Walked the Paradise Valley Conservation Area trails this morning. Parking is free and relatively plentiful at the main gravel lot which was in decent condition with just a few smaller potholes. There was a single, well used sanican at the lot. Our route was clockwise around the large exterior loop plus a handful of out and backs off the loop and several messy crisscrosses of the middle area for a total of just over 7 miles and an easy 410’ total gross vertical. Both the main and secondary trails are in really nice shape, nothing blocking, brush nicely trimmed back. Super kudos to the folks maintaining this property. Note, most of the trails allow mountain bikers and/or horses - absolutely everybody today was super friendly and safe.
There was signage up regarding a very aggressive owl in the area, (I like to think of them as proactive go-getter owls…) but didn’t see nor hear any sign of them. Also, absolutely no bear sign this time either. Not much other wildlife out, heard a raven a couple times and a fair bit of small song birds, saw a couple big pileated woodpeckers, and a few squirrels. There is a fair bit of dry drop from the trees but virtually no fall color yet, the canopy is still completely green. Virtually no mushrooms out yet either. The area is still quite dry, all the little creeks, small ponds and wetland areas were all still completely dry. The forest remains an interesting mix of big leaf maple, fir, cedar plus with a few unusual areas of pine. Shout out to the nice couple down from Canada, hope you found the big leaf maple grove. An easy walk through a beautiful forest, maybe just need to wait a couple weeks for the fall color and mushrooms.
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