Magical hikes for solitude in Northeast Washington with Holly Weiler

Long time WTA Trail crew leader Holly Weiler sits down with Jennie and Craig to talk about the diversity and solitude and epic hikes to do in Northeast Washington.

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 Welcome to the Washington State Hiking Podcast. I'm your host, Jennie Thwing Flaming, and I'm your co-host Craig Romano. Craig and I are happy to have you here. We provide practical and timely seasonal hiking advice for hikers, trail runners, and potential hikers and trail runners of all skill and ability levels that is helpful, accurate, fun, and inclusive. If you're the kind of hiker who likes a little elbow room, wonderfully wild northeast Washington might just be your kind of place. We're talking millions of acres of public lands to explore forests, peaks and hidden lakes where it's easy to find your own stretch of trail. It's a bit off the beaten path, but that's kind of the point. Spend the day hiking, then roll into a small town for a delicious and restorative burger and an ice cold beverage. Northeast Washington is the kind of place where adventure feels easy and crowds are hard to find. Start planning your visit today@www.wonderfullywild.com. I. Our guest today is Holly Weiler, and Holly is the expert on Eastern Washington, Northeastern Washington in particular. And uh, Holly, it is super exciting to have you with us today. Thanks for being here. Oh, thank you so much for having me. Those of you out there who have been listening, so a while, Holly and I, we actually go way back and I was trying to um, I think maybe 20 10, 20 a long time. And I have to tell you that Holly is a badass. Okay? Uh, so I mean, I've done 30 mile hikes with her. I've been out on hikes when she. Supposedly not doing trail work, but she is. I've never seen somebody deconstruct a illegal fireplace so fast. It's like the old Tasmanian Devil Nice. And the Looney Tunes rocks going everywhere and everything. I mean, you don't mess with this woman. She's, she's an amazing back country presence. And, uh, no, it's been great. I've, I've loved getting to know her over the years and, and we've done some great, adventures together. So glad to have you on the, on the podcast. Oh, thank you, Craig. , So Holly, great to have you on on, on the podcast and you know, , I've spent a lot of time hiking in Eastern Washington. All but I tell you, there's. I mean, there's nobody that knows Eastern Washington Trails better than you. I mean, rich Landers may, it'd be, it would be a, a toss up between you two. , you are my primary source when I need information on anything that's happening eastern Washington. And so many of our, our of our, um. Listeners here, are on the west side of the state. And I know that many of them, , are not, quite aware of just the diversity of, um, not only trails but just landscapes that, that are east of the crest. And I'm always telling, if you've only driven I 90 across the state, you are missing so much. , Holly, you grew up your, I think, fourth or fifth generation, uh, from that neck of the woods. So you, you know, you grew up in that area and I mean, you know it extremely well. What makes Eastern Washington so special? Why, why haven't you have felt the urge to come over to our side? So what makes Eastern Washington so special when it comes to, um, to hiking trails, landscapes, wildlife, the whole, the ho shebang. You're right. There is so much diversity available right here in Eastern Washington. So I am, I can't even remember how many generations in eastern Washington with my family and like my mom's side of the family is from Stevens County and I, I've always lived in North Spokane County for all of my life. And I, I just love how I can drive an hour or two in any direction and I can come across a completely different ecosystem. And, and you're right. For those who don't to get off I 90, I. Um, you don't realize just how beautiful it is. And so one of the trails that I love that's actually really super close to I 90, as you're coming into Spokane, maybe about 11 miles west of Spokane, is fish Trap, and it's just this big exit off I 90 and. If you take that exit and just go about four miles to the fish trap recreation area, you're in the middle of some beautiful shrub step habitat where you have a few Ponderosa pines. Um, there's some aspen groves there and there's. Wetlands all over the place. So it has a beautiful trail system, like roughly a 15 mile trail system. And it does eventually get right down to the Lakeshore Fish, Trapp Lake, but in the springtime especially, just beautiful wild flowers on that hike. And it's kind of more your quintessential, like this feels like eastern Washington, a little bit like the desert, but some trees available as well. But at the same time, and right around the same time of the year, I could drive just half an hour from my house up to Mount Spokane State Park and I can be in the Selkirk Mountains. You know, like Mount Spokane State Park is the southern end of the cell, Kiski mountain range, 5,000 foot peaks, and there are eight named peaks within Mount Spokane State Park. So, um, for the super adventurous, like it is something that I love to do. Maybe once a year, once every other year. I don't do it too frequently, but a day hike, looping together, all eight of those name peaks is a really fun personal challenge. But it's also possible to take each one of those mountains by themselves and it can be multiple day hikes to each of those peaks. And they all offer fantastic views, including my personal favorite. Up at Mount Spokane is actually Ragged Mountain out at, out at Ragged Ridge. Um. And it's an area where you can forget, you're in a state park. You feel like you're in the middle of the Selma Priest wilderness, which leads me to the Selma Priest Wilderness. So the far northeast portion of the state. I remember a few years ago, like I, I'm a crew leader for Washington Trails Association and I had some volunteers come over to Eastern Washington and we were staging out of the Selma Loop Trailhead. And when the, when the volunteers arrived, they told me that they were from the Olympics and they wanted to know where our pine trees and our cactus was located because that's what they were expecting. And what they didn't realize is that the Samo priest wilderness is part of an inland temperate rainforest. And so it actually really reminded them a lot of home. So they came from the Olympics and they ended up in the eastern Washington rainforest. Um, you know, Holly, I'm really glad you're talking about that because I think for a lot of people in Western Washington and maybe even in eastern Washington, there's this idea of like, it being more deserty, even if not cactus E. Right? So this. Part of Washington, like kind of Spokane North, especially over there. There are a lot of trees and I think that really surprises people sometimes there, you know, like you're saying, not necessarily expecting that. Yeah, and it's, it's the thing that allows me to choose, especially in the summer, we do get some hot weather and so I have this great ability to be like, okay, today is a, a cloudy or a wet day, so let me head out to the shrub step, or if it's going to be. A really hot day. I can choose a trail that has fantastic shade, lots of cedar trees, like one of my favorites, up on the edge of the Samo priest. Not necessarily the most popular trail up there, but Thunder Creek Trail that leads to the shauf divide the trees on that section of the trail. Just fantastic. So the first three miles is actually an old road bed, and then it enters this beautiful dark cedar forest and. On a hot summer day, that is the place to be. , listeners. It's a wonderful trail. It's in my backpacking Washington book. , It will blow you away because, um, you're gonna be going through this old growth cedar that again, it's not, you're gonna feel like you're on the western side of the state. Uh, that whole shed roof is, is amazing. The entire divide is an incredible hike. When I first came out to Washington, I was on the western side of state and of hiking and I, I, you know, getting intrigued what's on the eastern side and it was actually Rich Landers, his old, old book, the a hundred Classic Hikes in the Inland Northwest. I remember buying that and flipping through it at a campground and looking at the Samal priest wilderness, like wow. This place exists in, in eastern Washington. Uh, and there's grizzly bears in, in, in caribou, though the caribou aren't there anymore, unfortunately. Hopefully they'll come back. And then of course, wolves and all that. You really get a true wilderness experience when you're northeastern Washington. It's just unbelievable. I've had incredible wildlife encounters, I remember one. July or August, um, Saturday you and I did a 30 mile, the, the, you know, on the kettle crest we did the entire Northern kettle crest Ri and, and we never encountered a soul. I mean, that does not happen, you know, uh, in Western Washington. So to me that's always been been the lure. And then I know we've talked with Jenny the other. I find so fascinating that part of the state too is, is the diversity not only in the wildlife, um, you've got all your mega FA and all that, but your plant species are different too. You start getting that transition from the cascades to the Rockies. There's flowers there that I don't know what they are. , Trees, more tree diver, more deciduous trees. So it's very, very pretty out there in the fall too. So, and you mentioned the aspens, there's birches. Um, so yeah, I, it's, you know, there's. We, we, we, there's no shortage of things that we have to tell people to come out to Eastern Washington. What do you think are some of the trails that, that are not usually on people's favorites that would really, that would blow them away? Oh, that's a hard one. One of the ones that I love to do is to head up to Lone Lake, which is, uh, a little bit west and north of Republic. It's one of the places where there's a beautiful Forest Service campground at that location. Parts of the campground were built by the Civilian Conservation Corps. So there's just some really neat history. You can take a little hiking trail right out of the campground that leads up to Bigtree botanical area. But the thing that I really love the most about it up there is there have been a couple of times where I've been camping up there and I've heard the looms out on the lake. Um, so. I love the loons, like loons are. Yeah, it's one of my favorite sounds in nature. I've camped at that camp. Randy, you're talking about Holly and it's just wonderful. I love the loons and when I first started hiking around Western Washington, one of the thing blew me away. The lakes, they were quiet and. Again, getting over into Eastern Washington Swan Lake, but it's like loons and, and yeah, it is, it is magical. Well, you've mentioned the kettle crest and maybe the kettle crest isn't like the biggest secret, but there are just so many feeder trails to the kettle crest, and so that's been my thing the last few years is like I've certainly, I've hiked the full length of the kettle crest, but I've been trying to explore more of the feeder trails leading up to the kettle crest. And there are some fantastic camping areas up in that area as well. So it's, it's perfect for just a weekend trip and choose one of the dispersed campgrounds along the way and then hike some of the feed trails up to the summits. And so my favorite from a couple of summers ago. I explored the Barnaby Butte trail coming from the east side for the first time. Like I'd, I'd hiked White Mountain on the Kettle Crest multiple times. I'd hiked it from the White Mountain Trail head and I'd hiked it from Sherman Pass, but I'd never gone up the Barnaby Butte trail. And so I went up there and there was a chance of seeing the Aurora, which unfortunately didn't pan out, but I just took along an overnight kit. Not including a tent, and I just literally threw a tarp down on the ground on the summit of White Mountain and watched the stars from that location. And I didn't see a soul the whole time I was up there. Um, I did see a weasel. I was listening to the PICA all around me, and right at dusk, owls started flying overhead. And like swooping down very close to me. So lots of fantastic wildlife sightings up there, and I felt like I had the whole place to myself. And the other great thing about the Barnaby Butte trail that I didn't realize before I went. That entire trail is lined with huckleberry bushes, which ripen a little bit earlier than some of the higher elevation locations. So I was picking, like, I filled my Nalgene bottle with huckleberries on my hike out, and then I had snacks for the next day. Yeah. You know, it's funny you mentioned, but Barnaby, I, I remember you and I did a trail, uh, we hiked a while ago, and I went down the west side of Barnaby Buttes for the first time and never saw anybody, uh, and getting back to the east side, which I, which I, I've been up a couple of times. I, I'll tell you two similar what you said the first time I remember. Driving down the Forest Service road, I had to kinda wait because there was a big bull moose that wouldn't get out out of the way. So down below there's that wetland areas, so having a moose in that area and then one of the most disturbing experiences I ever had up there, up there all by myself. Sitting on the steps of the old fire lookout, just peering out at everything and hearing the most godawful noise I've ever heard in my life, it sounded like an animal in a leg trap. A leg hole trap. And what it was, it, it, it was mating cougars. Uh, and, and, and it is like, oh my God, I don't wanna get anywhere near these amorous cats right now. Not a good thing. Which leads me to the only place I've ever seen a wild cougar in Washington is in the eastern part of the state. The only place I've heard wolves hollowing in Washington is in the northeastern part of the state. A lot of moose, uh, encounters out there. Is, if you're looking for that, that megafauna you want to, for photographing it, you, this is the place to be and there's a, a great chance it's just gonna be you and the critters out there. So, uh, and oh, and I'm, I'm hoping one day we're gonna see a grizzly bear there, and I know they've, there's been sightings over in this, in, in the cell Kirks over in the Idaho side and everything. So, so that would be exciting. Have you, have you even seen tracks of grizzlies in Washington? Any, any hope you think of? Ooh. Yeah, no, that's a great question. So I, and as you're talking about that, it reminds me that several years ago I did a Labor Day weekend up in the, on the edge of the Selma Priest wilderness. So I was car camping, I was just staying at Gypsy Meadows, and I saw a lot of people while I. On the roads, you know, driving to and from the trail heads. But I was there for Labor Day weekend and so I was spending a lot of my time on trail. And in three days of hiking I saw six bears and only one person out on the trails. And that was Labor Day weekend. Uh, all of those bears were black bears. Uh, but one time. I was also up on the Sharif divide and I saw a track that I suspect was a grizzly bear track and I, I do know someone who helps volunteer with the biologist for the Sullivan Lake Granger District, and he was able to capture grizzly bears on his game camera and help report that to the biologist, so I know they're there. And I would love to see them from a safe distance of course, but, but in the meantime, it's always key. It's also fantastic to see so many black bears in the area as well. The first place I heard wolves hauling was in the Loomis State Forest, which is still the Cascades, but it's, it's the farthest east you can get in the Cascades over near Oroville and a sos and all that area. Um, but as far as I know, there are quite a few, uh, several packs in Ferry County and Stevens and in Ponder, but I have not, I have not encountered wolves up there yet. We've heard them multiple times while we're doing trail work, including summer before last, we were camped at the top of the Thunder Creek Trail and we heard a lone wolf howling up on the Sharif divide. And I've also had several trips where I've been on North Fork Sullivan Creek, which is one of the feeder trails up to Crow Ridge, and we've heard wolves howling from camp there. That would be a good, so yeah, they're in the area. I can imagine that North Fork, 'cause you're coming in almost from British Columbia and that whole area north there. I mean, it's just, that's solid wolf in bear country. So, so come on down. We want you to cross that border. Come on down. Um, yeah, that is so exciting. Holly, you're involved in a lot of trail building and trail maintenance. Northeastern Washington. I've lived in the state now for God, 37 years and, it's always exciting to see where a lot of new, and we've lost a lot of trails here in western Washington, the back country, but, but I've off, but I've often, uh, said that in the, in the urban trails we've gained. But I notice another place I've noticed where we've really been gaining a lot of trails. In Eastern Washington. It's, it the trail, particularly Spokane County. I'm really impressed a lot of the new parks and the trail systems that are happening there. Um, so I know you've been involved so anything you wanna share with us about new trails going on? The same thing working with, uh, some of the local tribes too. There's some exciting, uh, exciting projects in the work too. Yeah, there've actually been several in recent years, and so as you mentioned, tribes, we've worked with the Kalispell tribe, uh, on their property, the Indian Creek Community Forest, which is just a, it's very close to us. And it's a fairly large property that has, I think, roughly five miles of trails that are open to hikers. Now it's, it's a trail system that is not open to bikes or horses, but it does connect all the way over to the geophysical snow park, so it connects to some Coldwell National Forest land as well. So really fantastic trail system there and that. We just wrapped up the final piece of that trail plan last year, and also within the last two years. Mount Spokane State Park has the brand new trail 180 2, which is from the day Mountain Trailhead, so located on the west side of the park. And that's three miles that connects into the rest of the trail system. And so I was up there last fall, did a 15 mile loop out of that trail head. So really fantastic ways to just hike it as an out and back or a shorter loop or connect into other trails on the system and make it a much longer hike. And then the one that just got wrapped up at the end of 2025, it was Salty Ridge at my conservation area. So another one that, uh. It was an existing trail with many of these conservation futures properties. They were existing working forests or farmland and large tracks of land that when the landowner was ready to sell the property, Spokane County Parks was able to acquire it through Conservation Futures funding, and in that way enable public access. But with many of these properties, they had existing roadways from when they were, in this case, Timberland. And so with Saltiss Ridge, there was a fall line trail that went straight up and down the hillside. I think it was only three tenths of a mile long and roughly a 25% grade. So good luck hiking uphill. And tons of erosion damage. And so we worked with Spokane County Parks over a period of several years to develop a reroute that would keep the trail at a nice 10% grade that hikers and horseback riders and mountain bikers could all enjoy. So now that trail is finished. The big surprise with that one was that it was, it was solid bedrock and we didn't realize that. So I learned all sorts of new trail building skills as we early, that's, that's how we build the back east. Yeah. We chiseled that trail outta solid rock. It will, it will last for the next 500 years. Nice., It's impressive. You were talking about salty and everything. It's the type of place that you can very easily if you don't wanna rough it up too much. You know, stay, stay in a nice hotel, eat at nice restaurants, and then spend all day hiking and, and without going very far, I know the Dishman Hills another great place. And then of course, SBO can to the north ,. I really commend Spokane County for, for being on it because, uh, the pressures are there and they're, they're really serious about protecting a lot of that land. I didn't even mention Riverside State Park, one of our largest, one of our largest state parks is right in the city, uh, along the Spokane River. And there's so many good things to say about, about Riverside as far as your cyclist, a trail runner, uh, camp there. It again, you could spend weeks just exploring that one state park. So. So what, um, yeah, we're very fortunate in that we have the two largest state parks in all of Washington. Right. Right here in Spokane County. Right. Because Mount Spokane is currently the largest, Riverside is about to acquire the Glen property, which might bump it. And you're looking, and these are properties, well over 10,000 acres, a piece, uh, uh, on here. Mm-hmm. Or maybe 15. Right. What is Mount Spokane up to now? I, I've lost track. Oh, I may have lost track as well, but each park has over 100 miles of trails in their network. That's, and they're all interconnected trails, multiple trailhead access points. And so you could spend weeks exploring these parks and still miss some pieces. You're not gonna have flowers, but you do have western larges, uh, growing trees. There are aspen, uh, cottonwoods in, in the valley. Birches. You're gonna get some really nice colors. And then of course, the blueberries and the huckleberries, , and then also I find that. Autumn is usually the best time for wildlife. And it was in, uh, it was on the Mountain Misery Trail, uh, in, in the Blue Mountains, the coming outta the Waha tu canon wilderness where I saw this very, very large creature with a very, very long tail cross in front of me. Uh, and it was, it was a cougar and it was, and it was the only place in Washington I've ever. Ever experienced that. It's just an, an amazing to see that. Uh, and as you mentioned Holly, there are so many elk in that area and cougars love elk steaks. , So we've talked about the mountains and you know, Holly, you and I, um, got together not that long ago to do some, some hikes over the area, place that people don't think about trails, the Palouse, you know, so, you know, tell us some of the, the, the cool things about that region. I mean, there's a lot of cougars there, but not, you know, but, but not the quiet ones. So. The college student version instead The The wilder ones? One of my favorites in that area is Camec Butte and like just very interesting geography where this Butte just pokes up out of the Palouse. And, uh, covered in trees, but looking out over all of this farmland. So beautiful place for sunrise or sunset, like that beautiful golden hour light. Um, and yeah, just a, a very. Interesting little patch of that Native Palouse Prairie. I think that they say there's like less than 10%, perhaps it's even a smaller number than that of Palouse Prairie remaining. But Camec Butte is one of the places where you can still find that in the springtime. Like see those wild flowers in bloom. And it's another area where you might run into ticks, but like the thing I'd say about the ticks is it is possible to prepare for them, right? I always treat my clothing with Promethrin in the spring, and I reapply it about every six weeks or so. And it goes a long way to help preventing ticks, uh, 'cause I live here, so I have to go hiking in tick country. Um, and so I've just, I've learned that promethrin is a really great way to prevent issues with, with having the, the ticks come along as little hitchhiker on your hike. And that's, that's a good point. Your clothing, um, having, you know, pants and socks tucked in, you might look like a dork, but this isn't a, this isn't a fashion show out there yeah, my favorite new rare insect is the ice crawler. There is an endemic ice crawler population at Mount Spokane State Park, and I have found one, uh, there are entomologists who study them, and, uh, and so I'm always on the lookout. They're very rare to find, but I feel very fortunate that I've, I've seen one ice crawler. I have to look that up. I have no idea what that is. So, um, so a lot of our, a lot of our. Listeners, they're gonna come over, sample out everything we talk about. And obviously we talked about Spokane be in a great place, but they wanna get outta the city now more of, um, into the back country, particularly northeastern Washington. Where would you suggest,, for good places at the Bayside, for camp sites and for towns? Um, so if someone wants to come spend a few days, where should they go? Yeah, so for the far northeast corner, I love the Meline Falls area. Uh, I know that this summer they're going to be having their Bigfoot festival, so that's the other rare wildlife that we haven't really talked about. But there are a lot of Bigfoot sightings in northeast Washington, and they even have a bigfoot festival up in Medline falls to celebrate it. Uh, and there's a couple of great hotels right there close to Meline, but there's also fantastic camping opportunities. Both the north and south end of Sullivan Lake have developed campgrounds, and then there are dispersed campsites all along Sullivan Creek. And there're some of the fanciest, dispersed campsites I've ever seen. Like each one of those campsites has a bear box for safe food storage because of the grizzly population in the area. And so very easy way to access all of the trails that are up in that area. Uh, and then if I head over towards the kettle crest, my favorite places to stay in, like closer to town would be either the Kettle Falls side or else the Republic side. So. Both have fantastic communities and shops and restaurants close by, but very easy access up to the kettle crest. So those are some of my go-to locations. . I love Sullivan Lake. It's great. And Sullivan Lake warms up. At the end of summer with a sandy beach, and it's great after hiking and running all day coming down into that lake, um, you'll hear loons out on that lake. There's only a handful of cabins. Uh, it's gorgeous there. And then of course, Republic, one of my absolute favorite places, and some great. We're gonna have, , Bobby Whitaker on the, podcast talking about specifically about Republic and, . The rail trail, the fair rail trail, yeah. That he's been really, uh, instrumental,, behind, . And, the big city in between all this, and I, I say this jokingly, it's Colville and, and, and Colville is a great, is a great place. Um, you know, I, it might even be, is there a Starbucks there yet? I think there's a Starbucks there, so that's like the really big city. It, I know there's a McDonald's in Colville. It's probably the only one in, you know, so, so there might be a Starbucks there too. Um. No, that's another great place to be. They have a bookstore in Colville now. That's what I'm most excited about. Well, I need, I, I need to get, I tell you, so, so listeners, I have to, um, put in our shameless plug in here that Holly and I are going to be working together on the brand new edition of, uh, day hiking Eastern Washington. Uh, and Rich Landers is staying on to be kind of a sage, give us sage advice. So right on. That's gonna be cool. We, yeah, we've been. You know, we've been doing a, a lot of planning and hiking together, and, and, and this book's gonna be expanded because, you know, as Holly's has mentioned, there's been so many new trails, um, really excited and, and trails that I haven't gotten to yet. I'm really, really excited to, to check out. Um, so this is gonna be, uh, very, very exciting. Uh. Working on this, and I hope, I hope you're all excited about, uh, getting this book and then,, we'll go out talking and, and definitely will be up in Colville at that bookstore for sure. Um, so that, that, that's good news. , And then, yeah, those little Medline falls, that, that area is really cool and. Um, I believe there was a futuristic movie with Kevin Costner that was filmed there. Some of you, so some of you, some of you, uh, film buffs, if you're looking at it, is, um, it's an old company town. This is one of the few places in the state that you can, , kayak out to a waterfall. Uh, the, the, the p and I heard, did I hear some? They're, they're building some kind of trail system in there. I thought I read something somewhere. Oh yes. Yeah. So the, the waterfall is Peewee Falls. Yes. And for years and years, the only way to see it was to take a boat, canoe kayak, or a motorized boat and start up close to Boundary dam. You'd have to access it from the west side. And there's a boat launch there, and you can take a boat to the base of the waterfall, which I finally did a couple of years ago. Very cool. It is a very neat experience to paddle right up to that waterfall, but brand new on the east side of the Ponder River, there are now two big overlook trails, so short little trail. Really lovely. I think that they could, they could potentially be considered a DA accessible, I'm not a hundred percent sure on that, but very nice grade. Nice wide path. Beautiful overlook. So the one that is farthest south on the Ponder River, a little closer to Meline Falls is called Riverside Overlook. And then at the north end there's a Peewee Falls overlook and there is a brand new trail. Currently being built that will connect those two overlooks. I think it will be about eight miles one way. Wow. I think that's what I about. And that trail is set to open this summer, so that's exciting. That's gonna be really cool. Yeah. I can't, I can't remember where I read it might have actually been from, uh, the Northeast tourism people with the trail people, um, that we've been that. We're very thankful to sponsoring this program. Um, I think that might have been where I caught wind of this, and I, I am looking forward to that trail. Very much so. Yeah, Shelly did tell us about it. Yeah, I remember that too. Yeah. Yeah. So I'm excited about that trail. Another really, and in that area, while we're talking about that area and, and can't get any farther in Washington before we went to British Columbia, but have you ever been to the Crawford Caves up there? Because that's truly unique too. Yes. So for one summer I actually was a park aide for Mount Spokane State Park, and surprisingly, Mount Spokane State Park manages Crawford. Uh, Crawford is only open from Memorial Day through Labor Day each year. Uh. And cave tours are open to the public and the price of admission is just your discover pass, like it is a state park. So Discover Pass required for the parking lot. But aside from that, these cave tours are completely free, and I believe it's the. Fourth longest limestone cavern in Washington state. So that summer that I was working for Mount Spokane, I got to go up one weekend and actually do the cave tours, which was a very unique experience. Um, but yeah, that cave is fantastic. , I have not been in them yet. Another thing that people, will see if you spend some time there, and again, if you're on the west side of the mountains, you're used to seeing mountain goats, but on the east side, bighorn sheep in that area, um. Lot of bighorn sheep in that area. That whole Abercrombie area, um, I I is an incre incredible place. I know that's been one of the things we've always talked about. I know you've been really, really big about, uh, some of the trails that just are on the verge of losing them. And trying to keep these, these trails open. I know we're gonna have some of these trails in our, book to make sure people discover. And, you've, been part of actually reopening some of these trails and, why is that so important that we, we don't let, let some of these obscure trails and obscure part of the state just go back to nature, you know? My selfish reason for it is that I love loop routes or ways to connect trails in order to create a larger, a larger segment to hike. Um, and so I, I love the ability. To just go in different locations and connect to different trails. And it also really helps with that spreading people out when there's multiple locations to access a trail system. Uh, I think about Gypsy Peak and Crow Ridge, one of the absolute most gorgeous places in the whole state. It's about as far. North and east is, you're capable of going in the state of Washington, but to get there is really quite difficult. Um, there's the Sullivan Mountain Trailhead, which you basically need a truck or a Jeep to get to that trailhead. It's very difficult if you have a passenger car. Uh, there's also the bear pasture trail head. And that one is a relatively short access window. So the snow typically melts by the end of June, first part of July, and then that trailhead closes on August 15th to protect grizzly habitat. And so in order to get to Crow Ridge, especially if you have a low clearance vehicle. The best access is actually the feeder trails that are accessible much lower down on the trail system. It's a much longer approach that way, but there are three different feeder trails that lead up to Crow Ridge. So the first is Red Bluff Trail, gorgeous trail through old growth. Cedar, uh, has a tricky water crossing, so I always avoid it in June and July, but by late July into August, the water crossing is usually low enough. And I understand that in the near future there is a high possibility of that water crossing, getting a bridge. Oh, very nice. Which will definitely increase accessibility. There's also the holiday trail, which is located north of Meline Falls, and that's another one that you can access it right off the pavement so a passenger vehicle can get to it easily. And then for many years there was the Slate Creek Trail, and that trail has only been maintained now. Two times in the past 10 plus years, and it's on our trail maintenance schedule this summer. So that's one that currently, I think of it as being fairly inaccessible. There's a significant amount of downfall. The area has been impacted by two wildfires. But it's crucial to have these low elevation access points in order to enable those who don't have high clearance vehicles to be able to access that area. Because otherwise getting to Crow Ridge is very difficult. Yeah. Good. Good point. And both those places, Crow Ridge and Gypsy are, are in a hundred classic hikes book they. Classic hikes. They're amazing. I will tell you that you can get a passenger car up Sullivan. I do not advise it. I will tell you how we did it. Uh, I walked in front of the driver picking up rocks along the way, you know, moving them. Yeah, that's next level. Drive sideways, not advisable. We did get up and down. It was probably one of our, it should have been in card, in, uh, driver magazine for the skills. But, uh, don't do it. Those side trails are much better. Better choice. Yeah. The last time I went up Sullivan Mountain in my Subaru, I have a Subaru Forester. It's about as good a clearance as you can expect in a small SUV. And it took me, it's only 10 miles. An Sullivan Lake takes an hour. An hour, yeah. To Sullivan Mountain. It took me longer to drive that 10 miles than it did to, than it took me to drive home afterwards. Oh yeah. I believe it. To North Spokane County for sure. Yeah, because we, we were camped. Right down below and you're looking, oh, it's, it's 10 miles. Like it's gonna take well over an hour to get up there. So if I do it again, I'm bringing a bike. Yeah. A, a bike would be very, very smart. That's a good idea. Smart. Yes. Well, Holly, it's just about time to let you go. Is there anything that we haven't talked about that we need to talk about with your corner of Washington? I mean, I think the other one that I would highlight, because we've talked about some of the beautiful, very remote, wild places. Yeah. But there's also some fantastic stuff that's right next to the road. Mm-hmm. And so I think about every time I'm heading to the Kettle Crest, I love to just stop along the way and stretch my legs at places like Sherman Creek and the Log Flume Trail. Yeah. And the Groden Heritage site. They're just easy little roadside pullovers, Sherman Creek and the Log flume trail. Those are actually paved trails. Yeah. That's cool. But it's accessible right off the highway. Yeah. And so I, I always love to mention those ones as well because if you're planning the big hike, you might accidentally go right past that without realizing, , but there are some really nice. Short little ones. The other one that I love that's up closer to Sullivan Lake, every time I'm in the area I have to pull into Sweet Creek Falls, and it's less than a half mile round trip, but Sweet Creek Falls is gorgeous. Mm. It's worth a little side trip. Yeah, I am. I'm getting in the car right now. Oh, Holly, it's such a joy for me to meet you. I know Craig has known you for a long time, and just to hear more in depth about Northeast Washington and some of the awesome solitude that's out there. Thank you so much for being here. Thank you so much for having me today, and it was wonderful to meet you as well. Holly, I, I will see you out in Eastern Washington very shortly. We got some work to do out there. I can't wait for Yes, we do. Your, your book. That's gonna be so cool. Craig and I would love to thank wonderfully wild northeast Washington for being our sponsor for the month of June. Thank you so much. And listeners, thank you for listening. You can really help us out by leaving a rating. Or a review wherever you're listening to the pod. I know you hear this with every podcast you listen to, but the reason is it really makes a difference in helping other people find us. And the more people who find us, the more we are able to keep bringing you more episodes and get support like from our wonderful sponsors. So thank you so much for taking a moment to do that, and we'll see you next week.