Monday, August 27th
Departed Crescent harbor with Ryan and Melissa (biologists from Hopkins Marine Institute) at 6:30am for No Thorofare Bay. They are in Sitka to collect several species of invertebrates for genetic studies. We arrived at the bay just before low tide (-1.4ft). There is a tiny cove just south of the entrance to the bay that affords anchorage when the current is running hard. The current was definitely running, the entrance looked like the rapids of a river. Didn’t even cross my mind to try to enter the bay by water. There is easy access to the intertidal along the entrance and the bay via the forest in the small cove.
At the beginning of the entrance there was an impressive abundance of Metridium senile (Plumose anemone). The walls were covered with polyp to polyp anemones. Not sure I’d seen so many before. There was also much Halichondria panacea (bread crumb sponge) on the walls.
The central part of the entrance (visible once the white water had dissipated) was a forest of Laminaria bongardiana (split kelp), each about 6ft tall. I had only seen it stretched out at low tide before; it was rather more attractive waving in the current.
Past the steep walled part of the entrance, the intertidal habitat changed to pools, there was a variety of chitons eg. Tonicella miniata, Orange cucumber (Cucumaria miniata), and limpits. Inside the bay, just past the mouth, the habitat changed again, the bottom was coarse shell and sand and there were a lot of relatively transparent shrimp about 4 to 5 inches long at the edge of the water.

One of the organisms of interest was Strongylocentrotus purpuratus (Purple urchin). I had thought that the large urchins came in two varieties, red and purple. Not so, the largest urchins S. franciscanus can be red, purple or almost any variation of those hues. Looking at Kozloff, the test of the purple urchin doesn’t exceed 9cm, whereas the red is up to 15cm. The spines are also smaller on the purple (mostly less than 2.5cm) and the red urchin up to 7cm. Although the purple urchin was reported to live at No Thorofare Bay (probably by people who were as confused as I), none were found. There were a lot of the very large red urchins just before the entrance widened out to the bay. The sea otters don’t seem willing to traverse the entrance, too narrow?

Two hours past the tide, the entrance was relatively calm and around three hours past I paddled the kayak through the passage. It was interesting how long past the tide that slack occured. Have to check it out further.

The land side of the intertidal zone was rather interesting as well, I had ample time to wander as I frequently checked the skiff. The area on the bayside had a lot of yellow cedar was some impressive epiphytic growth. Lots of Isothecium cardotii. I did notice some of that species growing on the hummock just below a spruce, but it wasn’t on it… Collected several Hydnum repandum from the edge of the forest. There was a beautiful patch of Amanita vaginata developing. Really nice view of the separation of the universal veil.
A multitude of common murres, rhinoceros auklets and marbled murrelets along the way there and back. Starting to see a few more comorants again.

Sunny and warm.

August 25 & 26th Gavan-Harbor

Despite the less than promising forecast for Saturday, the clouds were well above the tops of the peaks when I woke up, so I talked Jeanne into a hike from the Harbor Mtn parking lot to the Gavan Hill shelter. The weather went from cloudy to sunny, so we spent most of the day on the trail picking berries and collecting seeds. I’m ever more convinced that the way to improve the weather is to carry full raingear and wear long pants.

Blooming: Aconitum delphinifolium, Saussurea americana, Senecio triangularis, Gentiana platypetala, Erigeron peregrinus, Saxifraga ferruginaea, Sanguisorba canadensis, S. menziesii, Elliotia pyrolaeflora, Heuchera glabra, Arnica lanceolata prima and Luetkea pectinata. Only saw one S. menziesii, all of the Sanguisorba I saw in the meadows was S. canadensis. I did get suckered by one Erigeron...it just looked different, but as usual it was E. pergrinus.

Collected seed from Hiericium triste, Aquilegia formosa, Veratrum viride, Lupinus nootkatensis, Geranium erianthum, Anemone narcissifolia, Valeriana sitchensis, Senecio triangularis, and Aconitum. Cleaning the seed was less of a chore than I thought it would be. Not sure about the ripeness of the Veratrum or the Aquilegia, but decided to take the chance in case I don’t make it up there again this summer.

Found another pile of ptarmigan feathers along the trail, but no live ones. Heard another red-tail while picking berries. A red squirrel was clambering around on the boulders, don't know if I've seen them in the open alpine before.

The truly and hopelessly beautiful Gentiana platypetala were open by afternoon. I hadn’t noticed or had forgotten that the inside of the corolla was white below the unfused portion. The other feature I belatedly noticed about the flowers is that tips of the petals were a rather exaggerated onion dome shape.

The Arnica on the list was from the view pull out just before the last push to the top. A. lanceolata subspecies prima is the updated name for A. amplexifolia. The key characteristics are yellow anthers, more than 4 pairs of sessile entire leaves, tawny pappus and basal leaves present at flowering.

Found two Sorbus sitchensis on the Harbor Mtn side of the meadows. They were both about 3ft tall at most, but both had diagnostic red hairs on the winter buds. The trees ordered for the park definitely aren’t what I had ordered, at best they are S. scopulina, but that is probably optimistic. I found one more S. sitchensis along the road on the way down on Sunday.
Collected some berries from Marge and Tedin’s tree today in hopes of growing a few for the park. Hopefully Sorbus is self fertile.

We ate a multitude of salmonberries on Saturday and picked a bag of blueberries (V. ovalifolium) before heading down to find some meatier food. The blueberry crop was abundant on the early blueberry, but I didn't notice any on the V. caespitosum.

On Sunday, I woke up to another sunny day, so I returned to Blueberry heaven with Molly and Cheryl. We had a beautiful day up there. Unfortunately, we had to be down the mountain by 3pm, it was very difficult to pull myself away. I collected 16 cups of blueberries by quitting time on Sunday. They ended up in the freezer until I can make jam on some rainy day.

The mysterious "alga" was at long last identified as Alcyonidium, an encrusting bryozoan. 100 to 130ft was a little deep for a brown alga. Finally, Aaron missed an identification. Makes me feel a little better about the multitude of my screw-ups. In his defense, the lophophores ( a ring of tentacles that surround the mouth) weren't visible. I haven't found too much information in the books that I have available. I did find references to the genus occuring in the Pacific Northwest, British Isles, Florida, and Antarctica.

Thursday I had the opportunity to use the man-lift to collect epiphytes from two spruces. We took it up to 35ft, not really that high in a spruce, but better than I've done before. For obvious reasons, I was limited to collecting from the side of the tree adjacent to the trail, but did get to look at the windward side of one tree and one that was more sheltered from both wind and light. The first tree was next to the Shark/Raven pole on the west side of the loop trail. I didn't find any bryophytes on this spruce, but an impressive cover of lichens. I haven't found the time to go through all of the collections yet, but a quick look(s) hasn't turned up anything new for the park. The second spruce was about 20ft past the shrimp pole near the Battlefield. The tree had a much sparser cover of epiphytes. Looks like the same species of lichens (without Xanthoria) as the first tree, just fewer of them. Did find Hypnum circinale and Ptilidium californicum on the top of branches near the junction with the trunk up to 35ft. Was hoping to get to look at few more trees, but the man lift was needed for Totem pole scrubbing.

Took the kayak to the park this evening, in my haste I managed to leave my binoculars on the beach. Unfortunately I didn't notice until I was reaching for them to look at the small ducks and shorebirds at the water edge. Teal? turnstones? Even with a kayak, I couldn't get close enough to see clearly. The truely unfortunate (?,they weren't that great) bit about the binoculars is that the tide was coming in...

August 18th
Bear Mtn: the second attempt
The morning weather forecast was somewhat promising, cloudy with a 20% chance of rain in the morning with some clearing in the afternoon and it was a day off for some willing participants in the poppy quest.
Peter, Mary Therese, Rebecca, Jeff and I started from the Beaver Lake trail and followed the flagging up the slope on the eastern side of the lake. Judging by the amount of flagging and the state of the trail, I’m the last person in Sitka to hike up this mountain. The forest was mostly Spruce and Hemlock. The slope was steep, the soil looked shallow and there were several tipped trees. I looked at the bottom of a few of the root wads, but didn’t find Schistostega pennata. Did find some interesting grey clay mixed in the rock (Phyllites? Schist?) under the root wad. I tried the tongue test for grittiness. It was gritty, so it was probably ash? Not as much yellow cedar on this side as on the slightly more gradual slope of the Bear Lake approach.

The trail traveled up through the forest, crossing some brush patches not too far below the subalpine. One of the patches had a lot of very odoriferous Ribes bracteosum. I really enjoy the smell of that Ribes, it also provided a more comfortable hand hold than the Rubus spectabilis or Oplopanax that was also available.
The clouds that we were hiking through got thicker instead of thinner as the morning went on. The rain started at about 1100ft, this didn’t brighten the spirits of some of my companions. For some reason the potential view from the top was a greater motivating factor in the hike than the plants to be seen along the way. Everyone agreed to go to the alpine, but they were rather adamant about not going higher unless there was a radical change in the weather.
At 2083 ft we reached tree line. In bloom in the first opening found Valeriana sitchensis, Viola glabella, Anemone narcissifolia, Cassiope mertensiana, Harrimanella stelleriana, Heracleum maximum, and Nephrophyllidium crista-galli. Rhytidiopsis robusta covered the ground at this bench like opening. Mosses of BC. lists subalpine forests as common habitat, this was close to the trees but was definitely not a forest at this point in time. Lawton says between 400 and 2500m, rare below 500.
The composites and gentians were not blooming yet, so I have hope for poppies on the next attempt.
Carried on a little way along the ridge through some rather dense clouds. Saxifraga nelsoniana was blooming. Collected some Cetreria (ericetorum?) and Stereocaulon with brown apothecia from the streams of rocks. Some nice clumps of Cryptogramma crispa in these rock streams.
We turned back around at 2300ft, probably just as well since I had some where to be at 5:30. Rebecca has promised attempt number 3 next weekend if the weather improves. I'm hoping that this hiking up this mountain isn't like my search for a glass rolling pin.

Did collect one Russula, as I felt the need to beat my head against another wall. This particular collection fits into species R. decolorans. The cap is orange to coppery, cuticle peels almost to center of cap, stem and flesh bruise grey, spore print is deep cream or light yellow, the taste is mild. Michael Kuo has an amusing commentary about Russula identification. http://www.mushroomexpert.com/russula.html.
Another site devoted to Russula that is probably worth investigating is http://asuwlink.uwyo.edu/~fungi/Russulales_site.html


Sunday
Drove up Harbor Mtn with Peter and Pat Raven. (I didn’t burst into flames in the presence of this botanical god , but I probably should have). I did get some good advice (and much needed encouragement) on how to proceed with the flora projects and a promise of an Epilobium key. He also suggested finding all of the plant species with a type locality in Sitka and collecting sets of specimens from the original collection sites if possible. It might be interesting, if it is possible to find the sites from the descriptions. I might need to learn some German.
Wandered around at the first view stop. Found Saxifraga ferruginea, Oxyria digynia, and Arnica amplexicaulis(?) lots of Epilobium ciliatum. Carried on to the trail from the parking lot. Up the trail, beautiful Gentiana platypetala. It looked a little too much like fall with the Nephrophyllidium leaves yellowing. Had to look hard to find some flowers to show the Ravens. Did find Pedicularis ornithorhyncha, Valeriana sitchensis, one Castilleja parviflora. I would have liked to show them the meadows, but it wasn’t possible given the limited time that was available.
The highlight came from the birds. A family of Ptarmigan was foraging under the shrubs next to the trail. Saw at least three, on the way back I’m fairly certain I found a fourth bird. I’m guessing that they were willow ptarmigan because there was an adult male present with the female and juvenile. If I just went by the plummage colors in Sibley, I would have chosen Rock Ptarmigan over the willow. Found and collected a bird foot and associated feathers beside the trail. Another ptarmigan? The feathers on the feet were more like feathery hairs than full feathers. The foot was about 2 inches from the back toe to the longest extent of the middle front toe. The foot is in the freezer until I can show it to someone more knowledgeable.

This entry is in response to a conversation that I had about the life history and habits of “Chicken of the Woods” or Laetiporus conifericola. When I was first introduced to this polypore, it was called Polyporus sulfurous, then Laetiporus sulfurous, now L. conifericola. What next? The species conifericola is defined as occurring in western North America on conifers. L. huronensis is similar to L. conifericola in utilizing conifers as hosts, but occurs in the east and has slightly smaller spores. Genetic and mating compatibility studies support its’ separation from L. huronensis and other species. The application of L. sulfurous to our local fungi was not appropriate as L. sulfurous is now a more narrowly defined species that occurs in the east forests on hardwoods. Mea culpa for all of the taxonomically incorrect lists that I’ve generated.
I did enjoy this Latin description from the publication with the original formal description of L. conifericola: Habitat ad substrato arbores coniferas, in parte Americae Borealis occidenti extrema
Tom Volk has a thorough history of the changes in nomenclature associated with this taxon. http://botit.botany.wisc.edu/toms_fungi/jul2001.html

Back to the prompting conversation, it wasn’t the usual one that I have with people about where to find this fungus and how to cook it, but concerned its’ classification as a parasite or a decomposer. The idea expressed was that it couldn’t be both. I couldn’t really think of a good reason why not, since the enzymes responsible for degrading the cellulose & hemi-cellulose would provide food for the fungus and result in wood decomposition. I believe that the question really concerned whether or not the tree has to be dead for the fungus to infect it I didn’t think so; since I was fairly certain that I’ve seen fruiting bodies on live trees.
A little research answered the question; spores invade the living tree through wounds, (caused by tree fall, animals, etc). The fungus infects the sap wood then moves into the heartwood of living trees. Apparently the fungus leaves the active xylem and phloem intact, so the tree is capable of living until decomposition reduces the structural integrity of the heartwood. Wind is usually the ultimate cause of tree death, bole snap probably being more common than tipping in infected trees. L. conifericola is also capable of decomposing the wood of the dead tree and continues to grow vegetatively for an undetermined amount of time before fruiting. Since the fungus infected a living tree, I’d call it a parasite. A legitimate point could be that although the tree itself is alive, the heartwood isn’t. This seems like quibbling, so I’ll stick with calling the fungus a parasite.
Laetiporus causes a brown rot (ie; only decomposes the cellulose which leaves the brown colored lignin behind. Cellulose forms the primary cell wall, so after this carbohydrate is decomposed what is left is the secondary material (lignin) without the subtending structure. That is the wood falls apart in characteristic cubical shapes with thin sheets of white mycelium between the brown remains of the wood.
I haven’t found any information yet on how long it takes from infection to fruiting, but I suspect a rather long time. One bit of research on decay after wounding suggests that it takes a rather long time, but didn’t discuss fruiting directly.

I found a list of tree decay fungi occurring in southeastern Alaska by P. Hennon.
On Spruce:
White rot fungi include: Phellinus pini, Heterobasidium annosum, Armillaria, Meruliius sp. Phellinus nigrotimitatus.

Brown rot fungi include: Fomitopsis pinicola, Phaeolus schweinitzii, L. conifericola, Antrodia heteromorpha, Lentinus kauffmanii.

On Hemlock:
White rot: Armillaria sp. Heterobasidium annosum, Pholiota adiposa, Phellinus hartigii, Phellinus pini, and Ganoderma applanatum.

Brown rot fungi are Fomitopsis pinicola, L. conifericola, Phaeolus schweinitzii, and Hericium.

Since most of the polypores that I find in the woods are cellulose decomposers (P. Hennon concurred with this observation) this prompts another question, does anything make use of the lignin? So far, I’ve confirmed that lignin is an extremely stable chemical and makes up roughly 30% of the forest soils and that some Actinomycetes can apparently break lignin down as can some fungi (white rotting types). Is the majority of the lignin from these decomposed trees another carbon sink? It might be interesting to test the ability of local soil bacteria and fungi to utilize lignin as a carbon source. They certainly don’t like corn meal agar. There is probably a way to incorporate ground up decayed tree in growth media.

P. Hennon raised some interesting ideas about the importance of Heart rot fungi in our forests. If most of the bole snap in trees is caused by structural weakness due to fungal infection, then these fungi are quite important in maintenance of a structurally diverse forest. I’ll have to start counting tipped trees vs. bole snap (with decay) trees on my wanders.
Are Heart Rot Fungi Major Factors of Disturbance in Gap-Dynamic Forests?
http://www.vetmed.wsu.edu/org_NWS/NWSci%20journal%20articles/1995%20files/Issue%204/v69%20p284%20Hennon.PDF

By the way, Chicken of the woods is good sauted and added to pasta sauce or omlettes.

Once again my search for sun and heat could have been accomplished in my own backyard. Maybe I should have paid more attention to the "Wizard of Oz". However, home doesn't have a Shakespeare festival or my father, daughter or brother, so it was time for a visit to Oregon.

We managed to squeeze in four plays in a three day visit to Ashland. I had seen all but one of the plays as least once before, but as each staging is different, that was just fine. Lots of plaid and music that was reminiscent of a jug band in "As you like it" (set in the 1930’s), more plaid, but with traditional costumes in "Taming of the Shrew" and an interesting costume style split between modern for the younger characters and renaissance for the older generation (Juliet's Mom most be at least 32) in “Romeo and Juliet”. Tartuffe was very funny, slapstick at times and ended with such a hard poke at Louis XIV that I'm amazed that Moliere wasn't jailed. The play was banned from public performances, but was performed at court regularly (although perhaps not in its entirety).

The saddest part of "Romeo and Juliet" (never mind the body count or lost love) for me it's still the exchange between Mercutio and Romeo on their way to the Capulet's party.

Romeo. Peace, peace, Mercutio, peace! Thou talk'st of nothing.

Mercutio. True, I talk of dreams, Which are the children of an idle brain, Begot of nothing but vain fantasy, Which is as thin of substance as the air And more inconstant than the wind...

Dreams are such nice things though...

I admit to being occasionally distracted watching the two outdoor plays. The first balcony seats have a great view of the big dipper and of bats browsing for moths. I might be the only person that associates Shakespeare with bats, they are an integral part of the experience for me.

I selected the following quotes from "As you like it" as they seem to sum up the action of the play.Two of them are probably familiar to everyone who has been tortured in an english class, one will probably never make it as a refrigerator magnet?

Duke senior: And this our life, exempt from public haunt, finds tongues in trees, books in the running brooks, sermons in stones and good in everything

ROSALIND: Love is merely madness; and, I tell you, deserves as well a dark house and a whip as madmen do: and the reason why they are not so punished and cured is, that the lunacy is so ordinary that the whippers are in love too.

Audrey: I am not a slut, though I thank the gods I am foul.
Touchstone: Well, praised be the gods for thy foulness; sluttishness may come hereafter...

The best and only from Tartuffe since we couldn’t find a copy of the play (even in French) was "Why is matricide a crime?" Again probably won't make a magnet or greeting card, but made a lot of people laugh, including my children.

Besides the plays and heat, I soaked up some of the flora. I had forgotten or never noticed that there are two common species of Quercus in southern Oregon, Quercus kellogii (California black oak) and Quercus garryana (Oregon white oak). The white oak is more familiar to me since it’s the one species that occurs in the Willamette Valley. It has smooth rounded lobes on the leaves. Q. kellogii has 3 toothed; bristle tipped or pointed lobes on the leaves. Most of the oak in Lithia Park were the black oak. The most abundant cedar in the park was Libocedrus decurrens (incense cedar). It’s the easiest of the common northwest species to recognize from the needle pattern. No subtlety in the elongate appearance of the side needles. I brought back a small branch to show students in the spring since Pojar includes it in the conifer key. I also collected a few of the rather ovoid shaped cones. Most were split in two, not sure if the Steller’s jays or the grey squirrels are responsible.
Besides Steller’s jays there was an abundance of Brewer’s blackbirds, mallards, a few Wood ducks and one flicker in the park. I didn’t get up early enough to catch any other birds. I did see an amazing number of Turkey Vultures along I-5, none of the harriers that my Mom and I used to count along the fences (we called them marsh hawks) between Eugene and Salem. Saw one juvenile Red –tail with very dark patches (in what would be the collar bone area). It looked a lot more like the hawks of my Oregon years than those I’ve seen in Sitka. Found a used copy of “Hawks in Flight” that I hope will clear up some of my hawk issues.

One last rhyme in honor of air travel courtesy of the Oregonian

What killed Amelia?
We can’t tell.
Her carry-on contained some gel?

My wandering kayak returned late this afternoon. It was nice to see it on the dock, looking more intensely red next to its white sibling. Had a strong urge to take it for a paddle tonight, but got lost in cooking and eating the halibut that Brian brought back. I hadn't really been thinking of the kayak as a fishing platform, but I've expanded my horizons. I have to admit that seeing Brian's fishing gear, including a hammer, halibut gaff and pole sitting on the seat of the kayak made me happy that Jackie didn't catch a fish. I had visions of Brian laying the halibut on the deck of the kayak and beating it with a hammer (this made me nervous), but I suspect that he holds the fish aloft and beats it senseless. Too afraid to ask.

The photos Brian took of the halibut and the lingcod on the deck of the kayak looked rather inspiring (the blood would have been lost on a red boat) as did the cooking fire on the beach. Inspiring of camping, not just killing. Brian doesn't bother with a stove, just uses a couple of rocks to hold the pot over a fire. I like the simple approach, but I probably would bring wine, coffee and chocolate. Botanical pharmacuticals should be a vital part of all excursions. I'm thinking that I need to take my new toy camping, hopefully it will be possible after the trip south.

I did claw my way through the tooth fungus I found on Sunday. The closest fit is Sarcodon calvatus (Hydnum calvatum in Arora). The most helpful comment in the Pacific Northwest Keys was that specimens don't usually match the descriptions... What I did discover in this exercise was that Dentinums are Hydnums and Hydnums are Sarcodons. Not too bad a change. I would have liked a photograph of this particular Sarcodon as it is a new one for my local list.

The feathers from the kill site looked like they were from a Western Screech owl. I was leaning in that direction, but not confidently. Found a handy web page with photos that helped. Despite having two injured hands (both swollen, from different forms of abuse, one nicely bruised too), the Bear lake hike was a good one. I'd like to spend alot more time in the area.

What I used to called Amanita pantherina is fruiting by the trail near the lake. It has a dark brown cap when young, when mature, the edge fades to yellow brown, while the center remains dark. The annulus is white, thick and almost skirt-like. The volva a series of concentric rings at the somewhat bulbous base. According to the Pacific Northwest keys A. pantherina has a more cup-like volva, so this one is either an unnamed variety of A. muscaria or a unnamed species. The Michael Kuo at the Mushroom expert site includes this type with A. pantherina until the genus treatment is complete. I looked briefly at Tulloss' keys , but was too lazy to do the required dissections.

I did look into another recurring mystery today (instead of working on my homework), the very large (for a liverwort) and colorful plant that I've collected at least three times is once again Mylia taylorii. I say once again because I 'm pretty sure I keyed out a specimen of this liverwort from the Pt. Brown muskeg. M. taylorii grows on rotten logs in open scrubby areas and muskegs (if not other sites). The green to orange to reddish leaves are unnotched and slightly concave at the base, the rhizoids were abundant enough to render the underleaves rather difficult to see.

Townsends warblers, robins, varied thrushes, and chickadees in the garden.

"Deploy the Advil"
Today's title was provided by Rebecca, one of the vaguely lost group of people with whom I hiked up toward Bear Lake. Vaguely lost because we didn't hike to the shore of the lake, but we did know approximately where the lake was hiding in the clouds.
We took the skiff to Medvejie Hatchery ( with permission we tied up to the floats) and walked back the road to post 72(? near the solar collector) and followed a flagged trail across a v-notch, through the forest to the muskegs then up to alpine. It was sunny up to about 1500 ft, then we spent the rest of the climb to 3500 ft in the clouds. Lack of visibility made us a little wary of climbing down into the lake, so we just kept going up. Saw quite a variety of fungi in the forest including Chicken of the woods (lots), Cortinarius, various Russula spp., Hydnellum peckii, a new Hydnum ( that I'm still working on) and the first king bolete of the season. Noticed again that the Isothecium seems thickest on Cedar on the uphill side of the slope, I guess I'll need to sample on this slope aspect as well.
Elliotia, Tsuga mertensiana andVeratrum, at about 500ft on this slope.

Seems like we found a Sharp-shin nest around 900ft. Heard alarm calls and saw two parents flying through the trees both on the way up and down the mtn. Also heard the juvenile begging, but didn't actually see the nest. Hopefully will get back sometime. Found a kill site not too far down slope from the nest, collected the feathers, but I'm not sure which bird was lunch.

We stopped for lunch at 2850ft, didn't sit too long because it was a little on the cold side. I added the fleece pants over the shorts and a rain coat. After doing a complete circle (fortunately small) we re-oriented up the slope and found a pair of hunters cleaning the skin of a mountain goat. They had most of the meat bagged and the skull completely cleaned. They left some bones and a few scraps that I'm sure will attract some attention as soon at they leave the area. They said that they had seen Ptarmigan and young near their camp and in the area where they shot the goat. I was hopeful, but only saw Ptarmigan scat.

Copious bear sign on the trail. At 3100ft found a bear bed (an oval about 1ft deep, 2.5 ft wide and 3.5ft long) surrounded by a circle of an impressive amount of scat. It almost looked like horses had been stabled in the area. Most of the scat was graminoids, I assume mostly sedges.

Continued up the slope to 3500ft level below at 4000ft peak west northwest of the lake (at least after looking at the topo that seems like what we did). We had about 300ft visibility at the most, so it was difficult to be certain.

Found some plants that I hadn't seen for a few years including Solidago multiradiata, Antennaria umbrinella, Euphrasia arctica, Sibbaldia procumbens, Sedum rosea, Gentiana glauca, Primula cunifolia, Pedicularis ornithorhyncha (both white and purple individuals). Brad found some Silene acaulis, but alas I didn't find any on the slope I was crawling up. Found a new plant for me, Montia parvifolia at 3500ft on a mossy seep. I really threw me, it was obviously in the Portulacaceae (5 petals, stamens, 3 stigmas and 2 sepals), but had small alternate leaves and stolon-like rhizomes. Also collected some Carex circinata and a viviparous Poa. I remember trying to key these out in years past. It doesn't quite fit through the key because the features are distorted by the young plants in the spikelets. The ones that I brought home mostly disarticulated in the collecting bag. Both Poa arctica and P. alpina are known to have viviparous forms, but no idea if other species do this as well.
The surprise for me was the Cassiope lycopodiodies. I don't remember ever seeing it or really ever checking for it. The scarious (papery/membranous) margins of the leaves is rather distinctive if a person looks at the leaf edges, but otherwise it is quite similar to C. mertensiana. I wonder how common the species really is. Have I been lazy? Another lazy habit I have is assuming that the Campanula in alpine is all lasiocarpa. Guess, I should start to check the sepals for hairs and teeth. We saw both today.
The Gentiana platypetala was blooming! I brought a trowel to collect some for the garden, but couldn't bring myself to vandalize the alpine.
Also blooming: Artemisia norvegica, Valeriana sitchensis, Veratrum viride, Aquiliegia formosa, Pedicularis verticillata, Veronica wormskjoldii, Carex macrochaeta, Hierchloe alpina, Castilleja parviflora, Loiseleuria procumbens, Heracleum maximum, Luetkea pectinata, and probably alot of other things I've forgotten.
Other noticables: Diphasastrum sitchense, Cryptogramma crispa, Umbilicaria sp, and a Cetraria (collected). Found one shrubby Picea sitchensis at 3400ft.

Did have some excitement on the road on the way back to the hatchery. A sow and two cubs came out of the woods about 50ft in front of Jeff and Robin (about 100ft from the rest of us). Fortunately she was running away from us and the cubs were following close behind her. She didn't look like a very big female (big enough) and the cubs were this year's young. We made a lot of noise the rest of the way back, but a group of 5 people seemed to be something to be avoided. We saw one other bear fishing the stream in the morning. I haven't seen 4 bears in one day that close for quite some time.

"High on Kayak"

After the thrill of paddling the new kayak, its a bit on the difficult side to remember the more mundane tasks that proceeded the launch. The three tasks that come to mind are attaching a piece of sacrificial wood at the stern along the last 10 inches or so of keel, deck lines and the back brace.

I wondered about attaching a rub piece along the entire keel, but Brian indicated that most of the wear was at the stern.

Attaching the deck lines was was entertaining, if one is easily amused by contortions. Having extendible arms would have been quite useful. We stretched the leather lines by pulling it through successively smaller holes (two to be exact). The holes that were drilled before the skin was attached had to be burned open with a nail heated with a propane torch. I was happy to be responsible for providing adequate light while Jonathon operated the nail and torch. My fingers survived, not sure about all of his.

What follows is the path of deck line attachment; the line was secured with an overhand knot and threaded through one hole from inside to outside, then through one hole on a toggle, across the boat and in through the hole, back out the adjacent hole, over the top, through the next hole in the toggle and in through the hole in the boat and finished off with an overhand knot. Forgetting to thread the toggles is an annoying error, and I'm happy to report that no one in our class fell victim to this bit of irritation. Threading was not to difficult for the deck lines closest to the cockpit, but darn evil on far set. I first tried just tipping the kayak on its side and reaching in, but couldn't quite reach. Next step was to turn the kayak upside down and crawl in. This worked, thanks to Scott for the idea.

Next task was to attach the loops at the bow and stern. The important elements were duct tape, stretched leather, a bamboo skewer and a strong belief in the possibility of success. It took me three attempts to generate an adequate amount of faith.

At some point in the morning, the holes were drilled for the back braces and one was put in Jonathon's boat. The rest of the braces are some place in transit, maybe consorting with the wandering foot pegs.

We cleaned up, loaded the kayaks on the trailer, drove out to Herring cove and in the finest tradition of Sitka events, dithered around waiting for everyone to arrive. This did give me some time to wander up a trail and hope for dippers. I didn't get past the first tiny falls, no dippers, but did see a Hermit thrush next to the creek. In the first part of the trail, found Carex rostrata, Juncus filiformis, Veronica americana, Carex aquatilis var dives, Dactylis glomerata, and Calamagrostis canadensis.

We did finally launch the kayaks, in a not terribly user friendly spot over the guard rail from the road, but it worked. No boots or tennis shoes in the boats since they could get caught on the ribs, so I went bare foot. The fish head and guts in the water was a nice touch. Were instructed to use the paddle as an out rigger behind the cockpit to stabilize the kayak as I gracelessly lowered my rear end into the seat. At first the boat felt quite tippy, and I briefly thought that I had made a huge mistake. This feeling fortunately went away within a few minutes. Brian did an impressive number of rolls that I would like to practice in the pool and hopefully never (or not too often) do in the ocean. I learned from his tool demonstrations that everything takes alot of practice to look that simple. The greenland paddle does seem alot more versatile than the paddles I've used before. I especially liked that I could hold just one end and use the bulk of the paddle to execute a potentially graceful turn. The other nice trick was attaching the paddle through the toggles (one end just across the mid line of the bow) to make an outrigger that allowed a very stable seat.

We paddled out and around the small islands in the cove for a couple of hours and then I reluctantly got out. The boat still seemed light, I could easily carry it upside down on my head to the trailer.

It was a little difficult to loan my new toy for the next three days, especially since I'll be south for the next week after it is returned.

The boat looks beautiful, but lacks a name. I'm kicking myself for not having the class sign their names on the gunnel. We will have to have a reunion trip next year.

Saw one small sandpipper that looked most like a Tattler on the shore under the alders on the island and lots of mew gulls in a tree on the small island.

Don't waste it on the floor and how long is your paddle?

The official day began at 8:30. I can't say that I slept in, but I did get to run to the Backdoor for coffee after dropping Brian off at UAS. The Backdoor and Theobroma seem to be important for successful completion of at least one kayak.
Slopped on the polyurethane on the top side. Chasing drips or being chased by drip demons? The top was slightly easier because of fewer facets and coats of goop. There was a slightly greater need for care because of visibility. I'm vaguely aware of putting more time into the bow since I will be looking at it. There was a small drip aka some snot on the stern left over from yesterday that adds that wonderful homemade look that was obviously lacking due to the extremely advanced skills of the builder...Brian periodically took over the smoothing, I think that he decided that he didn't want a totally whacked out looking kayak coming out of his class. The dyed skin is more prone to problems with the polyurethane so I was happy for the help.
Really, "happy for the help", should be the sub theme of today’s work. Most of the day was spent on the paddles. I should be very good friends with the block plane by now, but we are still merely acquaintances, perhaps uncomfortable acquaintances. Even the band saw and I are on friendlier terms.
The discussion of the paddle construction should wait another day since I've managed to forget most of the details of measurements, but I’ll plow ahead. The synopsis of paddle construction should include a reasonable amount of holding the paddle in the band saw like a pool cue, many central lines were drawn, and much fretting over planing facets. I suspect that it should also include measurements and shapes. All of the paddles began as 88 inch long boards (width?). Most of the construction involved gradually shaping the ends into beveled ends. I’m hoping that Scott took excellent photos of this. The first cuts created the elongated isosceles triangles at the end and the center hand hold. Subsequent work with the band saw and power planing beveled the face. The last shaping occurred rather ineptly on my part with the block planer, chisel and sandpaper. Anything done well was probably accomplished by Brian.
We were allowed a lot of time with the sandpaper (I’m usually competent with this tool) this afternoon. The red cedar is light in weight and very soft, I did put one mark in it with the clamp. I didn't want to spend too much time sanding it after I thought of the abuse it will soon receive. We finished the paddles with two coats of oil.
As the building portion gets less intense, it’s easier to get distracted with other things, eg. practicing with the bow drill and measuring head circumference. Did have a nice walk to John Brown's beach at lunch. The coast guard added a fence between the Searhc property and the road to the beach, so we had to do a minor amount of pushing through the salmonberry and cow parsnip. Didn’t get to spend much time there and still managed to get back to class a little late. Not too late or I’m sure that my cookie would have been forfeit.

Was inspired by the sunny day and the relatively early finish time to drive up Harbor Mtn road. We walked as far as necessary for Brian and Jackie to see their kayak route. The Dodecatheon, Pedicularis, Cassiope and Castilleja were still blooming.

Finishing and Stiching. "Trollope " just is too confusing a title, but it does describe the level of untidiness achieved by the end of the day (8 something?).

Day Five, although lacking a catchy title, was a rather momentous day. The first part of the day was spent attempting to tidy up the boat before beginning the process of adding the skin. We removed the ends of pegs and sanded areas that we thought would matter. I was also tortured by a block plane. For some reason I thought I had that tool figured out. Very wrong. Brian warned up that most of what we were fussing with was totally useless, he was of course correct, but we wouldn't have believed him. Allowing people to be compulsive about sanding for a set period of time seems like a good way of handling a rather natural urge to fuss over the project. I spent my extra time sanding under the deck beams. Despite the admonishment to not sand the lashings, I managed to destroy one set. It was easily re-done, but I did lose valuable compulsion chasing time.
The process of attaching the skin started with draping the untreated nylon evenly over the keel up boat (looked a little like a shroud). We started the stitiching process at the bow of the kayak. Or was it the stern? The thread of choice was unwaxed dental floss. We used push pins to attach the nylon along the keel and bow stem then Brian cut an opening (kind of slit-like) with a heated fabric cutter. The cut ends were finished by lightly melting them with a propane torch. Starting at where the keel joined the bow stem we over-lapped the cut edges and used a whip stich to join them. The seam continued down the bow until it rounded the bottom and formed a pocket. Next we unhooked the end we had just closed, moved to the stern and repeated the process. Back to the bow, the sewn end was refitted around the bow by bracing the boat with feet against a deck beam (?) and pulling the skin around the end (while laying on one's back on the ground). Brian did mine as a demo, so I'm a little hazy on the details of this maneuver. This seemed to take a variable amount of effort. I think that we used push pins to secure the skin on the keel at this point, then flipped the kayak over to work on the deck side.
Brian did the topside trimming using a batten to mark the center line in the stern and the deck stringer in the bow. Sam finished the edges of the fabric then we whip stiched up the center from stern to cockpit, then from bow to cockpit. This involved alot of pulling to achieve a taut deck. I added a second layer of whip stiching to pull one area in tight. The job was more difficult when the overlap of the fabric was greater. For my kayak the amount of overlap was less in the bow where the central deck stringer also made the job easier. We stopped stiching for the day at this point. Happily most (if not all) of my wood working ineptitude was covered by the nylon skin.
We also put foot pegs in Sam and Jonathon's boat (the rest didn't arrive). Brian did show the three unfortunates that we would be able to put the pegs in with the cockpit in place. This was a much more entertaining process watching Brian that it will be for the three of us. Hopefully, the missing pieces will arrive before Brian leaves next Wednesday.

"Chase the drips and make them work for you"
I suppose the subtitle should be "backdoor burrito"
Started at 7am in order to finish at a decent time. Today we stitched the combing to the skin. The thread used was a heavy black multi-strand nylon. Again alot of pulling was required to get the skin tight. I've rather sore hands tonight. We sewed through the 1/8 inch holes we drilled every two inches through the lower combing around one direction with one thread, then sewed through the holes in the opposite pattern (same direction around the combing).

Next we either applied hot dye/vinegar or hot water/vinegar to shrink the nylon to the frame (the penultimate tightening process). I was the only person who choose to dye the fabric. I wasn't really sure what color I wanted, just a variety of warm brownish red. Brian mixed red a little gold and a little brown, tested it on a scrap. Added more pigment, tested again. It looked good, so I painted it on as fast as possible since the dye absorbs best when hot. The floor, my lab coat and my wrists will probably be red for awhile. The color was a good choice, it was really quite nice when wet. I did get a little worried when it dried, it was a little on the light salmon pink side. The last tightening process was a heat gun shrinking the few spots that needed a little more tightening up before the polyurethane is applied.

The skin took a couple of hours to completely dry so we worked on the paddles. I think I'll relate the paddle saga next installment.
The polyurethane application was rather intense. It's a two part mixture that begins setting up as soon as it's mixed, so there is a certain amount of speed involved. Each of us had a 6 or 7 inch long beveled scraper like thing to spread and smooth the polyurethane. Today we coated the lower part of the kayak (we masked the top of the gunnel with tape). Brian poured an 8oz cup of the mixture along one side of the keel while we chased after him trying to spread the goop out evenly along the surface. We made boat length passes smoothing the drips and sags and trying to keep most of it on the boat not on the floor. We did each side once, then added two more layers of polyurethane several minutes (?) apart. I totally lost track of time, I could worry about was keeping the material smooth and covering every surface. I also had to be careful of not getting the polyurethane too thick since on dyed cloth that results in a hazy surface. Looks like it worked okay as the end result was really beautiful, the color of my boat looked like red mahogany. Hopefully, it will look as nice in the morning.

Also managed to finally come up with a working red cedar spindle and base so that I can practice with the bow drill in between tasks.

About 20 marbled murrelets, several rhinoceros auklets, glaucous winged gulls and a Bonapartes on the way home.