Day 196: Well, dam! I went out for a little hike yesterday, hoping to find Corallorhiza trifida in any of the three locations where I know it to occur. Last year, my botany partners and I failed to locate any, although we admit that we might have come too late upon the scene. Based on my phenological records, it springs up at some point in late April through late May, so I thought to get an early start, knowing full well that I might come home disappointed. As I feared, I was too early, so I set a different goal: visit Secret Falls in its niche just off the Westside Road. However, I experienced another disappointment there. The falls was nearly dry, with just a trickle coming down the cleft in the rock, although the plunge pool (with hardly the volume of a standard bathtub) was full. That said, with plenty of snow feeding its source and record-breaking high temperatures in the forecast for the next two days, it will undoubtedly be flowing more vigorously soon. The only real success story of the day (not counting removal of illegally-planted "memorial" flowers in a site I've been monitoring for several years) was a visit to the old dam above Sunshine Point campground. There are bits of history tucked away in our Park if you know where to look! And because in all, I had a nice walk of roughly five miles, the day wasn't a total bust.
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