Читать книгу Afoot and Afield: Portland/Vancouver. A Comprehensive Hiking Guide онлайн
124 страница из 142
About 0.4 mile after the last creek crossing, you pass diagonally through a confusing and unsigned junction with a motorbike track and then switchback to the right on top of a wide, forested ridge. More climbing takes you up to and around a small rockslide and cliff where red paintbrush, purple penstemon, white beargrass, and yellow golden pea grow profusely.
After climbing a little more in forest, you come to a lovely open slope of shale rock with lots of June-blooming lupine, lomatium, and beargrass. There are also fine views here, especially northeast to bulky Silver Star Mountain and north to Mounts Rainier and St. Helens. Several roads and clear-cuts mar the scene somewhat, but it is still very attractive. A lone picnic table just below the trail is signed as the FLINTSTONE PICNIC AREA. It provides Fred and Wilma, or any other visitors, a first-rate lunch spot, although this exposed location is often windy.
Above the rocky slope you enter open, mid-elevation forests of Douglas fir and Pacific silver fir, with lots of star-flowered smilacina and bunchberry covering the ground. Go straight through an unsigned four-way junction and 100 yards later you will come to a signed fork in the trail. The path to the left goes down to Grouse Vista (see ssss1), but your route turns right and climbs 0.2 mile to a junction with another motorcycle track.