Month: June 2011

  • Upper Basin Trail

    View Upper Basin Trail in a larger map The Upper Basin Trail is a 5 mile loop in the upper basin of Elk Creek just north of Elk River The trail is near the giant western red cedar, thought to be the largest tree in the U.S. east of the Sierra-Cascade crest. The loop is also near the Morris Cedar Grove, another grove of large old-growth red cedar. unfortunately, the road to the Morris Grove was closed and blocked off on Saturday. If you’re looking for a difficult challenge, the Upper Basin loop is not for you. The trail was…

  • Bad Ass Sunset

    Last night was full of bad-assery. Yeah, that’s right, it was so bad-ass that I made up a word to describe it. After a cold spell, temperatures quickly rose into the 80’s yesterday making for a hot and somewhat muggy day. The conditions were ripe for evening thunderstorms. As I arrived home, I heard reports on the radio that there were some severe storms just west of Orofino. But looking around, all I saw was sunshine and blue skies. The storms were passing to the south of us. As I was washing my car, dark clouds crept in over the…

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    Kamiak Butte

    The Palouse, originally uploaded by Matthew Singer. The Palouse is made up of rolling hills covered in wheat and barley fields. This area was historically a prairie, so there were few trees to begin with. A few of these hills rise up well above the rest, remnants of a time when the region was more active volcanically. Kamiak Butte is one such high point, located less than 10 miles north of Pullman. The north slope is covered by a lush and beautiful forest, protected as a county park for all to enjoy. The park offers a picnic area, a campground,…

  • Hells Canyon

    Panoramic View from our vantage point, originally uploaded by Matthew Singer. This story begins with Luke and I itching to get out into the backcountry. Although it’s the middle of June, the combination of an unusually cold and wet Spring with the very productive winter has left many of the high country destinations (above 5000 ft.) still buried under 100+ inches of snow in places. And even some of the lower areas are still blocked with impassible snow drifts on the road. This makes our options quite limited. The one place we’re sure to have access is Hells Canyon. With…

  • Personal Updates

    It’s been an eventful week, and I should have posted more often, but I’ve been busy and tired and uninspired to write. So I’ll give you the update on the past week, and then some. Last Monday was our actual anniversary, and even though we celebrated the week before with a getaway to Oregon, we still wanted to make the day special. We decided to drive up to Spokane, spend some time at REI, and have a nice dinner. For the longest time, I’ve been desiring a GPS unit for the trail, in part because trail maps for Idaho are…