In brief: Hikes, lectures target Ice Age Floods

GEOLOGY – The Cheney-Spokane Chapter of the Ice Age Floods Institute has several educational programs planned for October, and it’s not too early to sign up for limited spaces on two geologist-led hikes in the upper Grand Coulee area.

Both hikes will be led by geologists-authors Gene Kiver and Bruce Bjornstad. Costs are around $20 per hike. Registration required online at www.iafi.org/Events.

Oct. 8: Hike Northrup Canyon 7.2 miles, moderately difficult. Youths ages 12-16 must be accompanied by adult. Hikers will meet at Steamboat Rock State Park’s Northup Canyon trailhead at 9:30 a.m. A Discover Pass is required on vehicles.

Oct. 9: Hike Candy Point A short, but moderately strenuous walk, on steep trail constructed by the CCC during the depression years leading through a side canyon near the town of Coulee Dam. Starts at 9:30 a.m.

Lectures are free and open to the public as follows.

Oct. 28: “Tracking the Willamette Meteorite” by Jack Nisbet, Spokane naturalist and historian, 7 p.m. at the Lair Auditorium, Building 6, at Spokane Community College.

Nov. 18: “Catastrophic Flooding on Earth and Mars,” by John Buchanan, EWU geology professor, 7 p.m. at the JFK Auditorium, Eastern Washington University in Cheney.

Group names Track Chair recipient

ACCESS – An 18-year-old quadriplegic will get a new lease on his love for the outdoors with a special all-terrain wheelchair on tracks purchased by the Spokane-based Northwest Sportsman’s Club.

Boone Bartlome of Kuna, Idaho, will be presented with a battery-powered vehicle from Pennsylvania-based Track Chair company on Saturday.

Bartlome lost his ability to walk after being injured in a high school football game.

The club raised more than $15,000 for the highly mobile unit during its annual winter fundraising banquet. S-R columnist Doug Clark highlighted the effort in January.

Jamie Belknap, a recent graduate from Eastern Washington with a major in Early Childhood Education, organized the Track Chair portion of the fundraiser for the club.

Belknap said she wanted to raise awareness for “the young athletes that were outdoors with their buddies at one time doing what most of us take for granted and now can’t even get on a dock to watch fishing” because typical wheelchairs have limited mobility.

Fishtrap Lake trail work party

TRAILS – For the second year, volunteers from various groups will be putting their muscle into building a new eight-mile loop trail at the Fishtrap Lake Recreation Area on Saturday.

Others are invited to join in the National Public Lands Day project organized by the U.S. Bureau of Land Management to improve multi-use trails at the popular public lands destination east of Sprague.

Groups that have been working on the trails include hikers, horse riders and mountain bikers.

Workers should arrive at 8 a.m. at Folsom Farm parking lot for treats before heading out to work areas until shortly after noon, said Lynn Smith, volunteer coordinator for the Spokane Mountaineers.

Volunteers need gloves, sturdy shoes and a day pack with water and other clothes and gear they’d normally need for a day out on a trail, he said.

From Spokane, take I-90 west and exit the freeway on Fishtrap Exit 254. Turn left over the freeway and drive 2.5 miles on Sprague Highway. Turn left on Fishtrap Road and drive 0.8 mile. Turn left on the gravel Folsom Farm Road and drive 0.5 mile to the parking area.

Sign-up for the project in advance to be counted in for snacks, lunch and beverages by emailing Steve Smith, BLM’s outdoor recreation planner for the Spokane region, sasmith@blm.gov.