Summer? Is That You? I'll be your huckleberry...

After many rainy days and nights, summer has seem to hit North Central Washington!  What a relief, as I was getting tired of wearing smelly boots that weren't quite dried out enough from the day before.  The flowers are blooming all around the forest, the ground is drying up, and pollen by the nose-load is falling off of every Ponderosa and Lodgepole Pine I come into contact with, plugging up my whole system.  I even saw some budding Huckleberries on their plants today, a welcome sign that summer is getting here!

 I took a week or so break from the woods, visiting Sandpoint, the Moyie River, Missoula, and Priest Lake.  It was great to see friends, family, and take a brisk, yet refreshing, dip into the Lake....FINALLY.  As usual, the boat broke down with me behind the helm, lah-di-freakin-da.  Hopefully it will not be gushing gas out the carburetor when I visit for the Fourth...

Before, and after the mini-vacation, I have been seeing and encountering much wildlife.  Not grazing deer, no rabbits, but large bears, and cougar sign almost every day.  Once again I found myself in a large thicket, and a cub came rushing at me through the bushes.  GREAT.  I lost my voice that day because of all the 'HOOOAAAAh's' and 'HEEEYYYOOOO's'  letting those overgrown trash collectors where I was.  The next day I came upon a fresh cougar kill....DOUBLE GREAT.  I went up to a large Douglas Fir to measure, and right behind it was a fresh, not-eaten AT ALL, half-way buried fawn.  To make it official, there were cat claw marks up and down the tree.  Another day of losing my voice!  Since these incidents, I'm glad I am out in the middle of nowhere, because I'm sure people would be getting sick of my constant 'WHOOOOP's' and 'HI-KI-MINI-I-KI's' rummaging around in the forest!

Today I came upon an unlikely visitor in the road (it looked like they flipped her around the corner, after a night of slamming Keystone's that were littered all over my access road):

After the fourth we will be heading to the Colville Indian Reservation for another part of the current job we are doing.  I will miss our little campsite, and our 'Grandpa' Al visits...