Lower South Fork Skokomish with a dog

I left my home in Mason County at about 9am and headed for the Skok in my Jeep. It was raining when I left my house but the air felt unseasonably warm.

The drive was totally eventful until the very end. Just when I thought I was going to have the entire forest to myself I saw a car parked at the trail head and a forest ranger truck driving towards me. We never used to have rangers in this area, but now I see one almost every time I go out and I see their foot prints in the snow when the walk around my Jeep. They are looking for Guatemalans and they can pull over anyone for no reason at all because this is near the Canadian border. But they are not looking for Canadians! The ranger did not pull me over and there was no snow so I don’t know if he checked out my Jeep while I was on my hike.

I parked at the Lebar trailhead and started my hike. I always start at Lebar so I can avoid the switchbacks on the lower trail head. I like to warm up before I start doing switchbacks! I made a bee line for the area where I was told that I could find Marchantia polymorpha, at first all I could find was the great scented liverwort. Eventually however I did fine a complex thalloid liverwort that was different from the great scented liverwort. It was growing on a steep, wet west facing slope. There was not much of it and I could not see any reproductive structures with my naked eye. I picked a tiny bit of it and then did see a reproductive structure come out of the plant, it was black and kind of cone shaped.

Further down the trail in the Maple flats area I found a ribbon thalloid liverwort on a mature maple tree. The further down the trail but in the same area I found a red-tipped leafy liverwort on a fallen big leaf maple tree. The liverwort was about 35 feet up the maple tree before it fell.

Then later about 5 miles from the trail head I found another complex thalloid liverwort growing on a steep East facing clay bank. It may be the same complex thalloid that I found before, but there was a lot more of it so I was able to take a larger sample.
I had my lunch at the river, my lunch was dehydrated soup made of chicken, homegrown parsnips and old dehydrated chanterelles. My lunch was not enough to fill me up but I still had to share it with my dog. As I stopped for lunch it began to rain very hard so I put my rain pants on before I started cooking.

After lunch I found a bunch of winter chanterelles in the spot where I normally find summer chanterelles. They were growing in glittering wood moss or step moss. It was nice to be able to ID the moss that grows in this spot that I refer as chanterelle heaven. There were so many of them that I was able to almost fill my lunch pot with them in spite of their small size.

I hiked out on the 2353 road and thus made a big 11 mile loop. While hiking out on the road I found a huge clump of Usnea longissima that had fallen out of a tree. I put it back up into a tree but probably not as high up as it would have liked to have been. On the road I also found a Stereocalun spp lichen with apothecia. I’ve never seen one of those with apothecia before. Before I got on the road found a stick that had both Lobaria pulmonaria and Lobaria oregana on it, I’ve never seen those growing side by side before. They were on a conifer stick. I saw several piles of scat on the road, one of them had big bones in it, so I think it belonged to a mountain lion.

I finished my hike at about 4pm and I stopped at the lower trail head to use the facilities. I was surprised to find the same car was still at the trail head and was even a little worried. I walked almost the entire length of the trail and never saw these people. They had left one of their windows rolled down and the car was getting wet on the inside. On their dash they had a printed up guide for the trail, so I think they must be unfamiliar with the area. Three times on my hike I smelled marijuana smoke and thought I must be near the people in the car, but I never saw them so maybe it actually smelled a real skunk or even a stinky bear. I found someone’s trail maintenance tool on the trail and will try to find the owner.

In total, I hiked 11 miles and gained about 1,100 feet in elevation. After the first 9 miles I was really wet and tired and ready for t his hike to end. My pants, shirt and socks got wet in spite of all my new waterproof gear, but at least I did not get soaked. My drive home was uneventful other than seeing a white 4X4 driving way too fast on the 23 road near the trail head. I got home about ½ hour before it got dark. After I parked I noticed that oil is dripping out of my Jeep. I better put more oil in it before I take it out again.

After I had been home for about ½ hour my daughter noticed that my dog was shivering. She had not warmed up after the hike like I did because she could not take her wet coat off.

Publicado el febrero 18, 2012 03:12 MAÑANA por mossy mossy

Observaciones

Fotos / Sonidos

Observ.

mossy

Fecha

Febrero 17, 2012

Descripción

This is a Pellia neesiana plant. Collection number 101. This was about 5 miles down the Lower South Fork Skokomish river trail. Male and female plants are seperate in the species and I found both male and female plants but no plants that were both male and female at the same time.

I found two of these today the other one was just 1/2 mile down the trail.

Fotos / Sonidos

Observ.

mossy

Fecha

Febrero 17, 2012

Descripción

This was growing about 35 feet up a very mature Big Leaf Maple tree (Acer macrophyllum). The tree with its many truncks fell across the trail so I was able to investigate the mid level-bryophytes growing on it.

Dorsal lobes are smaller than ventral lobes, both sets of lobes have teeth. Ventral lobe runs down stem, dorsal lobe does not.

This is growing as a turf with the tips curled down. On side view a stem looks very much like a green millipede with a red head.

Lobes are serrate at tip but entire near the base. Dorsal lobe is 1mm x 1mm ventral lobe is 2mm x1.5mm.

Cells are round to ovate size 25-30um. Plant is up to 5mm wide.

Green ovate balls on stalks were under dorsal lobes at tips of plant, if they were gemmea they were very big as I could clearly see the capsule and stalk with a 60X dissecting scope. Slo I think they must have been young sporophytes, especiall since I read that gemmea are only 2 celled.

Fotos / Sonidos

Observ.

mossy

Fecha

Febrero 17, 2012

Descripción

Found lots of this today but this time I found both male and female plants growing next to each other. This was on a West facing slope near a small creek.

Fotos / Sonidos

Observ.

mossy

Fecha

Febrero 2012

Descripción

Small but good by the pot full.

Fotos / Sonidos

Qué

Pulmonaria de Árbol (Lobaria pulmonaria)

Observ.

mossy

Fecha

Febrero 17, 2012

Descripción

I was surprised to find L. polmonaria growing between two L. Oregana and on a conifer branch.

Fotos / Sonidos

Observ.

mossy

Fecha

Febrero 17, 2012

Descripción

A Stereocaulon spp lichen with reproductive parts. I've not seen the reproductive parts on one of these before.

Fotos / Sonidos

Observ.

mossy

Fecha

Febrero 17, 2012

Descripción

Huge clump that fell out of a tree. I found another conifer tree to put it back up into.

Fotos / Sonidos

Observ.

mossy

Fecha

Febrero 17, 2012

Descripción

A lot of these had apothecia on them today. Maybe it's the season?

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