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