Looking for Lichens up Mount Washington

 I had the opportunity a couple weeks ago to travel with Dr. Brad Kropp from Utah State University to look for lichens up Mount Washington. He's doing a lichen inventory for Great Basin National Park.

What are lichens? They are pioneering organisms that are a mix of fungi and algae. I always learned it as "Freddy Fungi took a Lichen (Likin') to Alice Algae." Lichens can grow in soil, on rocks, and in trees, and last year some researchers found about 50 different kinds at the top of Wheeler Peak. This year Dr. Kropp is looking all over the park. One of the target areas was the limestone substrate of Mount Washington.

The weather forecast was for 70% chance of thunderstorms, so we didn't think we'd get much time on top of the mountain. During the morning the clouds sped over us.


I learned some basics about lichens. They come in many sizes and shapes. Some only grow a millimeter or two a year, so they can be hundreds or even thousands of years old.


Color, shape, and location are clues to what species of lichen it is. Many, though, have to be examined under a microscope.


In the photo below are endolithic lichens. Endolithic means "in the rock." Most of the lichen is in the rock, and just a little is showing. How cool is that?


Dr. Kropp scraped off lichens to take back to the lab to examine. He noticed that there were a lot fewer species on Mt. Washington than on Wheeler Peak.


Speaking of the two mountains, in the foreground is the white limestone of Mt. Washington, and in the background is the Prospect Mountain quartzite of Wheeler Peak. Also in the foreground is Holmgren's buckwheat (Eriogonum holmgreni), a plant endemic to the Snake Range. It's not found on Wheeler Peak, but is found from Pyramid Peak south. The clouds sped past, but no thunderstorms emerged.

It was a fascinating day looking at lichens, and I realized how much I had overlooked them in the past. Most likely over a hundred species live in the park, and it's only over the last year that they've been given much attention.


Over the next months Dr. Kropp will identify the different lichens and then make a guide to them.

 If you'd like to learn more about lichens, here are two interesting websites:  Rocky Mountain NP page and Yosemite NP page .

Rainbows

 We haven't had our normal monsoons that we usually have in July and August, where the clouds build through the day into tremendous thunderheads and then display their mighty power for a few hours. Nevertheless, we have had occasional rainshowers that have resulted in some beautiful rainbows. Here's a sampling of some.

If you're out searching for that pot of gold at the end of the rainbow, good luck!

Our First Family Backpack

My husband and I agreed that the kids were ready to go for their first backpacking trip. We selected a short trail, about 5.5 miles round trip, up South Fork Baker and back the Timber Creek trail in Great Basin National Park. The trail gained about 1,700 feet elevation, but it was short, so easy, right? Well, we knew we had some work cut out for us, especially when we laid out all the gear we would need for a night out. We really had to carry that much stuff for just one night??

The weather forecast wasn't so favorable, with rain expected, but my husband and I decided to go anyway. I might not be able to take the night sky photos I was hoping to, but we could deal with a little rain.

We started out with a pre-trip photo at the trailhead. A few smiles, anyway!


We chose this hike because it has a lot of habitat diversity and spends a lot of time along water. We sure appreciate that in this dry country! The water means bridges, which are pretty exciting to us, even if they are only ten feet long.


We progressed up to a huge meadow. Desert Girl started with her backpack, but she didn't carry it the whole way.


We knew a large part of the backpacking trip would be just enjoying the trail, so I tried to do just that and not rush to our destination. I found the trail really beautiful and relaxing, especially as it wove through the aspen groves.


We took some time to smell the flowers. There were flowers all over, and one of the games we played on the trail was to spot flowers of different colors.


One thing that was new to the kids was filtering water. Before we left the stream, we refilled our water bottles. They were so surprised that you could use a little gizmo to make your water potable. It was also really close to this spot that I saw a marmot--a marmot in an out-of-the-way spot where marmots haven't been seen before. It's cool how they are spreading.


We kept hiking and got to the big meadow where we wanted to spend the night. It was time to go off trail and find our camping spot. This was also something entirely new for the kids, they were used to camping in established camping sites. We told them the criteria: flat, relatively smooth, and not out in the middle of the meadow or under the largest trees (thunderstorms were expected that night).

We found a spot and the kids abandoned us to go play on the huge granite boulders. They were delighted to make forts and slides and all sorts of other things. My husband and I put up the tent (a four-person backpacking one that I had purchased from Sierra Trading Post last fall with the idea of a family backpacking trip and weighing 6.7 pounds). It was only about 5 pm, but we were hungry so we decided to eat. We had brought convenience food, Tasty Bites, which weigh a bit more than backpacking food but we had them at home and they were easy to prepare.

Here's what Desert Boy thought about dinner:

Then it was pajama time and more play time.

It was so nice to be away from electronics!

It started raining, so we went in the tent and read. Then it stopped so we went out for an adventure hike.

As the sun set, the clouds turned gorgeous colors. We could hear a poorwill and saw nighthawks. Otherwise, we were all alone in our meadow. It felt wonderful.

The next morning I woke up (the tent stayed dry despite rain throughout the night) and wandered around taking photos. When I came back, everyone else was up and dressed warmly. We ate breakfast and played a bit, then decided it was time to go. There weren't any clouds in the sky, but more storms were forecast for the afternoon.

The wildflowers were exquisite. Here is some sedum with Pyramid Peak in the background.

The hike down Timber Creek was very steep but scenic. We quickly warmed up and started shedding layers. My husband was very glad for the hiking poles to help his knees.

We made it back with just one skinned knee. It was a really nice trip, and we think we'll try backpacking again soon!

A few tips for backpacking kids: pick an easy trail with little mileage; take lots of breaks; leave all the electronics behind; have lots of snacks; don't pack too much; but do pack enough to stay warm; be ready to explore!

The yellow-bellied marmot that greeted us on the Baker Creek Road.

Heaps Canyon, Zion National Park

 Back in June I had an invitation to go to Heaps Canyon, one of the longest and most difficult canyons in Zion National Park. I happily accepted, not quite sure what the trip would entail. I knew it would be long. We started hiking about 4:20 am (MDT) from the Grotto parking lot, switchbacking our way up towards Angel's Landing. We went around the corner and continued on the West Rim Trail as the sky gradually lightened, and then we were treated to a marvelous sunrise.

The West Rim Trail is pretty amazing, with rock blasted off to make room to walk in places.

We kept up a good pace, although I couldn't help pausing to take photos along the way.

We reached campsite #4 in about three hours, and then it was time to descend into the canyon. We left the well-maintained trail for scanty social and animal trails, and in just a few minutes reached our first rappel.

It was a bit scary looking down into the trail-less canyon world below. It was a bit of a desert survivor's conundrum. How could we survive this canyon country? Fortunately we had plenty of gear and good information about the route. But once we did the first rappel and pulled the rope, we were committed to about 24 more rappels and 10+ more hours before we would end up at the Emerald Pools.

 Another rappel later and quite a bit of hiking, we finally reached the first set of narrows. We donned our wetsuits and jumped in the water. It felt really good. The low the night before had been about 89 degrees, and the high was expected at well over 100 degrees. A cool canyon was the perfect place to be.

Many of the rappels looked something like this, a smallish drop ending in water. Sometimes the water was over our head and we swam after we got off rope. Fortunately wetsuits are somewhat buoyant, so it was easy to stay on top of the water.

After the first set of narrows, we walked through this massive corridor. Apparently sometimes it is wet and the sand is like quicksand. This time it was super easy to navigate.

Then we entered a second set of narrows. It was difficult to dry the viewfinder of my waterproof camera, so most of my shots have water spots. You get the idea, though, of the narrow canyons.

At the end we found frogs!

We still had another set of narrows to negotiate, and they were the coldest and darkest yet. Here's a spot with some sunlight where folks warmed up a bit. The third set of narrows was where I finally felt a little bit cold, but not uncomfortably so. I was in a 4/3/2 mm wetsuit, and I think part of the reason I stayed so warm was that I was really hot when I put it on.

After the narrows we had two dry longer rappels.

Then we changed out of our wetsuits, climbed up a slot to the little tree below where our fearless leader Bryan was standing, scooted down a little slot, and got ready for three rappels in a row that totaled over 500 feet and that would get us out of the canyon.

On the first rappel we couldn't even see the bottom, we were just rappelling to the tree below.

From that tree, we could see the tiny pool below. I rappelled with my normal cave gear, so that if I had any problem I could switch over to ascent in about three seconds. That's one of the biggest differences to me between canyoneering and caving--canyoneering is usually all down, no climbing rope to get back out. And you often don't need a headlamp (although I certainly took one!).

Here's Jenny, who was stationed at the tree to make sure we made the transition to the next rope correctly.

At the next transition, the bird perch, the pool looked slightly bigger. Can you see the people on the sandy beach? I think they thought we were crazy, appearing as little dots dangling from a rope.

I spun and spun on the way down, which made me slightly dizzy. It was a 270 foot rappel, mostly free hang, and quite beautiful. We had each person except the first bottom-belayed for extra safety.

It took awhile to get everyone down, but we did it in daylight, something I didn't expect. From vehicle to vehicle it took 15 hours, and was an amazing experience. I especially liked swimming in the pools in the narrow canyons. Although we were really tired, we managed some smiles on the hike back to the road. What a great day! Thank you to those who made it possible!