Life on the Outer Coast

Wednesday, June 27th

Hiking up Verstovia with the class was great for clearing my head. It might have been the time outside or perhaps it was the distraction of the first aid that was necessary to complete the trip. I sent one student down the hill at 500 ft because her inhaler wasn't helping her breathing (I didn't know that she had asthma), handed out a knee brace, one bandaid, watched one throw up and wrapped an ankle. All in all a successful trip. We were lucky to have nice weather again, it wasn't sunny, but it didn't rain on us either.
9 out of the 10 I started with made it to the grove of trees 60ft below the top and 2 girls ventured to the top with me. The class was somewhat mortified to be passed by a 6 and a 7 year old girl, but not enough to motivate them to get to the top. The two that did were rewarded with candy and dried mangos from other hikers. They also of course enjoyed the view.
4 of the girls hadn't hiked up a mountain before, so it was good to show them the possibilities, at least that is my rationalization for torturing them. They probably won't remember anything else from forest ecology except that they climbed Verstovia, well perhaps the Devil's club thorns or the bugs made an impression as well.
The lowest patch of snow from two weeks ago was gone and the main meadow seemed well on its way to being clear of snow. By the next group, it should be gone(? ) Cassiope mertensiana and Coptis asplenifolia were blooming at the top. Hope to make it to the top of Gavan tomorrow to compare the state of the vegetation and snow level.
One patch of Pellaea neesiana had sporophytes with stalks that were between 8 and 10cm long. I don't remember seeing them being quite that long before. Collected an interesting moss and a liverwort from the forested ridge just below the meadow.