[Dslayer]

This little sashay up Umptanum Ridge started at the junction of the Selah-Ellensburg/Malloy/S. Wenas Ck roads-the Umptanum Ridge Road goes up the hill about a quarter mile east of the parking lot at the junction and hasn't seen any travel since the big snows back in January. The road was easily walkable at this point because animals have beaten down a path along the road. You go through an elk fence and eventually reach a junction with the McCabe Place road-the Umptanum Ridge Road bends back to the West, drops into a cool little wooded valley then starts wandering up the ridge to the east. I cut down some of the distance by climbing the elk fence where the roads drops down into a gully, climbing the short ridge and walking that ridge to where I dropped off into the aforementiond cool little wooded valley-once I was on top of the ridge, snowshoes were necessary. The snow was considerably harder than last week given the warm temps, melting and freezing and a considerably larger amount of south facing territory had melted out, but anything other than south facing ground had lots of deep snow, particularly once I reached the top of the ridge. Saw some deer on the way up the ridge, feeding on the opposite side of the hill and a couple of bull elk were lying in the sun enjoying the warmth of the sun. It's a pretty good hump to get to the top, but well worth the view when I got there. I lunched beneath a pine tree, then walked the ridge to the west to where I could follow a ridge down to the Selah Ellensburg Road-I was about a mile up the road from where I parked. It snowed a little Sunday night, just a dusting, and has snowed all day down here in the valley though it's not sticking so winter has not ended but days like Saturday, you can almost feel spring. Almost.