FISHING -- A path was plowed this week through the lingering snow on Gold Pass, the popular access route from St. Regis, Mont., to the St. Joe River. North Idaho angler Ralph Bartholdt posed his family on the pass to prove the point. Here's his…
PADDLING -- This great action and slow-mo video recap captures the intensity of the paddlers and the power of the water during the recent North Fork Championships whitewater kayaking championships in the BIG flows of Idaho's North Fork Payette River near McCall. The contest involved…
WILDLIFE WATCHING -- Trumpeter swans are back in a family way at Turnbull National Wildlife Refuge this week. The photo at the bottom of this post shows the female rising above a newly hatched FIFTH cygnet onThursday morning as two siblings look on from the…
FISHING – Sign-up is underway for the Pike Palooza fishing derby on the Pend Oreille River, June 29-July 1, sponsored by the Kalispel Tribe. Prizes up to $1,000 are being offered in a variety of categories to make the contest interesting to anglers of all…
FISHING -- Todd Young of Spokane used PowerBait to catch this 27-inch rainbow weighing 6.8 pounds at Sprague Lake on Saturday. Had Young caught the fish one week earlier, he would have easily won $500 in prizes offered for the biggest fish in the Sprague…
GEOLOGY -- A just-published guidebook on the region's channeled scablands -- a second volume on exploring the aftermath of the Ice Age Floods -- is being celebrated Saturday at Eastern Washington University. “On the Trail of the Ice Age Floods: A geological field guide to…
TRAILS -- Conservation groups throughout the region are scheduling guided group hikes to introduce outdoor enthusiasts to choice wild areas throughout the region. Following are some of the upcoming options with links to see the many hikes on each group’s summer schedule. Columbia Highlands June…
ENDANGERED SPECIES -- A red fox photographed by motion-detecting infrared camera in the Mount Hood National Forest may be a Sierra Nevada red fox, which hasn't been found in Oregon in decades. See the OregonLive story.
WILDLIFE -- Ginger Ninde writes to thank people who helped her through an unfortunate encounter she just had with a whitetail fawn near her home in Medical Lake: Thank you to everyone who patiently waited on highway 902 (both directions) while an injured fawn with…
NATIONAL PARKS -- Glacier National Park officials are planning to open the Going-to-the-Sun Road over 6,646-foot Logan Pass today. The opening will end the spring grace period when bikers and hikers could much of the 50-mile route motor-vehicle free. If you're driving to Logan Pass…
MOUNTAINEERING -- Spokane's John Roskelley, perhaps America's premier mountaineer in the 1980s, will present a slide show and share climbing insights in a presentation Thursday (June 21), 7 p.m., at the Mountain Gear retail store, 2002 N. Division. The photos and stories will relate to…
PADDLING -- Kayaker David Crafton and friends have been exploring trips from my hiking and paddling guidebooks. Last weekend they packed their boats and headed down the Pend Oreille River from Metaline downstream into the spectacular Z Canyon. NOTE: The Metaline Falls and hydraulics downstream…
PADDLING -- Get the basics of paddling gear -- canoes, kayaks and stand-up paddleboards -- in a free presentation Thursday (June 21), 7 p.m., at REI in Spokane. The presentation also will cover apparel, trip planning and transportation.
NATURE -- The public is invited to join a wildlfie biologist and a lepidopterist for day of learning about butterflies in Northeast Washington on Saturday. As part of National Pollinator Week, the Little Pend Oreille National Wildlife Refuge will be hosting the North American Butterfly…
WILDLIFE WATCHING -- Red squirrels provide year-round entertainment for Tina and Judge Wynecoop of Colbert. But when they started affecting the gas mileage of their vehicle, something had to be done. “Our Toyota 4 Runner did not have much get up and go on its…
PREDATORS -- Despite a long sport hunting seasons and lethal measures to control wolves bothering livestock, Montana's wolf population continued to grow in the past two years while big-game herds in many areas are taking a beating. Fish, Wildlife and Parks officials are holding meetings…
WILDLIFE WATCHING -- Ospreys nesting above War Memorial Field in Sandpoint hatched their first chick Monday, and a web cam is giving viewers an up-close and personal view as the adults feed the bird. The emergence of another chick could happen any day -- or…
WILDLIFE -- A sportsman's recent heartbreaking video of elk hobbling painfully on sore hooves is bringing more attention to problems with hoof rot in the Mount St. Helens herd. KING 5 TV recently aired footage compiled by West Side sportsman Bill Jones, who's hunted the…
PARKS -- Every division of the Spokane Parks and Recreation Department will be facing a 5.5% budget reduction in 2013 as the city seeks to trim the department's budget by $1 million. Park departments include Riverfront Park, Park Operations, Planning, Administration, Budget/Finance, Marketing, Youth Centers,…
HUNTING -- Idaho will be keeping big tame hunters in suspense for a while. Results of special drawings for big-game controlled hunt tags will be available in early July on the Idaho Fish and Game Department drawings web page. Postcards will be mailed to successful…
WILDLIFE - Critters that spread pollen are nothing to sneeze at. The birds and the bees as well as the bats, butterflies, beetles and other insects that do this thankless work are a cornerstone to agriculture and more. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is…
FISHING -- Western Montana wildlife photographer Jaime Johnson could have written all fly fishers an announcement that it's time to come to Montana. Instead, he sent this photo of a salmon fly, looking like the cover photo on a gourmet food magazine for trout.
STATE PARKS -- Special activities at five venues are scheduled Sunday, (June 24), 10 a.m.-3 p.m., to introduce the public to features and recreation available in Riverside State Park on the west side of Spokane. The required Discover Pass will be available for purchase from…
BIRDWATCHING -- Janet Swinton of the South Side of Spokane enjoyed a rare birdwatching experience today -- from the comfort of her third-story bedroom window. This barn owl was perched on a tree in her yard early in the morning and was still there in…
TRAILS -- The hiking-biking-running trails blow High Drive on the South Hill Bluff are a wonder of volunteer enterprise, but somebody's going too far. A steep, unsustainable trail apparently built for a downhill mountain biking course, is eroding at the bottom of the bluff toward…
Rich Landers writes and photographs stories and columns for a wide range of outdoors coverage, including Outdoors feature sections on Sunday and Thursday.
