Panjab Trail — Thursday, Jun. 30, 2016

Eastern Washington > Palouse and Blue Mountains

Quick out and back to Indian corral on a thurs/fri overnight. Trail is in great shape thanks to work parties...a tiny bit of new growth to push through down by the lower stream but then clear all the way up. Wildflowers in full bloom. Yarrow, lupin, some puffy yellow things and some red things. Real nice and pretty. Temps in the 80's. If you haven't camped at Indian Corral there's a big campsite before the meadow with a sign "Dusty Camp". There's another about 1/4 past the meadow as you head down toward Crooked Creek. It looks like a hunters camp and there's a little bit of metal garbage but it looks like work parties have cleaned it up real well. Thanks guys! This is the best place to get water---at the back of the camp is Dunlap Spring with a cistern and ice cold water. At sunset a pair of young elk came out and played in the meadow...I've never seen anything like it. They were "barking" at each other and play fighting and prancing around. Eventually they took off into the forest. On the way out this morning I came around a corner about 30 feet away from a brown bear. I talked to him and backed away slowly--he got my scent and took off up the hill. After that it was "hey bear" everytime I couldn't see around a corner. No ticks on the trail, some biting flies at the TH by the horse corrals but none on the trail itself. Wish I coulda stayed out longer but this is all I had time for this weekend.