This was the third time we have done this trip over the past few years, and it was still an enjoyable early season backpack hike, especially since we were joined by Sadie's Driver, and once in camp by ""blueskies"" (Bill). Anyway, the directions in the book ""Best Desert Hikes"" by Alan Bauer are confusing. The exit off the freeway is #26, not #30. Also, if you proceed 2 miles up Buffalo Road you come to the actual South trailhead, complete with a shot up chemical toilet. The sportmen love to kill those things! After gaining 1400ft. there is a nice ridge walk. The wild flowers are just starting to bloom. On a clear day you can see Mt. Adams, Rainier, and the tip of Mt. Hood. After descending a few hundred feet the trail once again climbs, then drops down to the Roza Creek drainage. We headed West on the Roza jeep road for 2 miles to Birdsong Camp. We awoke in the morning to the sound of many birds, and a clear but chilly morning. The hike out has almost as much elevation gain as the hike in. Distance: 22 miles RT Elevation gain: 2450ft. in, 2000ft. out

I just spent another weekend on the Yakima Rim Skyline trail and camped at Birdsong Tree. There were 5 of us for the trip along with two dogs, all family and a great time was had by all of us. We started the trip from the North Trailhead, getting to the trailhead via Ellensburg and the Durr Road. We camped Friday night just after crossing the ford of Umtanum Creek, no one else around, a quiet night except at midnight a pickup truck worked its way down and across Umtanum Creek, and up towards the North Trailhead, returning shortly after and then an ATV came down from the North Trailhead, but that is all during the night. After a good nights sleep, my brother Don made one of his great ""car camping"" breakfasts, and then we packed up and headed up the 3 miles to the North Trailhead. The road is in very bad shape now, and we know why the small pickup truck did not go far. There are deep ruts, needing to go from side to side to get through. We managed to get to the North Trailhead, unpacked the truck, loaded our packs on and bringing 2 gallons of extra water headed up the trail/road. The weather was beautiful, but quite a bit of wind which was cooling and helping us along the way. We stayed on the main trail until we headed down the last ridge and then we cut across and headed down towards Birdsong Tree area which is along Roza Creek. The Birdsong Tree area is also a site of an old farmhouse and has a couple of old apple trees near, with a few apples on it. We did not have anyone else joining us for the camp spot and that was really nice, just to hang out with ""family"" for the weekend. There was still water in Roza Creek and in the spring. Later in the afternoon, we noticed smoke in the distance towards the Yakima Military area and knew there was another fire, and could see flames when it was getting dark. Sunday found us packing up again for the long trip back to the truck. We went out the Roza Road/trail, and then when we were near the Durr Road, actually took the power line road, much nicer than using the Durr Road, and then came out to the Durr Road almost at the base of our last ridge that we had to climb. No wind on Sunday, and quite a bit warmer. We changed clothes, packed the truck up with all our gear and the two dogs, Buddy and Sophia and headed for Ellensburg and Arby's for something to eat. Cindy, Jeff, Nick and Buddy were dropped off at the Coal Creek Park & Ride, and Don, Sophia and I headed for Don's in Renton and then Sophia and I headed for home South of Chehalis. Another great weekend.

Silly P, Skippy and I decided to try a desert backpack hoping to avoid the rainy forecast. We started out at the ""new"" trailhead as described in ""Desert Hikes"". We drove within about 1 1/2 miles of the trailhead (the road is awful!)and started up the gully trail to intersect the main Rim trail in about 1 mile. I prefer the old trail to this one as it is more scenic and both roads are horrible anyway. Rain began fairly soon after we started up the trailhead and was intermitent all day. We had planned to camp at the Birdsong Tree up the little creek valley from Roza, but found the camp to be very full with no good camps left. About this time it began raining really hard, then hailing even harder. We decided to hike back to Roza to set up camp. This was lots of fun since the road had turned to slippery mud and the rain just kept on coming! We found a decent spot to set up camp next to the old schoolhouse foundation and the rain actually let up long enough to set up tents. Then it rained all night. We settled on granola bars for dinner and went to bed hoping for drier days. Sunday began sunny and we lucked out with a mostly dry day although it seemed to be storming everywhere around us. We left camp and day tripped on the north section of the Rim trail for about four miles each way. It was great up on the high ridges. Although most of the flowers were gone, there were still enough to keep our interest with lots of gorgeous rock roses and cactus. We fell asleep listening to coyotes howling across the valley. Next day we awoke to fantastic weather and the hike back up to the Rim and out to the car. The high point for me was a private moment with a coyote when I took a little side trip. We looked each other over pretty good and then went our separate ways. This is a little different type of trip than I usually do, but with it's own special interests.

It rained to within about 3 minutes of the trailhead, then turned into a perfect day for hiking here - warm but not hot, breezy, passing clouds and sunbreaks, and even views of Rainier. Decided to try the trailhead listed in Desert Hikes. We hiked up the road from the parking lot (although it's perfectly driveable) at the elk drift fence on Buffalo Road. I've always gone to the old trailhead and slogged up that long skyline along Yakima Canyon, so this trail was a delightful surprise since it goes up a ravine that still has a stream running at this time of year, and the vegetation and animals were great. At the top were more bitterroot than I've ever seen, except perhaps on Patterson Mountain in the Methow. Wow. Flowers everywhere, although the lupine and balsamroot are beginning to fade. We took a ""shortcut"" back along a different road and cross country, with predictable results, and we did finally reach our car. Still, fun to see different country. This is one of my favorite spring hikes, although I was really glad to see Hiker Val's report that Iron Bear was open, since the ranger station said it wasn't! No snakes, but there was poison ivy at Twin Springs.

Sunday I did a short hike up the Yakima Rim Skyline Trail from the south trailhead near Selah. The access road had a few mud holes due to recent rains. It was a nice, mostly sunny day. There were several varieties of wildflowers in bloom.