This is hike #124 in Rich Landers & Craig Romano's Day Hiking Eastern Washington guidebook. I have been wanting to try it out for the past several weeks, and after a rainy evening track meet on Thursday, I decided it was time to pack my bag & head to the desert for better weather. I only got a little lost heading through Clarkston, and from there it was easy to find the trailhead. The road access is interesting--there are patches of pavement in front of houses along the road, then segments of dirt road along pasture; road mileage signs are in kilometers rather than miles. The trailhead itself offers ample parking and could work for trailhead car camping if one doesn't mind the mess left behind by unsavory campers. There's a lot of garbage, broken glass, and evidence of the wrong sort of target practice. It seemed like a bad omen when I found a tick before I even had both shoes on, and I did find several more before the end of the trip (and a couple more on the drive home). Fortunately, none of them were able to bite me. The trail starts out very wide and has a gentle grade as it follows the creek upstream. I didn't even realize how much climbing I had done until it was time to retrace my steps on Saturday. At the cattle guard that marks the boundary between the wildlife area and forest service lands, a sign indicates that four-wheelers are no longer allowed. Four-wheelers can't read signs, of course, and the trail continues as double-track for at least another two miles. Eventually, it becomes rough enough and steep enough to force motorists to retreat, where it narrows to single-track. The forest gradually becomes more dense, with massive ponderosa pines dominating. Near where I turned back, there were also quite a few yew trees. It was difficult to locate a place to camp--it seems that most visitors are day-users & some of those who do stay the night leave a mess behind. There were several places with ply-wood boards nailed to trees (old FS signs?) and evidence of old camps--but these were nearly all overgrown. One likely-looking campsite had so much downfall (including a massive tree across the fire ring) that it was difficult to access. The spot I chose had three fire rings, all choked with grass (so I opted to skip the campfire). The campsite beyond the one where I stayed had an old ripped up tent full of garbage in it! There was little evidence of LNT principles in action in the campsites along the route (plus trail-side TP--gross). Another campsite surprise was the large numbers of ladybugs hiding in the grass. The guidebook warns about their presence in the meadow, but I found them in clumps of grass all along the route, even in my campsite about 8-9 miles up from the trailhead. It made it difficult to find a place to pitch my tent, and I found them swarming on my backpack as I tried to repack Saturday morning. Once I pitched my tent on Friday night, I decided it was time to do a little off-trail exploration. I clambered up the hillside for the view, hoping to see some of the wildlife this area is known for. I didn't see the animals in the flesh, but I did find a massive elk antler, shed earlier this spring. On the way out on Saturday, I happened across one of the largest garter snakes I have ever seen, sunning itself lengthwise in the the trail. When I was almost back to the car, I finally spotted some bighorn sheep high on the hillside above the trail. At the meadow described in the guidebook I found an old trail not on the NF map (it is on my old Metsger's Asotin County map, along with several other old trails that aren't on the FS map). I didn't have time to explore it very far, but the Metsger shows it leading to a spring and potential campsite before eventually coming out on the road. While hiking I encountered three other hikers, four mountain bikers, and two people on horseback. There aren't many trip reports for this hike, but it is receiving a lot of use. The wildflowers were just getting started, so the next few weeks will be the best time to visit this trail.

The upper trail head near Jump off Joe point is impossible to find. The loacation marked on the Umatilla Forest Map has been obliterated by logging roads. In fact the topography of this area is dominated by huge clear cuts and mazes of loggin roads, Try the trail head on the bottom instead. The N. Fork Asotin Canyon bottom is still quite scenic.