Beautiful Snow Queens

Day 160: I first encountered Snow Queens (Synthyris reniformis) in Pack Forest half a dozen years ago, and every year since, I've made a point to visit the same site as soon as I think they might have emerged. They flower in the early season, although their blooming period is fairly long and it's possible you'll find them in shady, cool spots later in the year. I've even seen them as late as August when conditions are ideal. While their colour can vary from white to a rich lavender, their most striking feature is a pair of purple anthers which peek out from the frame of petals, rather outsized for the diminutive blossoms. This little plant is easy to miss, the flower spike standing only a few inches above ground-level, kidney-shaped leaves tinged with red; so easy to miss, I might add, that on the way back to the car, I was surprised to find another patch of them less than a mile from the trailhead. I'd walked right past them in the morning.

The Stoopidest Trail

Day 189: Yesterday, I did an 11-mile invasive plant patrol in Pack Forest and took the opportunity to explore a brand-new trail which was apparently laid in over the winter. I'd noticed it on my last trip up, but didn't have time to explore. I theorized that it might be a new route to Windy Ridge, since it started about 500' from Kirkland Pass on the west side of the 2000 Rd. The old Windy Ridge trail has had issues with small blowdown over the last few years, so it seemed logical that they might have established the new trail where the forest was more stable. Indeed, the trail climbed up from the west 2000 Rd., gaining 150-200' before levelling out about a quarter mile in. Then, to my surprise, it started back down again. Expecting only a small elevation loss, I continued on, but it kept going down and sure enough, it debouched onto the EAST 2000 Rd. about 200' shy of Kirkland Pass. I'd made a half-mile detour and got nothing for my pains...no new lichens, not even an invasive! Shaking my head in bewilderment, when I walked past the trailhead on the west 2000 to continue on my adventure, I addressed it, "Fool me twice, shame on me! Not gonna happen again." Why did they go to the work of putting this trail in? Practice? Stoopid idea, if you ask me.

You don't go very fast when you have to stop every 50 feet or so to take a GPS reading and jot something down in your field notebook. I quickly tired of marking every instance of Digitalis purpurea (Foxglove, to most of you) and shortcut my entries by saying, "Sporadic occurrences of species from waypoint 200' south." Even so, I had almost 30 instances to put in my report (map, right), and it took me over an hour to write up. The issues were not all Digitalis, although the species accounted for roughly 80% of the total report; other invasives noted were Tansy Ragwort, English Ivy and English Holly.

My original plan had been to complete a particular loop off the 2300 Rd. (it branches off the 2000 Rd.), but when I reached the spur I'd intended to take, I found it signed as closed for logging operations. That's one of the problems with Pack Forest: it's "multiple use," and of course it's the University of Washington's Center for Sustainable Forestry. Much of the forest consists of plots where different management practices are put into effect. With the loop closed, I chose instead to continue on to "Pack Peak," the true high point of Pack Forest (not Hugo Peak, as many people believe). I took lunch there, and then swung back to take the Windy Ridge trail...the real Windy Ridge trail, which doesn't connect to the Stoopidest Trail at all.

Pack Forest Calypso

Day 179: After digging a 3' x 6' x 2' hole in my yard into which I inserted two enormous pots destined to hold tomato plants, you'd have thought I'd be too tired to do much else. The previous night when I'd gone to bed, I'd been thinking about devoting the day to Mourning Cloak hunting along "Butterfly Alley" in Pack Forest, but upon arising, gardening seemed the better option. Two hours later, hole dug and pots planted, I remembered I hadn't put out the mail. En route to the mailbox, a Comma (Green or Satyr, I couldn't tell) flew through my field of vision, begging me to follow. I took the hint, returned to the house and packed up for a five-mile walk even while questioning the prudence of the plan.

Pack Forest was busier than I've ever seen it, and everyone seemed to be headed for the Falls Trail, trying to escape the too-warm temperatures. Not me. Butterfly Alley is on the north portion of the 1000 Road. The 1000 intersects with the 2000 at Kirkland Pass, and the southern 1000 returns to the parking area. The two roads can be combined as a figure-8 loop hike, or the 1000 can be done as a loop all by itself. I figured if I was going up Butterfly Alley, I'd just continue over the top and back out the other way. I had great confidence in finding photo-worthy butterflies, but as it turned out, I saw only a couple of Cabbage Whites and a few small, nondescript moths of the sort which enjoy Coltsfoot flowers.

A botanist friend had written to me the day before to say that she had found Calypso Orchids at the site of the old Sunshine Point Campground at Mount Rainier. I have been monitoring the Longmire site, and knew that leaves were only just beginning to show. However, Pack Forest has a few Calypsos; in fact, one patch is only about half a mile beyond Kirkland Pass on the 2000 Rd. With the camera empty of butterflies, I decided to go Calypso hunting instead. Success lies in being able to change your plan on a moment's notice.

Pack Forest Surprise

Day 186: I had gone on a mission to Pack Forest about 10 AM and was coming back down from Windy Ridge, walking along the western portion of the 2000 Road with my eyes scanning the slope for a better example of Snow Queens than the ones I'd found near the trailhead. Suddenly, I saw something entirely unexpected: the bright magenta flags of two dozen or more Calypso Orchids on a steep embankment, so deep in shade that I had missed them altogether when I'd gone by an hour earlier. These are the first Calypsos I've seen outside Mount Rainier National Park. They have also emerged at Longmire and at Ohanapecosh, according to reports I've received, flowering there about a month earlier than normal.