In need of a nice afternoon hike in a nice area, we picked Cougar Mountain and hiked from the Harvey Manning Trailhead to the Clay Pit and back. The second growth forest is nice although far from spectacular. Hardly any flowers, no edible berries but mushrooms are starting to appear. Can you find something really interesting along the way? Keeping your eyes open, with a little luck, and if you don't ignore the little guys, you can. We spotted a dead western deer mouse being tackled by boreal burying beetles. We think that it was a pretty neat little show. You can watch the action on YouTube. The finding has been documented in iNaturalist. See links below.
On a nice, sunny Friday there were few cars at the trailhead. We met maybe 10-12 people on the trail. It was a tad muggy in the forest, no breeze.
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