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04/17/10 - Trilliums

Trilliums are a certain sign of spring. They can be surprisingly tricky to find, for it seems that the mind builds a block against seeing them, but once one has been found, others abound. We noticed this on the Spruce Railroad Trail and on the Elwha Trail out of Whiskey Bend. Trilliums like water, so watch for them near streams where they often lurk. We wish you luck in your trillium spotting, but note that success, especially in this endeavor, favors the prepared mind.

Seen on the Spruce Railroad Trail

Seen on the Elwha Trail

The first paintbrush

Keywords: elwha, spring, spruce railroad, flowers, trillium

04/03/10 - The Farmers' Marking is Springing Back

The Port Angeles Farmers' Market is springing back. Red Dog Farm, The Family Farm and Johnston Farm are all back, a sure sign of spring. Wild West had some magnificent halibut and kushi oysters. We went for the oysters at Mystery Bay, because we were too lazy to shuck our own. We were quite loaded down with beef, eggs, fish, kale raab, garlic radish leaves, german butterball potatoes, and other goodies, so we didn't explore everything. We did notice the jam and preserves people had their stand up, and even more people were selling eggs. We will get around to everyone eventually. Word is that more farmers are harvesting, so we're looking forward to the season.

P. S. There is a real demand for local foods around here. The Clark Family Farm expected to sell two animals in their first month. They sold out in a week.

Johnston Farm is back

The Family Farm is back - It looks like spring!

Red Dog is back too!

Keywords: farmers' market, johnston farm, oysters, port angeles, spring, clark family

03/31/10 - Early Spring at the Port Angeles Farmers' Market

It's still rather wintry out there, but we are seeing signs of spring, at least at the Farmers' Market. There are more vegetables coming in, including some good cauliflower at Nash Huber's stand, and, if you are Jewish, the all too seasonal Passover horseradish at Westwind Farms.

Since we live on garlic, we've been haunting the Garlic Lady, who has our favorite scallions in stock, but no garlic yet. We're waiting.

We should also note a newcomer, Kol Nidre Farms, offering lamb for sale. We haven't tried any yet, but we plan to, and we'll report here. It's great to see more local foods at the market. For years, people offered the fruits and vegetables, but now one can also find mushrooms, seafood and meat. We are never going to become true locavores. We'll never give up coffee, but we do like to support our local suppliers.

Westwind Farm celebrates the horseradish harvest.

Our favorite scallions, but no garlic yet

Kol Nidre Farm: newcomer offering lamb

Keywords: farmers' market, farms, nash huber, spring, westwind farm

03/18/10 - Lingering Winter

There was a touch of snow on the Lake Angeles Trail the other day. Apparently winter is not quite over, at least not until the 20th, the first day of spring. On the positive side, someone has removed the Christmas ornaments from the tree not far from the bridge. That's a definite sign that winter is passing.

Lingering winter

Keywords: christmas, lake angeles, spring, winter

02/04/10 - Dungeness Spit

Dungeness Spit is not always an easy hike. The tides vary by eight feet in a typical day, and during high tide the beach is not only small, but rocky. In the winter it is worse. Not only are there fewer good tides, but the winter tides often wash out the sand, so even at low tide, it can be rough going.

This year, however, is a good year for hiking the Dungeness Spit. The beach is broad and sandy, so it is easy to avoid all the rocky patches. The strait is full of seabirds, loons, scoters, cormorants and many others beyond our limited identification skills. Oh yes, there are eagles, lots of eagles. There's no point in waiting for spring to hike the Dungeness Spit. It's good walking even now, and, as a bonus, the Indian plum is already in bloom.

An eagle

Dungeness Spit

Indian plum in bloom

Keywords: birds, dungeness, dungeness spit, spring, tides, winter

06/06/09 - Hurricane Hill

We haven't made it all the way up Hurricane Hill, but we have been making progress. The road from the lodge at Hurricane Ridge to the trailhead for the Hurricane Hill hike is still closed, though most of the snow has melted. The road isn't in very good shape, so the park service may be reluctant to use their heavy plows on it. So, we hiked from the lodge the to the trailhead and then a fair ways uphill.

Our efforts were well rewarded. The high country flowers are coming out in spades. The trail is lined with phlox, lupine spikes, glacier and avalanche lilies, paintbrush and a host of other flowers we haven't bothered to look up yet. Even with a stuffed nose, we couldn't miss the sweet scent of the phlox. We usually aren't big on sneak previews, but this year looks like a great year for the flowers on the Hurricane Hill trail.

Phlox in the rock garden

We aren't sure of what this plant is, but that butterfly seemed to like it.

Lupines and paintbrush

Some deer in silhouette

This is where we turned around. This is usually the last part of the trail to melt, so if we had pushed on we could have made it to the summit.

Glacier lilies - Look closely and you'll see a small blue butterfly.

An avalanche lily

Mushrooms seem to be doing well this year.

The view - The mountains seem to have made it through another winter.

Keywords: flowers, high country, hurricane hill, hurricane ridge, spring

06/03/09 - First Climb To Klahane Ridge For 2009

We made it up to Klahane Ridge today. Thanks to the warm spring weather, most of the snow on the trail has melted, and even we, the Klumsy Kalebergs, managed to make it up the Switchback Trail to the ridge. There was some snow on the trail, but we managed to clamber through it with our trusty Yak Trax. At this rate of melt, if you tried the trail tomorrow, you'd wonder what all our fuss was about.

The trail was lined with furious alpine growth, and there were already some summer flowers, including avalanche lilies, lupines, and wonderfully scented phlox. The views were stupendous, and even as we climbed, we could sense the snow melting. On our way down, we noticed that the band of snow nestled in the corner of Mount Angeles was melting into a series of cascades. The high country is open, and the Switchback Trail is as spectacular as ever.

The trail and the mountains

Phlox in the foreground, Sunrise Point in the mid-ground and the Olympic Mountains in the background

North slope, south slope

More mountains, of all things

Port Angeles and the Strait below

The ridge and the mountains

A mushroom

An avalanche lily

Lupines

The snow melting - Click to enlarge, and you can see the waterfalls.

The band of snow

Keywords: flowers, high country, klahane ridge, spring

06/01/09 - Farmers' Market Update

We may have another two or three weeks before summer starts, but the Port Angeles Farmers' Market is moving ahead. We've been enjoying the spring crops of asparagus, arugula, mixed braising greens and all those new potatoes. The seafood folks have been selling salmon and ling cod, so we've been doing more shopping at the market than ever.



Keywords: farmers' market, shopping, spring, summer, salmon

05/30/09 - Winter's Passing On Hurricane Ridge

Winter is passing on Hurricane Ridge. We had one last snowshoe the other day. There was still a fair bit of snow, but it was getting thin and slushy. We made our way down Hurricane Hill Road which as of yesterday still had a foot or two of snow on it. The snow was melting furiously, and had vanished in patches. The park service will probably plow the road soon, and the Hurricane Hill trail will be open from the parking lot.

There is still plenty of snow on the mountains.

It's a bit slushy, but good enough for snow shoes.

The Hurricane Hill trail should be open soon.

Another pretty view

More mountains

Keywords: hurricane hill, hurricane ridge, spring

05/28/09 - The Trail To Lake Angeles

The trail to Lake Angeles is open and nearly snow free save for a few patches right near the lake. There is still ice on the lake, but it is melting rapidly, and the view up there is spectacular. The frogs were out and chirping loudly. Click here to hear them. We've never made it up to the lake this early before. Who knew what we were missing?

There is still a fair bit of snow on the mountains.

The ice is melting rapidly.

There are buds on the trees, but the scene is still wintry.

Melting snow at the campground

Another view of the mountains

A panorama of the lake


The trail is in great shape up to the lake and lined with trees like the aisle of a cathedral.

The creek is rising as the snow melts.

We love the mosses.

Our obligatory trillium photo, while the trilliums hold out

Keywords: lake angeles, winter, spring, trillium

05/27/09 - Melt on the Ridge

We hadn't been looking much at the Hurricane Ridge webcam, but yesterday we noticed a big change. The snow is melting. Didn't the park service recording at 360 565 3131 just say there was ninety inches of snow at the stake, or was that three or four weeks ago? It may be a while before we get up to Klahane Ridge, but the high country beckons.

If you want to check out the webcam image yourself, try the official page first. If that doesn't work, try going directly to the image. The latter is sometimes more reliable.

Hey, where's the snow?

Keywords: hurricane ridge, spring

05/09/09 - The Spruce Railroad Trail

There are more flowers coming out on the Spruce Railroad Trail. There is even a bit of salmonberry, which is supposed to bloom in February or March, so we are having a late spring.

We'll also note another tree down, so it may be tricky getting by on horseback. It wasn't too bad on foot. The fallen tree is a bit west of the metal bridge at the Devil's Punchbowl.

Paintbrush

We love the way this just grows out of the rock.

A fallen tree

Keywords: flowers, spring, spruce railroad, salmon

05/08/09 - Lake Angeles Trail Update

We were at the Lake Angeles Trail again, trying to get built up for the climbing season. There are definite signs of spring. The snow is gone, and the trilliums are coming out for what promises to be a good season.



Keywords: lake angeles, spring, trillium

05/04/09 - The Lake Angeles Trail: An Update

Following up on our earlier post we took the Lake Angeles trail up to the crossing, a climb of about 700 feet. The trail was in good shape, with no downed trees on that stretch, but there must have been a fair bit of snow melt, as some parts of the trail are eroded, and the park service seems to have cut a number of small trenches to channel water off of the trail to prevent further erosion. By yesterday, the trail was pretty dry.

We turned around at the little bridge, but we spoke with a few people who had climbed farther. Apparently, you can get fairly far up the trail without running into much ice or snow, but a few hundred feet below the lake there is ice and snow on the trail, and the going is tricky. No one we met had actually made it to the lake, though we imagine that some hardy park service people have been there. We'll have to climb a bit farther next time. It isn't just a matter of the trail melting; we have to get into shape.

The little bridge - no snow

There is some snow around.

As beautiful and haunting as ever

Keywords: lake angeles, spring, high country

05/01/09 - Springtime at Second Beach

Second Beach is also showing signs of spring. There was a good low tide, so we went exploring. To start with, the beach is huge. The spring tides bring in sand, so we had lots of beach to explore, and the rocks and caves at the south end of the beach were easy clambering since so many of the rocks have been buried and little pools filled in with seasonal sand. There were also a lot more starfish and anemones, or at least more anemones visible.

A little starfish

The big beach

Starfish waiting out the low tide

We'll call these cocktail olive anemones.

This is a hollow tree an the trail to the beach. People have placed shells on its shelves as offerings.

Skunk cabbage in bloom

Now that we've been sensitized we are seeing trilliums everywhere.

Keywords: second beach, spring, tides, trillium

04/30/09 - Elwha Update

Spring is coming to the Elwha Trail which starts at Whiskey Bend. There are more people, more trilliums and even some other flowers around. The male grouse are lekking, setting up bachelor pads to attract les femmes. Their deep, booming cry, almost a glottal stop, apparently does something for the ladies. There must be a good number of grouse about judging from the sound of things.

An obligatory trillium shot

Looking downstream

A local orchid

Keywords: elwha, flowers, spring, trillium, grouse

04/19/09 - Expecting

We were at Dungeness Valley Creamery and noticed a number of cows in the field towards the entrance. They're with calf, that is, they're expected to deliver quite soon. Of course, cows deliver calves all through the year at the creamery. After all, that's why they give milk, but it still seems a sign of spring to us.

We are also expecting something else, fresh bread. We were shopping at Good To Go on Lauridsen Boulevard, and we heard the good news. The city has approved the installation of their oven. They hope to have their first batch of bread some time in the middle of May. They are also planning an outdoor oven for some time in the future. We'll fill you in when we taste our first loaf.

Two of the ladies expecting

Keywords: good to go, shopping, spring

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