Pasayten Wilderness | My Everyday Photos

The girls and I. How many times do I start one of these posts with that phrase? Well, once again, the girls and I had a lovely hike under blue skies. Wildflowers were starting to fade and water was scarce where I expect to see it most of the summer. This is the case everywhere right now. Fire season is upon us and our skies are smoky. We wish for rain but so far, nothing measurable.

As for the green hat, Willow found it. She took a hard right off the trail and went about 30 meters and ran back with it. She had smelled it and was so proud and happy to find it! She played with it and tossed it in the air and did no damage to it despite how it looks. I got it away from her and I need to get it to a lost and found. Later she found a folding saw that was rusted shut.

We attempted an old fashioned selfie with the camera’s timer but I think we will need to try it again, maybe with a remote instead. Willow has little patience for staying while I fiddle with things. The girls were super happy to find the last snow field and rolled and played in it for quite a while.

The girls and I hiked to Black Lake on Friday. This hike is more about the trail than the destination. It follows Lake Creek which is really roaring with white water now. I was pleased that the girls stayed away from the rushing stream. The area burned about ten or fifteen years ago and is a recovering forest with standing silver snags, numerous species of shrubs and wildflowers and in some places there are thick stands of small pine trees and aspens. Every year lots of those silver snags fall, often across the trail, and it hasn’t been logged out yet. According to the information at the trailhead, there are 48 downed trees along the route. This certainly slows a person down. Most I could get across; some I had to go under and in at least one case I had to go around a big log.

Another feature is a series of beaver ponds near the lake. These efficient engineers have dammed up a tributary creek and created some really good habitat but also have flooded the trail in places. It proved to be a bit of a challenge for me to get across a series of downed logs over the pond to return to the trail.

The flowers and bird song slowed me down too. I was able to identify four different warblers by their songs alone. I stopped many times when the trail was away from the stream, so I could listen to the birds and photograph the flowers. Needless to say, I did not make good time on this hike but like I said, it’s more about the trail than the destination.