Life on the Outer Coast

" Waste not, Want not" part II

There were two reasons to go to Rust Lake, one was simply logistics, Mary and Barth were planning a trip there to look at options for restoring the lake and the other was the band of marble/limestone that occured nearby.

The second morning we set up off up the valley toward one of the carbonate outcrops. Fortunately it was a relatively obvious path, as I had managed to leave the aerial photos and topo behind in my hurry.

We crossed the creek at the second or third gravel bar, found several (14) poppies (not blooming) and further off towards the cut bank, several bones of a long dead bear. Long enough time had passed that there was moss growing on the bones (not fruiting though). Didn't see any knawing on the bones which seemed a bit odd. Thought that a large source of nutrients would have been pretty attractive.

Carried on up the river; through open meadows, another gravel bar with poppies, then dove into the scrubby forest. Not too far along, I tripped over something (very unusual) and saw about 4ft in front of me a very small, spotted fawn tucked under a blueberry bush. . It held very still for a time (I'm not here,really), then scampered off. Felt rather badly about disturbing it, I'm hoping that mom found it again.

Not too much further on, found more of the green appressed Nephroma on another Mountain hemlock and a smallish Sorbus sitchensis.

As we climbed (pretty gentle incline), the vegetation shifted from moderately productive mountain hemlock to mixed conifer interspersed with more typical muskeg/bog areas. The feeling was still of upper elevations; there was plenty of Cassiope mertensiana, Elliotia, and Nephrophyllidium crista-galli.

Like I hinted at in the last post, I had forgotten my aerial photos (I studied them, but how much was I going to remember?) at home and forgot that there was a small lake below the limestone area. Fortunately, we ended up on the open muskeg side of the lake (still had ice) and it was pretty easy getting around. We had a bit of a sun break here (may have been the only one of the day). Once around the lake, we went a bit further along the pass to Patterson Bay, before heading up the much steeper slope to get to the open rock. The rock on the west side of the pass was not carbonate.

Found Polystichum lonchitis and Asplenium trichomanes -ramosum at the base of the mountain. I haven't really decided what to call the place; is it a moutain? it goes above tree line, it seems more like a nunatak, but I'm sure that term should only be used to describe mountains above the icefields. Might stick with nunatak for now.

Going up the slope was interesting (code for slightly scary); I hadn't any prior experience with karst topography, but had read enough to be aware of sinkholes, but not how sharp some of the rock formations were. There was smooth rock, areas that were deeply vertically incised into channels by water (solifluction rills? Grikes?), sinkholes, column-like areas within sinkholes and really sharp mini mountains. Gloves would have been handy as would tougher rain pants. I managed to rip a few holes in my raingear clinging to the rock (I missed the sticky rock of Red Bluff).

From a brief conversation with Deirdre, it seems that the difference in weathering might be caused by differences in mineralization or metamorphism?

The P. lonchitis was abundant; and some of it was as large as sword ferns I'd seen down south. It was interesting that this fern was growing from the lower slopes to the top of the nunatak (in crevices only on top).

There was still alot of snow in large patches, most of which we didn't walk on; it was kind of difficult to tell if there was ground below the snow or if it was a "Snow field of death".

There were alot of interesting plants on the hike, including Anemone parvifolia, Saxifraga oppositfolia, Erigeron humilis, Silene acaulis and a few species of willows (including reticulata).

On top found Geum rossii on a few outcrops; abundant Pedicularis oederi and Oxytropis campestris (or some segregate). There were two species that I hadn't seen around here; Lloydia serotina ( a rather small lily-looking flower) and Thalictricum alpinum (not blooming). Both were growing in very shallow soil over rock. I was anxious to find the latter, earlier in the hike I was conjuring it out of weird looking columbine foliage. This species of Thalictrum is substantially smaller than the columbines, but the foliage pattern is pretty similar.

There were patches of meadow-like alpine plants; Arnia, Geranium, lupine, Columbine and Pink Paintbrush.

The going got much more certain on the top, it seemed that there was a mixture of rock types on the top. Despite the cloudy and frequently rainy weather, the view was pretty spectacular.

Saw a Rock Ptarmigan (?) still in winter plummage, RC thought that the males remain in winter plummage longer than females and kind of act as a distraction for predators.

I was rather relieved when we found an easier way down than the way we came up. I wasn't looking forward to clinging to the sharp rock while finding footing. As it was, I was grateful to accept a hand a couple of times over gaping holes.