A walk up Asotin Creek

We hadn’t expected a beautiful, clear sunny day, but there it was, and we decided on a walk along Asotin Creek, a nearby and fairly frequent destination.

         The trail was slick with melting snow, but we sustained no casualties.
The green disc is more likely an artifact than Neptune wandering from its orbit.

Like all creation, snow falls

Snow is falling harder than it was earlier in the day. I can see individual large flakes from at least 50 yards. I wish more beautiful things were as quiet. Are you listening, Effie? Effie is rather a vocal cat, but overall she is good. . . .

Cloud Scallopini

 . . .garnished with sunshine and sky

Meeting new people

Who’s Effie looking at?

But of course! New friends every day!

 

Gold on bronze

Looking out the window, I noticed two goldfinches perched on our bronze sunflowers. My husband’s camera has more competent telephoto capability than mine, and he took these shots through a window without a flash.

Our July 4th on Soldiers Meadow Lake

Soldiers Meadow Lake, elevation 4,500 feet, is about 12 miles past Waha Lake, where we fished Saturday. Soldiers Meadow Lake has Kokanee salmon, Rainbow trout, and Smallmouth bass. We encountered no crowds–a kayak and a skiff were the only other boats on the water in our nearly three hours there in Pisca-Dory. We caught no fish, but a few chased Vic’s lures a few times. It was a beautiful day, notwithstanding the 11 miles of rugged, dusty road, arriving and departing.

 

Soldiers Meadow Lake

Water Smartweed, a riparian native of the northwest plains

Wild roses at the shoreline

 

Vic recently installed a shade over my chair!

Vic hitches Pisca-Dory to her trailer and the trailer to the truck. . .”Gosh, Vic–you couldn’t do this back home on Krypton!”

(My husband Vic took all the photos in this post, except the final one, which I took.)

Snake and Clearwater Rivers cruise

No, we didn’t catch any fish. We tried, but none took us up on our offer to take them home with us. We have licenses to fish in both Washington and Idaho. The Clearwater River is on the Idaho side until it joins the Snake River at the boundary. The Snake flows along the boundary until it meets the Clearwater, at which point the Snake is in Washington. It’s complicated.

We moored Pisca-Dory at an enchanting little island and clambered up a trail. We named it Pony Island, after a dream I had when we were in law school.

on “Pony Island”

Both rivers are beautiful, and normally afford wonderful fishing. Right now, water temperatures are in flux and the fish seem to be laying low, though I observed one bass take a dramatic leap.

It was a lovely day; storm clouds gathered, but never broke while we were out on the rivers.

Pretty yellow flowers on Pony Island

Trail on Pony Island

Heading back to the launch

Catching a Rainbow

Bit of a storm at 4 o’clock in the afternoon

A lilac and poplar trees keep time to a 19.7 mph wind. I’m out of my element–or at least my comfort zone–at that wind velocity, so I took this photo through a window. Effie sleeps through these things enviably. I wish you could hear the thunder; we had a few sprigs of lightning as well.

If I were a tulip, I would want to be frilly

. . .without the bugs.