Outdoors

The lone ranger is alone no more.

A wildlife photographer this week shared footage showing an extremely tense encounter between a woman and a grizzly bear seemingly intent ​on attacking her dog. 

A great blue heron munches on a catfish at Manito Park in this mid-June photo by Mark Stoeser.

Apparently, there are no brain eating amoeba in Lake Pend Oreille. Yet. According to Health & Welfare’s recreational water reports, the only water warning on the lake right now is about how many pounds of trout and whitefish one ought to limit themselves to per month (one and five, respectively).

Yes, I am guilty. While fly fishing is something I do a lot, something I really like, there are times in my life when I become a bait fisherman. Hang me by my whatevers. Go look for a rope while I finish this essay.

A familiar cow moose has been spotted in north Spokane for the third consecutive year, and this time, she brought something rare.

Washington wildlife officials will try to kill as many as two wolves from a pack in southeast Washington in response to a series of attacks on cattle.

A road that winds through one of the West’s most gorgeous national parks is open to cars for the season.

Li Ciavola trudged downhill through blinding snow and howling winds in a desperate bid to reach lower elevation. Behind him, attached by rope, was a sled filled with 150 pounds of his dying climbing partner’s gear.

Camping with boys is the same as camping with girls in a global sense. But there’s a world of difference in the details.

My daughters don’t care much for blood and guts, and that’s a healthy lesson for a Montana-born hunter-fisherman to learn.

When our kids were growing up, special occasions and vacations usually involved doing something special outdoors. My favorite Father’s Day treat was loading one of my daughters in the bow and making a splash in the annual Spokane River Canoe Classic.

Fly fishing

Mary Jo Stauner submitted this image on June 5 of a young squirrel standing on top of a fence post while exploring her backyard.

“Hello?” A voice echoed through the trees, like the afternoon sunlight streaking between the boughs. I was standing on a tree myself, a mess of woody carnage that had blown down in a recent gust – the kind that uproots and snaps behemoths as if they were kindling.

Last year packed a wallop for Washington’s mountains.

Washington State Parks is looking for community input on improvements to a 5-mile stretch of the Columbia Plateau Trail from the Fish Lake Trailhead south into the Turnbull National Wildlife Refuge.

My dad gave me an aluminum canoe in 1971 for my high school graduation present. It’s still in the family, mostly retired since we entered the age of Kevlar but earning its keep as a durable roof over our dog pen. Every dent signifies an early lesson learned, and there’s a lot of them.

The wolf serenade had started with a solo, a deep bass introduction to the wildest choral arrangement a human will ever hear.