Subject: [Tweeters] High-country backpack in Eastern Washington
Date: Jul 6 13:34:02 2008
From: elizabethe brown - lizisunion at yahoo.com


Hi Tweeters: From July 2 to July 5, I backpacked along Sawtooth Ridge in the Okanagon National Forest?and wanted to give a high-country bird/trail/flower report. As everyone knows, we had an epic winter, with lots of snow left in the backcountry--especially on the west side of the mountains. The wet spring has produced an abundance of wildflowers, but the cold weather has definitely had an impact on bird life. The most noticable for us was the absence of hummingbirds, relative to?other years. At this time of year, the mountain wildflower?meadows are usually whirring with hummingbirds, and backpackers dressed in bright colors get buzzed frequently.?On our trip, we saw only one hummer, which was gone too swiftly to identify.
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If you're going out and up, be prepared for snow in places where it's not in?July. Don't leave the ice axe at home and wish you had it later. Be safe, and in some cases, be prepared to be the first people out there. Lots of folks have stayed away because of conditions. We hiked up?the?Summer Blossom?Trail and saw no other boot tracks, only?bear, deer and elk tracks. Snow was patchy. We did a loop that led us over the 8,000-foot Angel's Staircase, which straddles Okanagon and Chelan counties, and thankfully the snow there had just melted free of the trail. Birds seen on the loop include:
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DARK-EYED
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?Lake Picnic Area off Highway 20 in NorThere is still lots of snow in areas--including snow that people haven't driven through in the Rainy th Cascades National Park!