Life on the Outer Coast

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.