[Sadie's Driver]

Stats: Elevation gain: ~1800' Mileage: 10 miles Time: 4 hours 45 minutes car-to-car Rattlesnakes: 2 Ticks: Sadie - 2 Driver - 0 Well, we just weren't quite sure what to expect for weather in the mountains. Cloudy/partly cloudy/thunder/sun? What's a dog to do? Trail Pair suggested a trek to the Ellensburg area, where the weather seemed more dependable. Plus, with the snow at its 'tweener stage in most areas and not feeling like "punching thru" on our way to another peak, we opted for the Robinson & Ainsley Canyons as described in Alan Bauer's Desert Hikes of Washington book (page 46-48). We met at the "auxiliary" park and ride lot in Issaquah (just south of the big lot, which is being remodeled into a multi-level parking lot). Got there at 8:00 a.m. and headed east. Got to the trailhead for Robinson and ready to go about 9:30 a.m.

Trailhead sign for Robinson and Ainsley Canyons

Gate at the trailhead

Trail Pair and Sadie heading up the trail - part trail and part old road bed - rocky

Off we headed. None of us had been on this trail - which really starts out as a road, but quickly shrinks to a trail. It follows Robinson Creek

Sadie enjoying Robinson Creek for a quick dip

the meadowlark and several other lovely birds were singing to us. There wasn't another car at the trailhead, although once we went through the gate, a truck with two folks and 3 dogs came toward us from the "upper" parking lot (where horse trailers often park). They were on their way out, so we had the place to ourselves. The day was lovely, the air fragrant, some puffy clouds in the sky - but nothing particularly threatening. It was warm already and we were in shorts and sleeveless tops. Sadie was in her fur coat.

Hot dog!

About 1/2 mile into the trail part of the hike, Bob called us to come see a little "rattler" that was slithering away into the brush - never so much as rattled at us - never heard a thing from him/her. He/she was just hi-tailing it out of there. We pressed on - aware of the notion that more snakes could be in our future. Sadie's never seen a rattlesnake - wasn't sure what she would do. I was more worried about her picking up ticks, so she received a healthy dose of tick spray before we headed out. Last year on the Umptanum trail, she ended up with about 20 freeloaders. We came to what we thought was the trail split for Ainsley Canyon - where we wanted to head up to the overlook that Alan describes that's at 3200'. Later we guessed that we may have turned too soon. But, regardless, this was a wonderful choice. We encountered the most beautiful flower show! It was spectacular. We really didn't expect many flowers, thinking that we had missed the peak of the show. But we managed to see (and sorta' identify) vetch, yarrow, phlox, blue flax, paintbrush, lupine, harebell, asters, Oregon sunshine(?) triteleia, pink lupine, Tweedy's lewisia, bitterroot, and some unidentified gorgeous flowers. Oh, the aroma was so wonderful! Here are some pics for you:

Pink Lupine

"Snowbrush" Ceanothus velutinous (courtesy of Marta's identification)

Larkspur - thanks to the i.d. by Shacknasty Jim

Triteleia?

Fleabane (thanks Marta!)

small wild rose plant

Wider shot of lupine and paintbrush in front of Ponderosa Pine - smell was heavenly!

Lupine and Indian Paintbrush - lovely

Penstemon

Wild Roses

Lupine

We continued up what appeared to be an old road bed, passing by this lovely little meadow looking across to a probable hunters' campsite

Meadow to the Southeast of the trail we were on

On the trail, we ran across this funky fungus - looked a little worse for the wear, but rather intriguing

Fungus - a little dried out

We were on a gradual climb on what seemed to be a horse trail - heading West/Southwest. Looking almost due West, we saw a nob that appeared to be a highpoint. We thought this might be the overlook that Alan refers to in his trail description, so we headed in that direction. Well, the trail started to lead us back toward the meadow we had seen earlier - or at least that's where we thought we would end up - so we back-tracked and began to head across a gully and up towards the ridge and high point that we had seen earlier

Trail Pair below the high point that we would reach today (~3900')

Trail pair heading up the trail towards the high point

We made up our trail - but ended up on the top of the ridge on what looked to be another old road bed and headed to the north towards the overlook we had seen earlier

At the high point - Trail Pair and Sadie heading to the overlook with Teanaways under clouds behind

Trail Pair and Sadie on the overlook high point above Robinson Canyon

Sadie and her driver at the overlook with Teanaways in the background

Viola! The highpoint. But when we checked our altimeters, we were at almost 3900'. Alan's high point was 3200' - so we had ended up somewhere else, but the views were spectacular - so we weren't complaining! We could see across to the Stuart Range, the broad expanse of the Kittitas Valley and closer in, the canyons of Ainsley and Robinson. We stopped here for our lunch - figuring we easily had gone about 5 miles. We discussed our descent and agreed we would follow the old road bed for a while. On our way, we had some wonderful views

Outdoor "sculpture"

View of Ponderosa Pine from the high point plateau looking South

On the road, I came upon a little colony - there were hundreds of these little buggers running around very busily!

The ants go marching . . . . . busy little buggers

Continuing on, the road seemed to end and we picked up what appeared to be another game trail - but we could see across to a little hill to what appeared to be a more substantial trail and we decided to head toward that

Looking down the slope with lots of lupine and paintbrush - between the two stumps is the game trail we would follow

Looking towards Kittitas Valley - a trail in the center of pic on the mound in front of us is where we would wind up on our way back out of the Canyon area

We finally reconnected with the trail that took us up to the viewpoint trail and continued down to where we thought the junction between Robinson and Ainsley was - we headed further up the Robinson branch and came upon what we decided was the actual branch that Alan refers to for Ainsley. We agreed that we already had seen what we wanted to see up that way and continued on up the Robinson Canyon trail - crossing the creek a couple of times again. Sadie welcomed that! Now, there were some trail makers

When in doubt, look for that trail marker - this one was quite obvious - unlike some that reportedly mark trails!

but they were sporadic and since the three of us proved earlier in the season that we were marker-challenged, we followed trail rather than marker. Now, mind you, we did pretty much follow the markers, but also chose our own path. We figured that the area was very open and we really weren't going to get lost. We continued up the Robinson Canyon trail to where it hits Ponderosa Pine again - but we hadn't really seen any spectacular flowers like we did earlier, so we turned around and started back towards the car. We gave some thought to taking the old road that was higher up on the canyon ridge to the north of us - but opted not to, since we felt that we had seen what we wanted to see for that day (and Alan recommends avoiding that route back). On our way back down the trail, Sadie's driver (that would be me) was the last in the line and, sure enough, the last one always gets the wrath of the rattler! Anyway, this huge, ol' granddaddy rattler with about 20 rattles, started shaking his booty and indicating that he was none too happy with our merry group. However, he was moving quickly away from us. We had the chance to watch him slither away (dang, couldn't get a decent pic). Sadie seemed uninterested. Just as well. The rest of the route out was uneventful, but allowed Sadie to take a few more "swims" before we got back to the Highlander. We did see some horseback riders on our way down from the viewpoint - and they had just loaded their horses in a trailer and were on their way out as we got back to the gate. There was one other truck/horsetrailer parked and empty at the parking area. Then there were some curious folks had ventured to the trailhead as we were loading to leave, but they weren't stopping to hike - only asked about the trail and then turned around and left. As we drove out, another truck and horsetrailer were on their way in. We made a gas stop in "cheap gas ($2.93/gallon!)" Cle Elum, along with a stop for an iced coffee. The clouds had started to move in, but it remained warm (80) with no thunder storms. Traffic was good back to Issaquah. Sadie has had her ticks picked and is resting comfortably.

[l]

SD, nice TR. You mentioned Sadie showed little interest in the rattler. I've noticed my pooch ignores snakes, too. It might be lack of an interesting scent, since he's indifferent to slugs as well. Loved the flower photos. The 'lovely blue flower' is a larkspur.

[Sadie's Driver]

[marta]

Great trip report. Nice to still see some flowers in bloom. The 'box' wood is Ceanothus, potentially Ceanothus velutinous.

[Sadie's Driver]

[marta]

You are very welcome. The Oregon Sunshine might have been a fleabane instead. I can't tell the leaves very well but it is pretty common to also see desert yellow fleabane - Erigeron linearis. Here is another picture. If the leaves were thin instead of looking like yarrow then it was the fleabane. That area is one of my favorite areas to hike in. I'll have to tell hubby that you saw a rattler. He's always looking for them but I never like it when he finds them.

[Sadie's Driver]

[Quark]

Wonderful photos! I'm surprised (but glad) it's still green out there. Looks like a place I need to visit!

[Sadie's Driver]

[Quark]

Oh, I didn't mean this year. I know darn well it's too flippin' hot for me. I was crabby yesterday in Western Washington 'cause it was too hot; I know the other side of the crest'd kill me ('cept the Teanaway area until mid-July, sometimes earlier).