Local Chapter Field Trips

Central Puget Sound

Guidelines for compensation for drivers of carpools: $0.25 per mile per car, to be divided among the passengers. Tolls and ferry fares are additional and are to be divided among all those in the car.

The Vanished Lakeshore, led by Paul Talbert
When the Montlake Cut was opened in 1916, Lake Washington dropped about
8 feet, leaving a rich shoreline flora and fauna high and dry, and
making the seasonal island of Seward Park into a full-time peninsula.
Gone are the isthmus marsh, the abundant wapato harvest, the Black
River, and the salmon run in Wetmore Slough. Gone also is Seward Park's
own little Lost Lake, an apparent victim of a changing water table. Yet
surprisingly, Seward Park is still home to some lakeshore plants and
animals uncommon or absent elsewhere in the city.
Come search for goldenrods, mannagrass, and bur-reeds; fingernail clams,
turban snails, and crayfish; grebes, kingfishers and beavers, while we
visit restored salmon habitat, consider how freshwater fish 'jump' from
one drainage to another, and ponder plankton.

Shoes for mud are helpful but not essential.  

University District Alley flora led by Arthur Lee Jacobson

Two years ago, a walk in the alleys by the UW campus in Seattle had us find 70 wild plant species:  10% native and 90% non-native.  This tour will take place at the same time of year, but in different alleys.  We will compile a checklist.

Whoever cares to join the leader for beverages afterward is welcome at College Inn Pub. 

Limit:  15

Ingalls Lake led by Barbara & Phil Smith

Please join Phil and Barbara for this wonderful annual hike view the larch trees (Larex lyallii) in the high country north east of Cle Elum.  This is one of the most spectacular short hikes in the Alpine Lakes Wilderness, featuring a rock-shored lake at the base of Ingalls Peak, with Mt. Stuart filling the eastern view.  By special arrangement, the weather will be beautiful with a fall sun warming the golden larches scattered about the basin.  We will search the lake shore for flora unique to the small serpentine batholiths that forms the bedrock of this area.  Limit:  12

Central Washington

No field trips scheduled at this time.

Columbia Basin

Columbia Basin Hikes

Koma Kulshan

Ptarmigan Ridge

This late summer hike with spectacular views begins at the end of Mt. Baker highway at Artists’ Point.  We should see a few late-blooming plants, ripe blueberries and wildlife.  Expect a fairly easy 5 mile round trip. 

Fall Color and Ferns at Yellow Aster Butte.

We were snowed out last year on this hike, so let's try it a little earlier this time. The subalpine meadows and serpentine slopes of Yellow Aster Butte may be home to the greatest diversity of ferns of any spot in the Pacific Northwest. We can expect to see 30+ species of ferns, including many moonworts. This is a moderately strenuous, 6-mile round-trip hike, with a total elevation gain of 2000 feet. We will be leaving Bellingham at 7:30 in the morning, returning around 6:00 P.M. or later. The trail enters the Mount Baker wilderness, so group size is strictly limited to 12. Hike will be led by Tim McNitt.

Northeast Washington

Okanogan

Cutthroat Pass, led by Sandra Strieby.

A one-way hike up Porcupine Creek and down through the Cutthroat Basin, about 10 miles total. We will hike up from Rainy Pass on the PCT, passing through forest and heather meadows and ascending above treeline to Cutthroat Pass, where views and alpine terrain await. The descent includes the possibility of a side trip to Cutthroat Lake and the surrounding meadows. Vegetation is varied, and mushrooms can be abundant in September if it has rained recently. This trip is limited to 10 people. This trip requires a car shuttle and at least two vehicles, so please let the trip leader know if you can drive and the capacity of your rig.

Olympic Peninsula

Salal

Field trips will be scheduled as snow melt and weather permit. If you would like to know about the trips as they are scheduled (generally at short notice), please send me your phone number if you want to be called, or your e-mail address.  Susan Alaynick, 360-333-7437 or s_alaynick@hotmail.com

Heart of Old Growth. We have the best remaining stand of Puget trough lowland old growth forest right here on Fidalgo Island in the heart of our community forest. Come along and experience the big old trees.

Mitten Pond Loop. Summer isn't over yet! The cool smell of water floats up the path as we near Mitten Pond. Whirligig beetles spin shining patterns in the glowing green duckweed. Dragonflies drift and zoom around us. Sound good? Please come along.

Big Beaver Pond.  Our hike will explore the center of beaver pond habitat in the Anacortes Community Forest Lands.  Are you curious about the wildlife that make a home in our woods?  Fall is a great time to witness animal clues as they step up activity in preparation for the long dark days ahead.

San Juan Islands

South Sound

South Sound Field Trips

Suksdorfia

No field trips are scheduled at this time.

Wenatchee Valley