

Flower Report:

Western trillium / White trillium

Yellow glacier lily

Our Pacific Northwest Shellfish book (yes, we have a book on shellfish) saids that razor clam is the best tasting clams out there. And I cannot disagree. We have gotten horse clams, manila clams and butter clams last year. They are all great but they cannot compare to the sweet and meaty razor clam. And they are pretty easy catch, too.

Photographer: Betsy Fryday

Each of us could get 15 a day, so we each got 15 on Saturday and another 15 on Sunday. The clam gun has proven itself to be very useful. (They were not very useful at all for horse clams or other smaller clams.) It is very easy to spot a hole and to get them out, but the trick is not to break them during the process. There were more casualties the first day but we got better at it the second day.

Photographer: Betsy Fryday

Cleaning them was a hassle without running water, but we established a pretty good line of cleaners: one pop them in to boiling water for a few second and throw them into cold water, others removed them from the shell and clean them up. We wasted some meat because we didn’t know what to do with the white stuff in the middle, but won’t make that mistake again.

Menu:

Stir fried razor clam with basil, chili and garlic
Stir fried razor clam with red pepper and celery in garlic chili sauce
Creamy razor clam pasta with diced onion and parsley

Storage:

Matt put some away in the freezer with half water half milk. They are sitting the freezer waiting for Ken and Judith!

We are so lucky to live right next to such an awesome mountain.

Rainer in the fall – Oct.6,2012

Rainer at sunset – Jan. 19th, 2013

Rainer over Mineral Lake – Jan. 19th, 2013

Rainer at sunrise – Sep.8,2013

Great hike with Mack into Rachel Lakes. Alpine lakes are gorgeous in the fall.

It was a cloudy hiking in and the tree carried so much water it just felt like it was raining the whole time when we got on the top. Rachel Lake is the big lake and it was beautiful, but the small lakes a few miles up were my favorite. The fog made everything seem so mystic and tranquil, unfortunately I am not a good enough photographer to capture it. Matt got a couple of little fishes there.

We got a nice camping spot 50 feet away from the lake.

If I remember correctly, this was our first camping trip after we moved to Seattle and the first time to put our tent to use. (Best Christmas present ever! Thank you, Todd!)

It was a very pretty drive along the Yakima river. The trail up Hardy Canyon started of flat and open, and about 1 mile in we started to hike in the green valley next to a stream. The trail got very rocky then. Lots of birdies along the way though.

It took a while for us to find a good camping spot with all the wind over the ridge and few trees. When we did decide on a spot, it hailed on us for 10mins straight, which was super fun! We were lucky to have already set up the tent though. The weather was fine after that.

The next morning, a pretty little deer peeked over the ridge to check us out. When I saw it, it quickly bounced down the hill to hide. We hiked a bit higher to get a good view and saw Rainer, Adam and Baker (or was it Hood) from the top.

The hike down was pretty painful with my old hiking shoes, soft sole and no ankle protection. We had to stop a couple of times to give our feet some breaks.

Animal Report:

Deer – This curious little guy was only 40-50 feet away.

Elk – We saw them over at the next ridge and heard one whistle right near us when we went to bed.

Bird Report:

Western bluebird – My first time seeing blue birds. They look like they flew out of fairy tales. So pretty!

Red-tail hawk – It was so close! It was on a tree about 30 feet from us making that awesome squeaky sound.

Western Tanager

Rock Report:

Common Opal – Took me months to figure out what it is.

Flower Report:

Bitter Root – Such a hardy name, but they look like pretty water lilies growing out of rocks.

Lupines – Lots of blue and purple Lupines.

We have been clam digging a couple of times in 2012. Matt was digging for geoduck but no luck so far. I was more realistic and just going for horse clams, manila clams that are easy to get.

Fresh oysters on the beach might be the best part!

And there are the tasty manilla clam for dinner.

The horse clams are not the best looking shellfish but their size can be impressive and they are good for Chinese seafood rice porridge with ginger and spring onion.