Life on the Outer Coast

"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.