Now think about this… nesting season is over, and Turkey Vultures only eat carrion to begin with, so these Crows are just chasing it to make trouble. This morning, a pair of Crows chased a defenseless Turkey Vulture over the meadow. Usually we might think the small bird was protecting its nest from a predator and cheer it on. We’ve all seen small birds chasing much larger hawks in the sky. You have to look twice to see it perched on a small leaf in the pond. While many dragonflies are huge, others are small and slender, such as this Skimming Bluet. This Common Green Darner decided to hover in place for a few seconds while reconnoitering the scene, then started dive bombing every other dragonfly on the pond. They sometimes come in marvelous colors, like this Eastern Amberwings, and if you are lucky, you might see one actually perched for a photo op. This is the female Common Whitetail, who doesn’t have a white tail at all. The females are often different than the males. Two shallow ponds in the middle of the meadow are homes to frogs and multitudes of dragonflies among the cattails! Dragonflies are fierce insect predators, and the larger ones resemble B-52 bombers to me. Insects are teeming in the grass and flowers, sometimes pollinating the flowers, sometimes eating the flowers, or being eaten by something else. Just imagine native prairies such as this one as far as the eye can see. But by August, the native grasses are taller than I am, and the Summer flowers, such as this gray-headed coneflower, are in full bloom. They said they had come in on the Cady Creek trail and encountered significant downed timber on that route as well.In the Spring, we like Meadowlark Meadow for the melodies of all the nesting songbirds. On the way in on Monday I chatted with a couple headed down from the PCT. But it is one of the 100 Classic Hikes in Washington from the new Mountaineers hike book so I assume it may start to get more traffic. I have no idea when this trail will be cleaned up. Some of them are minor annoyances but there are quite a few which slow things down. I did not count the number of downed trees but it seems like there were 30 to 50 of them. The problem continues along the crest of the ridge until the trail starts to lose significant elevation. But this time there was a lot of downed timber once you get a couple of miles out along the ridge. all the way back to Kodak Peak and White Pass. The views north and south are wonderful and you get to see where you've been. ![]() I've been down this trail a couple of times and really like it. On Wednesday morning we got up early and headed south on the PCT past Dishpan Gap and on to the junction with the Cady Ridge trail. That truely is a wonderful walk in the meadows. On Tuesday we hiked with light packs north on the PCT to White Pass and then back to camp. Bugs were active enough to be pretty annoying. Running water was available a few yards away. Backcountry or your backyard research, plan, share, and take maps with you on. Once we reached the PCT we hiked towards Dishpan Gap and found a wonderful camp spot about half way between Kodak Pk and Dishpan Gap. User created map: Cady Ridge - Meander Meadows Loop, ID L14KP, on CalTopo. The Little Wenatchee River trail was somewhat overgrown but not enough to make travel really tedious. This light weight cape is worked top down with 2 contrasting colours of Kauni Effectgan. On Monday July 25 I headed up the Little Wenatchee River trail to Meander Meadow and then on to the PCT.
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