Outdoors

This week’s hot weather is going to ratchet up several degrees as high temperatures rise into the upper 90s in Spokane on Saturday through Wednesday, according to the National Weather Service. Spokane will remain in the lower 90s today and Friday before going to 97 on Saturday and 99 on Sunday in the core urban area.

Fly Fishing On the Coeur d’Alene River, tubers are in full force below Prichard. Your best bet for some uninterrupted fishing is early morning.

PUBLIC LANDS – The Nature Conservancy has purchased 1,280 acres of timberland from Plum Creek in the Manastash area west of Ellensburg and transferred it to the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife to be managed as part of the L.T. Murray Wildlife Area. This acquisition is the most recent in a project to eliminate a “checkerboard pattern” of public and private land and create large blocks of public lands in the Cascade Mountains.

OUTRESPOND – The benefits of living near an Air Force base with skilled helicopter rescue pilots and medics have paid off for Inland Northwest travelers and recreationists many times in all four seasons. Most recently, the airmen from the 36th Rescue Flight, answered two calls in a one-weekend blitz to help a hiker as well as a Spokane Valley rafter.