[Kim Brown]

Short & sweet, this is hands down the BEST trail to Teanaway Ridge. Views start within a few minutes of stepping foot onto the trail. Old charred snags remain from an old burn. The forest is comprised of Grand Fir, white pine, Ponderosas, and western larch. This part of OWNF is in the middle of a spruce budworm cycle. Most of the "dead" looking grey trees will recover, because a full-grown tree can withstand 3 or 4 years of the budworm's antics, which is eating the new leaves from the tree. The trail is well-maintained. Motorized use, but you couldn't tell by the way the trail looks. I mean it's really nice; most motorized trails that I've seen in the Teanaway are, if you want to know the truth. No deep grooves in this trail. There are some stubborn snow patches at the tippy top of Teanaway Ridge. We stopped short of the snow, once my friend deemed it too much for her, but I went on and tagged the bump and returned back to sit on a sunny slope and enjoy the views with her. Flowers: Tons of balsamroot - I've never seen so many at their height. Silvercrown is ready to burst; tons of trillium out NOW. it will be a week or more before the big flower show; the whole trail is just recently out from under snow. No ticks, which is odd, given it is recently out from snow and there's a lot of buck brush (ticks love buck brush). Just about every party we met stopped to chat. I'm always amazed at the quality of questions folks ask me, and what details they offer me regarding their trip. Often, someone will volunteer their complete itinerary. One woman on Sunday asked me how the USFS is treating the budworm infestation. Seems she worked for the Forest Service in the Methow back in the 1970s doing budworm surveys. After we parted, I got into this whole discussion with a nice couple about larches vs tamaracks and we had fun making up latin names for plants and animals. Then still another nice couple, who asked me what a certain shrubbery was (buck brush). "Wow!" I thought -- "what a freindly trail!" About a mile later (my thinkin' ain't too fast), I suddenly realized what the deal was: I was dressed in varied shades of green, and with my Hike US Forest Service ballcap, folks thought I was with the Forest Service. This happens to me on a fairly regular basis, on account of my green clothes and that hat; but each time, it takes awhile to put 2 + 2 together. Never was very good at math. While I did the Forest Service proud with plant ID using common names, I was not able to answer the budworm question (of course I researched the hell out of it once I got home). So if someone is out there insulting the USFS saying they don't know a budworm from a Tussock moth, that's because of me. Sorry. Pics:

Paintbrush

Trillia

Glacier Lillies

arnica

On the trail4

Balsamroot lined trail

Looking east

Trail

Hangin out

[puzzlr]

So give us a clue about what buck brush looks like. You posted a pic of every other shrub and flower!

[Mikey]

If this the Iron-Bear (Teanaway Ridge) Trail 1351 with the trailhead on USFS 9714 road, for sure, this is one of my favorite trails! Sometimes I wear a tan shirt with an old American Red Cross First Aid Patch on one sleeve and an US Flag patch on the other sleeve (it has large pockets which are handy to carry my camera) and periodically people mistake me for some sort of ranger and ask me questions which I attempt to answer.

[Schroder]

I've overlooked this trail. It looks pretty nice.

[Kim Brown]

Mikey, yeah, it's Iron-Bear. Buckbrush ain't so good lookin', so no pics of it. It's that nondescript shrubbery with big dark green oval leaves with scratchy branches. It practically lines much of this trail. In the Winthrop area, much of it is dying (I asked a Ranger at the Ranger station about it a few years ago and she said buckbrush in that area has some sort of disease),