Hi Everyone--

Marcia Marvin and I took a drive to Silver Star Mtn. in Gifford Pinchot NF
today 4/28. We drove south from Sunset Campground on FR 41, stopping to walk
the road under the alders, which are barely leafing out. Not a lot of birds
here, but a singing BLACK-THROATED GRAY WARBLER was nice, and WINTER WRENS
and VARIED THRUSHES were also singing. About 2.5 miles south of the
campground, we turned off at FR 4109, which we took all the way to the
Silver Star Trailhead. We stopped where FR 4109 pokes into the state forest,
hoping for MacGillivray's Warblers. We detected none here. From the
trailhead, we heard a BLUE GROUSE booming downhill. Up the Silver Star
Trail, near its junction with Ed's Trail, we saw a female-plumaged CASSIN'S
FINCH sharing a fir with a male YELLOW-RUMPED WARBLER. Non-bird highlights
were a MUSTARD WHITE and a SPRING AZURE (these are butterflies) along FR 41,
a NORTHWESTERN GARTER SNAKE (with a single red dorsal stripe and a red
tongue) near the trailhead, and lots of trilliums on Ed's Trail and the
Silver Star Trail. The willows above the trailhead are not yet leafed out,
but the road is snow-free. There is a little snow yet at the summit; we
could see rain coming, so we didn't go there today. On the way back, we
stopped at Lucia Falls Park, where we enjoyed watching the trout jump the
falls; here Camas were in profuse bloom in the rocky outcrops near the
falls, and we found a White Fawn Lily.

Sunset Campground is reached by driving SR 502 east from I-5 (exit 9) to
Battle Ground, then taking SR 503 north to Rock Creek Road (just north of
milepost 13), then Rock Creek Road/Lucia Falls Road/Sunset Falls Road east.
Total distance from I-5 to the campground is about 29 miles; from there,
it's another 7.3 miles on primitive roads to the Silver Star Trailhead, and
a 2.5 mile hike one way to the summit. The trailhead is at about 4000 feet
elevation.

Mark Miller
Vancouver, WA
snowyowl98683 at msn.com




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