Moscow Adventure #1: Moscow Mountain

We arrived in Moscow on a Thursday (more on Moscow in a later post) and clearly had to start exploring immediately!

Everyone kept telling us about Moscow Mountain, an almost 5,000 foot mountain just outside of city limits. It's really popular with hikers and mountain bikers, and is criss-crossed with trails. But because all the land is owned privately, the trails are kept intentionally vague and it is hard to find accurate information. Needless to say, we picked what seemed to be the most straightforward path and prepared to get lost.

The driving directions were equally imprecise (who needs to label streets anyway?) and after a few wrong turns we arrive at...the side of an unmarked road. It seemed like it might be the right spot, but there was no information to indicate a trail head or path. Being the brave adventurers we are (ha - more on being brave in the West later - it seems like there are an awful lot more animals out here that can kill you), we started hiking up the road. 

View from halfway up - it was steep!

There are all sorts of berries growing along the trails and roads here, but I'm too scared to try them without knowing what they are (huckleberries? marionberries?). I need to find a local to give me a fruit tour! There's also some plant here that has a really strange smell. We keep catching it on the wind but can't figure out which plant it is.

Like when we drove out, none of the trails or turns were marked, despite our directions saying things like "turn left onto Moscow Mountain road." We just figure that any time we had a choice we should keep going up. Luckily, it worked!

Our reward for a hot and dusty hike was beautiful views somewhat reminiscent of (a drier) Humpback Rocks. And, of course, pride in having successfully completed our first Idaho hike!

King of the mountain!