The Washington State Dept. of Transportation (WSDOT) posts live updates on Twitter/X/Xwitter. You can view the posts even if you don't have a Xwitter account with a simple search for "wsdot east twitter". Here is the full text of the most recent post from around noon today, 8/19: "North Cascades **A...

The northwest part of the Pioneer fire at Lake Chelan is active right now and wind is driving the smoke into Winthrop and Twisp River currently (I use CalTopo map to see both wind and fire activity). The Poorman/Lookout fire is listed as controlled on WildCad/WildWeb.

Nice poem! I agree that a lot of the fear around bats in general is misplaced and they are very cool animals. To clarify something about rabies in WA state in particular, here's a quote from the WA DOH: "Some states have other animals with rabies, such as raccoons, skunks, or foxes. In Washington, b...

If you don't already know this, it's important to be aware that bats are the only mammal in WA state that are known to carry rabies. They shouldn't be handled at all because a bite or scratch can transmit the virus and their teeth are very small, so bites can easily go unnoticed. Abnormal behavior (...

Our area is well outside the range of brown recluse spiders, so those can be ruled out. If you weren't able to confirm that a spider bit you, the most likely cause is a bacterial infection. Most people who think they have spider bites actually have a bacterial skin infection (staph or otherwise; the...