Snow Mountain Ranch and Cowiche Mountain — Saturday, Sep. 15, 2018

The weather in the mountains wasn't looking too good today, so Ethan & I went out to Snow Mtn Ranch and climbed Cowiche Mtn.  We walked the Ditch Bank Trail around to the Cowiche Mtn Trail East and took it to the summit.  This trail has been almost completely rerouted to avoid most of the fragile lithosols and to lessen the grade to protect against erosion.  The reroute adds about 1/2 mile to the trail.  Once on top we walked west to our favorite boulders to sit against as we have lunch.  It was nice and mild on top, so we spent our usual hour or so before heading down the Cowiche Mtn Trail West.  We saw a few others on the lower slopes of the mountain as we were starting out, but after that we had it all to ourselves.  The day was mostly cloudy & mild with a cool breeze from time to time.  The rabbitbrush was in bloom along with a few other wildflowers, especially Idaho gumweed along with chicory and a couple of late-blooming buckwheats.  We also saw raptors, a tiny short-horned lizard, a small (no thicker than a pencil) unidentified snake, a slightly larger rattlesnake, and a female elk that had gotten through the WDFW elk fence, along with plenty of deer and coyote scat.  The total loop was about 7.5 miles with over 1100' of elevation gain.