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Recording the Changes

After the Rising Eagle fire I established a couple of photo points. Originally I had three but I narrowed it down to just two. I made one post right after the fire and you can see it here. It’s been a year now and there have been changes. The pines and native shrubs have been replaced with many weeds and non-native grasses. Just about all of the pines died. Some of the shrubs have sprouted from their roots. These include serviceberry, currant, chokecherry and wild rose. There are bitterbrush seedlings. Snowberry is abundant. Apparently it reacts positively to fire. Last fall we had trees and shrubs planted with cages and irrigation. They have had nearly 100% survival! Native grass seed was also planted and its success has been somewhat spotty however where it’s coming in, it looks good. Some of the native bunch grasses survived the fire and re-sprouted. Also the tiny wildflowers that were dormant at the time of the fire survived and did well this spring. Larger wildflowers like lupine and balsamroot had a harder time but I think in the future they will come back strong.

Photo point 1. The boulders you see in many of these photos were completely covered with shrubs before the fire. We didn’t know they were there.

August 25 2014
August 25
August 27
September 7
September 7
October 23
October 23
December 1
December 1
February 24 2015
March 22
March 22
May 2
May 2
July7
July 7
August 3 2015

Photo point 2

August 25 2014
August 25
August 27
August 27
September 7
October 23
October 23
December 1
February 24 2015
March 22
May 2
July 7
August 3 2015

Mountain Summertime

If I could I’d be up in the mountains most of the summer. But that’s not practical. There’s work to do, a house and yard to keep up, and various other commitments in this life. Yesterday I played hooky from the computer taskmaster and headed to one of my favorite places – Slate Peak. I’ve made up my own hike and returned to it each year in mid-summer. Combining two trails, a bit of a cross-country climb and a walk down on a road I’ve come up with a nearly four-mile loop hike through the high Cascades of northern Washington. Last summer Mary from Montana joined me on this hike and you can see images from that day here. As you can see, it’s vastly different this year. Even accounting for the two week difference in dates the differences are huge. Yesterday there was no snow. Anywhere. Most of the little creeks are already dry. The wildflowers are far less numerous.

Here are the images from yesterday’s hike.

Down that steep talus slope, across the basin, up to the ridge to the next trail and then up to Slate Peak. Follow the road on the other side of the ridge back to the car.
Quit fooling with your pack and let’s get going!
Slate Peak
Oh gosh, she’s making another picture!
Looks like we’ve already gone a long way.
Gentian is one of my favorite wildflowers
I don’t know this one.
I used to know this one.
Paintbrush. There are so many variations in this colorful wildflower.
Paintbrush
Paintbrush
Painbrush
Painbrush
Mouse on a stick
Another one I’ve forgotten
Pretty umbel flower
Late for columbine
Pink monkeyflower
Normally this monkeyflower would bloom over a creek. This creek bed is dry
Downstream a few tiny pools for animals to get a drink
Waiting in the shade while I work my way slowly up to the ridgetop
This Common Raven has learned that people like to eat their lunch at the lookout
Sky thought she could put a sneak on raven
Raven simply unfolded her wings and was instantly airborne
Mount Baker, a semi-active volcano near Bellingham
Layers of mountains in the North Cascades
You can see a tiny view of Glacier Peak here. It’s another of our volcanic mountains.
North to Canada
Upper end of the Pasayten River which flows north into Canada
On the left you can see remnants of 100 year old gold mining operations
And looking down valley towards Winthrop you can see smoke from the Wolverine wildfire on the shore of Lake Chelan.

 

When the Blue Moon was Red

Once again we are faced with days and days of smoke-filled skies. There is a wildfire burning on the far side of Lake Chelan – one major mountain range away from here. When the fire blows up and consumes more timber, the smoke generally trends to the east filling our valley and lowering the air quality. Down valley, people say there is even ash falling. Of course, the folks in Chelan and around the lake are facing even worse air conditions.

Smoky air makes for dramatic sunsets and sunrises and also changes the moon. Last night I waited for the blue moon (second full moon in July) to come up and it didn’t. Finally it emerged from the smoky curtain far above the horizon glowing a fiery red.

Tiffany Mountain Wildflowers

We were at Tiffany for the peak of the fireweed (Chamerion angustifolium) bloom! This tall lavender-pink perennial often comes in after a fire. The Tripod fire burned there nearly ten years ago and the fireweed is still very abundant. I was surprised to learn that its pollen turns blue as the flowers mature. The dogs were spotted with the fine powdery blue pollen. Lots of the wildflowers had mostly finished blooming but we did find some colorful blooms to entertain us along the way.

Agoseris
Buckwheat
Paintbrush
I wonder how many species are in this image?
Aster
Blue pollen

Tiffany Mountain in July

It seems to be a tradition for me to hike to Tiffany Mountain in July. Earlier this year would have been better for the wildflowers and possible patches of snow but this was the soonest I could get up there. Yesterday MA and I and our pack of dogs made the short steep hike. It was a cool day, thankfully. There is nearly no water along the trail so we had to carry our own water and water for four dogs. We did notice early on the hike that three of them went off trail and came back with muddy feet. On the way down we found the well-used mud hole where they’d managed to wet their whistles and cool their toes.

There were quite a few wildflowers and I will put most of those images in another post. The fireweed was outstanding! Heading up the trail MA noticed that Sky had bits of blue powder, like eye shadow on her face. We determined that it must be some sort of pollen and eventually I found it on the fireweed. It looked like the older the blossoms, the more chance that the pollen was blue. It started out orange on the fresher flowers.

Sky found a stick that she was particularly fond of and Quincy soon decided he had to do everything in his power to get it away from her. He’d grab onto to one end and Sky would just stand there and hold her ground while he jerked one way and then another. After a bit, Sky would take off running and he’d lose his grip and take off as fast as he could to catch her. She’d slow down and then he’d grab on again. They had great fun. At one point, Quincy tumbled repeatedly head over heels!

All the dogs were pooped when we returned to the car and three of them had to share the back seat. It was a pile of pooches!

Here is a post from exactly three years ago about the same hike!

That last steep part
Sometimes they were sprawled flat on the ground
Nice views without any smoke columns!
You try to photograph four dogs
Sky photo bomb
Quincy
Trying to photograph that dainty white flower growing out of the rock
Frida
Luna
Stick game
Running with stick
Break time
Quincy with red flowers
It’s easier when they are tired.
Resting in the shade
Dogs and fireweed
Sky with blue fireweed pollen
Roger Lake. I photographed it before the Tripod fire, many years ago. I should find that slide and re-print it.