Ethan, Karen, & I took another trip over to Lower Crab Creek Coulee today. From Beverly we drove 5 miles east on Lower Crab Creek Rd to the signed Public Fishing access for Lake Lenice. There is an outhouse at this trailhead. When we arrived we found a giant crane and other construction vehicles and material adjacent to the parking lot with a sign saying it was for the replacement of the trestle on the Palouse to Cascades Trail that had burned up in the fire a few years ago. One of the workers told us that most of the trestle was already in place and that they expected to be done in 4 - 6 weeks. This was great news as the area of the coulee accessed from the trestle is my favorite part.
After talking with the worker, we followed the gated road the 1/4 mile over to Lake Lenice, then followed clear fisherman's/hunter's trail east along the lakeshore. Once we were past the east end of the lake we climbed to the top of the low bluffs and continued east on a faint game trail (the fisherman's trail continued on at lake level). We eventually found a nice spot on a rocky bluff with views up and down the coulee and over the Saddle Mts escarpment for lunch. It had been sunny and warm all morning, but about noon or so it started to cloud up and became breezy, but we still stayed our usual hour or so before retracing our steps back to the car. Everything was lush and green and there were more wildflowers than I expected: prairie stars where profuse in places along with some yellow bells, large-fruited desert parsley, woolly-pod locoweed, cushion daisy, balsamroot, death camas, and hawksbeard. We saw a golden eagle and a lone sandhill crane high above us, but very few waterbirds and no other hikers, though there were a few folks fishing on the lake.
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