Muck in the desert

Whew, between massive home projects that have kicked off around here the past 1.5 weeks that need monitoring as well as having a few presentations on the schedule (which both went VERY well!) I've been quiet of late. And I also haven't had much chance to use the cameras even though the weather has been stellar, warm, and El Nino wonderfully dry! But I did take some time to at least stretch my legs a bit on my Yakima trip this week, enjoying some long needed fresh air hiking in one of my favorite areas of the Best Desert Hikes-Washington book, the L.T. Murray Wildlife Area between Ellensburg and Yakima. I've hiked up Umtanum Creek Canyon well over a dozen times, and roamed upward toward Umtanum Ridge almost as many. But it keeps sucking me back into stopping there by the suspension bridge crossing over the Yakima River...and it worked again this trip.

It was very overcast - typical for the inversion type of conditions in January in the Columbia Basin. But what really struck me were the ground conditions. Yuck!!!!!! When the desert soils are making the transition from frozen ground to thawed soil, the muck you have to walk in makes it very hard to actually enjoy hiking around. I've typically avoided hiking much in areas like this in late February for this reason, instead waiting for March and seeing nature wake up. But January is a great hiking time out there! Not this time - the warm El Nino conditions of the past week had temperatures even in the cold pockets like this nearing 40* for much of the week (it was 46* when I pulled in to Yakima that evening!). I still went for a two hour roam, but between the muck in the sky vs. the muck at my feet, let's just say this won't be the most photographic or memorable stop I've ever had here! But I did realize it's only two months until things really come to life, and I'll be all over the Columbia Basin ready to enjoy it!

Happy Winter Solstice - bring on the light!

Moments ago it happened - did you feel it? Does it feel different right now to you? It's winter and with the winter solstice now behind us by not even one hour yet, just feel the excitement in the air as the heavens are about to start releasing more light into our world here at 47*N of the equator! What? Oh....sure, it's about as dark as night and pouring outside at the moment. Heck, even my Christmas lights sensor just kicked on the driveway lights! But before you have too much time to grump over the rains, one day soon it'll seem like "wow, it's light and after 5:00pm?". Toss in some good El Nino weak warm dry weather and boom: we'll have desert wildflowers like this one shown to get after and belly around like a desert rat to photograph. Enjoy the anticipation, I know I will!!

(photo: belly shot from under the flowers on Whiskey Dick Mountain - Quilomene Wildlife Area near Vantage, WA)

You can buy your winter/spring Desert Hikes preparations again

Hey, it might be dark 16 hours a day now but winter cold hiking and spring wildflower hiking in the deserts of Central/Eastern Washington are just around the corner! Don't believe me? Today is only 12-seconds shorter than yesterday, and tomorrow? Tomorrow will give us only 8-seconds fewer of daylight!
I'm pleased to see that the outlets for Best Desert Hikes-Washington are back in stock again after the past month or two of unavailability due to the running out of the first printing of this title. The second printing is hot off the presses and I got my first box of them yesterday from Mountaineers Books to fulfill an order I put in back in October!
Hope to see you stomping the sage lands with me the next 5-6 months!

Need your Desert Hiking fix? Book new printing is on the way!

I have seen the supplies of "Best Desert Hikes-Washington" slowly dwindle to virtually non-existent the past couple of months as the first printing of the title has run as dry as a summer in the Columbia Basin! Happily I'm pleased to let you know that a second printing of the book is just coming to completion and will be available before the holidays! I just sent a crisp copy of the cover photo to the publisher today to make sure they were ready to go. So if you are bummed about the rough weather of late in Washington, the snow about ready to start piling up in the Cascades this weekend, and wish you had a good solution to still enjoy getting outdoors? Want to have grand wildlife viewing opportunities all winter and next spring? Pick up a copy of the book soon before Christmas if you don't already have a copy or three! If you already have the book then contact me and arrange to spend a day out in the Washington desert hiking or photographing wildlife this winter! That's where I'll be....