Columbia National Wildlife Refuge - Marsh Lake — Thursday, May. 5, 2011

Central Washington > Potholes Region

This is a nice hike in the Columbia National Wildlife Refuge, Marsh Unit #1. The T.H. is off the Soda Lake dam, about 2 miles south of the O'Sullivan dam. The trick is that there is little information about this area. The map at the T.H. does not show a road that is really the major route, to the left when you come to a "Y". This route is great but does not seem to be "the one". We took it for a few miles to far end of Long Lake. It is along the canal they built (a real wow) and thus high enough to look down on the lake areas. Nice views. We probably should have taken the faint, older route at the "Y", to get into the actual lake area. This is not an area where one can go easily across country. Flowers are out, no snakes seen. Saw a porcupine in a tree, whipping around in the wind, later that evening. He was eating twigs. Pretty neat! A good hike out of the snow and maybe in the sun!