My Neighborhood, Feryn Ranch Conservation Area — Sunday, Apr. 19, 2020

I've been spending a little time researching local conservation areas I might be able to hike to, and decided to try Feryn Ranch on this beautiful spring day. I don't visit Feryn very often since it's a tiny conservation area where most round-trip visits total less than a mile hiked, so I was curious about how I might like this 12.24 mile R-T version.

My favorite parts were the conservation area itself (where I spied two bald eagles, a blue heron, and about a million swallows, red-wing blackbirds, ducks, and geese) and the parts of the hike that were closest to my house (quiet rural neighborhood roads, a mix of asphalt and dirt). My least favorite parts included that the majority of the distance had to be on asphalt (my feet, knees, and hips were not happy), and the way I had to hike a couple miles on SR206. I thought that the highway would be fairly quiet since it was a Sunday afternoon and the highway dead-ends at currently-closed Mount Spokane State Park, but it was very busy and terrifying to hike (doubly so since I was hiking with my dog). If I do any return hikes through this section of "my neighborhood," I'm afraid I'm going to have to skip Feryn Ranch and stay off the highway. No shoulder, not even a ditch to walk in for most of it, and a few sections with a guardrail that only leaves about 1' between me and white line on the road.  This will not be something I repeat, but it is nice to give it a try once.