Groups lead way on hikes

Three regional conservation groups will begin series of guided group hikes next weekend to introduce the public to choice roadless areas that are candidates for wilderness designation.

Check their Web sites for a schedule of hikes that will continue through summer.

Friends of the Scotchman Peaks Wilderness are focusing on routes in the Cabinet Mountains just north and northeast of Lake Pend Oreille where they are campaigning to have an 88,000-acre roadless area declared as wilderness.

The group will kick off the summer series:

•Saturday – Four-mile hike on Delyle Ridge to watch sun set and moon rise over Clark Fork Delta. Contact Jacob Styer, (208) 265-7206, e-mail jacobstyer@yahoo.com.

•Next Sunday – Seven-mile strenuous hike up Scotchman Peak, highest point in Bonner County. Contact Jim Mellen, (208) 265-5261.

More info: www.scotchman peaks.org.

Conservation Northwest is focusing on the Columbia Highlands region from the Kettle Range east to the Sullivan Lake area.

The group’s first hikes this season include:

•Saturday – Four-mile moderately easy family hike to Elk Creek Falls near Sullivan Lake. Day-long trip is complete with a car pool leaving Spokane at 9 a.m.

A $10 donation is requested at sign-up.

•June 13 – Nine-mile difficult hike through the Thirteenmile Roadless area in the Colville Forest, south of Republic.

Preregister: www.conservation nw.org/hikes09

Idaho Conservation League is organizing 11 hikes this summer in the Selkirks and Cabinets. The first will be:

• Next Sunday – A strenuous 7-mile hike nearSandpoint on the Mickinnick Trail to points overlooking Lake Pend Oreille and Cabinet Mountains.

Contact: Sandpoint field office, (208) 265-9565; www.wildidaho.org .

Friends of the Clearwater and Native Plant Society members will spend Saturday hiking along the Clearwater and Selway Rivers. Meet 7:30 a.m. at Moscow’s Eastside Market, south parking lot.