Frenchman Coulee — Saturday, Dec. 12, 2020

Ethan, Brenda, Jonah, Karen, & I took a hike at the Frenchman Coulee area today, but as you can see, not to Frenchman Coulee proper.  Our destination was the old 1918 highway (pre-Hwy 10) that descends the cliffs across the river from the Ginkgo Backcountry.  I had been eyeing this road every time I had hiked at Ginkgo and Ethan, Karen, and I had even tried for it last spring, but I pooped out before we made it.  Today we drove to the boat launch at the end of the Frenchman Coulee road and headed north from the boat launch parking area along a fence to the base of a bluff, then climbed around to the top of the bluff.  From here we climbed to the top of a ridge and immediately encountered a deep side-canyon which we had to go around.  Once around the side-canyon we came to a 2-track that took us to the old highway close to where it emerges from under I-90.  Along the way there were a couple of other 2-tracks coming up from the river.  Once on the highway we followed it south to a spectacular viewpoint below Pt 1225.  Though it was about noon, we decided to keep going a while before having lunch.  The road gradually descended around the head of a major side-canyon and back out to the cliffs above the river, then down through some cliffs to a flat where we found a nice spot in the sun for lunch.  After 45 min or so the others decided they wanted to continue on down the road.  I wasn’t ready to go yet, so we decided that they would go until 2:00 and I would follow when I was ready.  I eventually made my way leisurely down the road as far and the next side-canyon.  It was starting to cloud up by this time and I decided that I had walked far enough and started back up the road.  The others eventually caught up with me, having made it all the way to where the road disappears into the river.  Although the day had started sunny, by this time we were under heavy overcast.  Rather than retracing our steps back to the cars we decided to descend the side-canyon south of Pt 1225.  Once down to the river, we followed the trail back to the parking lot.  Much of the land east of the Grant Co. PUD’s strip along the river is private, but the 2-tracks heading up to the highway are not posted “No Trespassing” and obviously get a lot of motorbike use.  Another time I would take one of these roads up to the old highway.  We saw lots of waterbirds, a couple of pelicans, and a bald eagle, but except for a couple of people on mtn bikes, we didn’t see anyone else.