An Unexpected Find

Hmmm... Bear seen in area (sow & two cubs) on 23 June... Well, this little adventure happened in August sooo..

I think we are good to go! I will keep an eye out though... no one (stuffie or human) wants to get between a sow and her cubs!

The sun is just coming up... so pretty.

The Oregon Grape is ready for picking. I don't know that we are going to be picking any this year... just a bit too much going on.

Today, we are going beyond the waterfall to... an area with an "unmaintained trail". Rumour has it that the district is fixing up this bit of trail with wooden stairs and a bridge... so let's check it out.

Oh wow... this is turning into a beary steep trail. It would be a slippery slide if it were raining.

Wow... I can see why they want to build some wooden stairs down this slope. It is super steep.

You do know we are going to have to go up again, right?

And here is the current bridge... with an 8 foot drop on either side down to the river bed. Eeeks. Again... I can see the need for a real bridge. Ah well... at least I have documented the "before" pictures!

The river doesn't have a lot of water right now, will have to come back in March when it is in full flow and see how it looks then.

And... no... we are not going up the other side of this steep gulch... we are heading back where we came from...

One small step at a time. Ugh...

And... we are up! On the way down... we had noticed some white mushrooms under some leaves. Coming back, we thought we'd look at them... just because...

And... they are White Chanterelles!!! Cool!! Chanterelles are quite easy to identify... see, they have furrows that run down into the stem, not gills or pores like most other mushrooms. Normally, we have picked chanterelles for Grandma but... she's not here... Should we pick them?

Of course we'll pick them! Maybe we can give them away... Mama and her partner are not big mushroom fans but... you never know... maybe now is the time to start.

Bears, of course, love mushrooms!!

And a quick visit to the waterfall which is really just a water trickle at this point...

And then we are going out a different way...

There aren't a lot of flowers still blooming... some tansy.

And thistle thingies.

A few lingering St. John's Wort...

Hmmm... Private Land. Keep Out!

This bear is not deterred by this sign... no... not at all. Because this is a two minute short cut to the road...

And, as you can see... Restricted Area. Keep Out. Doesn't make much sense!

Piffle. Sign schmign... let's go. There's a post-hike brownie with my name on it!

See... brownie... mmmm.... so good

I kind of like this new post-hike brownie thing... don't you?

As for the chanterelles.... this was quite a nice haul. But our two contacts were not interested in white chanterelles... so it's up to us to eat them.

So, the chanterelles were diced up, sauteed and some went into a stir fry and the rest got frozen for another stir fry.

Oh... and we had a snack of bruschetta made with sungold tomatoes from the garden... O-M-G... soooo goood!!!