Out & About: Preregistration carrot offered by Spokefest

OUTDEAL – The organizers of SpokeFest, the annual September bicycle celebration that begins in downtown Spokane, are offering an early sign-up incentive:

Register by June 30 and you will be entered into a drawing to win one of four iPod Shuffles donated by Huppins.

Choose from four routes during the Sept. 11 event.

• 1- or 2.5-mile Park Loop and Bike Safety Rodeo

• 9-mile Spokane Falls Route

• 21–mile Classic River Route

• 47-mile Four Mounds Route

All of the rides and events start downtown and finish at the SpokeFair on the Post Street Bridge next to Riverfront Park.

Register online at: spokefest.org/

Biologist leads hike at Elk Creek Falls

OUTGOING –  A 2-mile loop hike to Elk Creek Falls led by Mike Borysewicz, Colville National Forest wildlife biologist, will be a great opportunity to stretch your legs and increase your knowledge of natural landscapes and wildlife.  

The free annual activity is set for Saturday.

Where:   Meet,  10 a.m., at the Elk Creek Trailhead at the Mill Pond Historic Site, a little more than 4 miles east of Metaline Falls on County Road 9345 (to Sullivan Lake).

Attractions: Old prescribed burn heavily used by elk, cascading waterfall, wildflower meadow and interpretation by a veteran biologist.

Details: Bring a lunch, a hat, and sturdy walking shoes.

Info: Sullivan Lake Ranger Station, (509) 446-7500.

OUTSKILLS – Whether you’re a church group leader or a solo adventurer, you can benefit from short summer outdoor courses in skills such as rafting and kayaking offered by Eastern Washington University.

Veteran outdoor recreation professor Paul Green is offering two special courses:

• Outdoor Leadership, July 30-31: Covers trip planning, leadership techniques, judgment and decision-making. Legal aspects of outdoor leadership are covered. Students practice skills, such as GPS and searching for missing members, during a field trip.

• Primitive Survival, Aug. 6-7: Classroom and in-field instruction in practical survival techniques for navigation, shelters, fires and much more.

“A lot of survival is making the right decisions and holding it together,” Green said.

“We work on that as much as the skills, like making a water filter from sand and make a fire with a knife and a rock, not a flint, a rock.”

Register by July 6: EWU Summer Session, 359-4222; ewu.edu/summer/

Salmonflies a bust

OUTWATERED –With the Clark Fork River a couple feet over flood stage last week, and tributaries roaring, the Grizzly Hackle Fly Shop in Missoula was not optimistic about fishing the fabled June salmonfly hatch.

“Rock Creek is unfishable, and that’s probably an understatement,” the shop’s fishing report said. “We might just have to day dream about salmonflies this year.”