Troglodyte

Day 28: The site of yesterday's exciting lichen find was in Gifford Pinchot National Forest near Layser Cave, although lichen-hunting wasn't what drew me there. I needed to be Out, so after considering the options, I decided to go geocaching, and the closest caches worth the bother were three south of Randle, about 50 miles from home. I saved Layser Cave for last, hoping that the trail would be unpopulated so I could take photos undisturbed. While I succeeded in setting up without interference, voices coming from the vista point below let me know that I was not alone.

The Forest Service calls Layser Cave an "interpretive site." Okay, it has historical significance as a Native American hunting shelter, but I think the explanation of "Family Life at Layser Cave" romanticizes how this shelter was actually used, suggesting that the women and children tagged along with the men who were purportedly hunting elk and other game and set up housekeeping below the overhang. Any evidence which might have supported that hypothesis was removed by looters long ago (on that point, the text may be accurate), but I hardly believe it likely. Subsequent visitors to the cave have left the debris of small campfires and other material inside, and the entrance has been refurbished with a layer of thick weed-barrier cloth over which sand has been poured. That said, I saw no graffiti in the interior of the hollow which extends back only about twenty feet. It could easily have accommodated a hunting party of a dozen men or more. It faces roughly south-southwest, admitting sunlight to all but the most deeply recessed corners. I'm not sure I'd want to book a week-long stay at this "hotel," especially not in November, but as potential digs for a troglodyte go, Layser Cave is a nice little niche.

Peltigera Rufescens, Field Dog Lichen

Day 27: Of any Peltigera I might have thought I'd find at Layser Cave, Peltigera rufescens wouldn't have made the list. This beautiful silver-grey pruinose pelt is normally considered a "dry-side" species, but its dense rhizines ("forming a contiguous mass") separate it from any other of its kin. After I got past the "Oooooh, what's that?" stage of discovery, the next words out of my mouth were, "Man, have you got rhizines! You's a woolly bugger! And aren't you gorgeous!" Then, with a look over my shoulder as I remembered that there had been a couple of other hikers on the trail below me, I settled into the serious business of documenting my find. Of course I didn't know it was rufescens at that point, and since I was in National Forest territory (Forest, as opposed to Park), I had only slight reservations about nipping a 1" x 1" specimen for analysis at home in case there were specifics I'd only be able to see under the microscope. I needn't have worried. The rhizines were definitive, and bingo! a new lichen for my Life List.