Mount Spokane State Park - Upper Trail 140, Mount Spokane State Park - Trail 130 & Mount Spokane State Park - Mount Kit Carson Trail — Monday, Jun. 1, 2015

Eastern Washington > Spokane Area/Coeur d'Alene

I went for another early morning pre-work trail run, and opted to start from the Upper KC Loop Road trail head since the summit road on Mount Spokane is open as of today. I ran down trail 140 to Saddle Junction, then took trail 160 to the summit of Mount Kit Carson, where I discovered the penstemon are in full bloom. Watch out for the ravenous chipmunk who tried to explore my bag for food when I set it down while taking photos (thankfully I didn't have any food in there). There were a few biting black flies out, but otherwise the bugs aren't bad. After that I ran 160 & 130 as far as the meadow beneath the summit of Day Mountain where I hit my turnaround time. I think the banner year for morels on Mount Spokane has now drawn to a close. I only found two dried, shriveled little morels today. Next on the menu: huckleberries! Although I also noticed that there are a lot of dead huckleberry bushes along trail 130 near Day Mountain, which is especially troubling since this is the place where I have seen the most black bears in the park. The bears will have to go elsewhere for huckleberries this summer. I hope that the die-off is a random, localized result from last winter's low snowpack and not an indicator of a larger problem.