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Quark Niece of Alvy Moore
Joined: 15 May 2003 Posts: 14152 | TRs | Pics
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Quark
Niece of Alvy Moore
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Mon Sep 20, 2010 9:47 am
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Of course, about 1/2 mile from the Park, thunder started rolling around. We retreated to a nice log, and had lunch before returning. After hearing a few more rolls of thunder on the way back, we felt better about not making it to Spray Park. Personally, I'm dumb enough that I would have ventured to at least the edge of the Park if solo, but that idea got vetoed. Though it's safer to have a smarter hiking partner, sometimes I wish I was with a dumb one.
I enjoyed the forest of Silver Fir, Alaskan Yellow Cedar (cypress), Mountain Hemlock, lots of Western Yew, and an occasional giant Douglas-fir. Not a lot of understory - I expected to see some saphrophytes, but I did not.
I'm not familar with most MRNP trails, and was happy to see Spray Falls.
The Mowich Road is in good condition. The washboard isn't too bad; I've been on much worse. After the deluge, the ribs got mushy, so on the way out, the washboard was even less of an issue.
A few pics; nothing stellar.
Creeklet False Helibore skeleton Spray Falls 2 Spray Falls detail Twisty Alaskan cedars, Mountain Hemlock Yellow cedar snag wierdness. I have a theory on this (or hypothesis, whichever comes first)
"...Other than that, the post was more or less accurate."
Bernardo, NW Hikers' Bureau Chief of Reporting
"...Other than that, the post was more or less accurate."
Bernardo, NW Hikers' Bureau Chief of Reporting
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Yana Hater
Joined: 04 Jun 2004 Posts: 4212 | TRs | Pics Location: Out Hating |
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Yana
Hater
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Mon Sep 20, 2010 10:28 am
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PLAY SAFE! SKI ONLY IN CLOCKWISE DIRECTION! LET'S ALL HAVE FUN TOGETHER!
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Quark Niece of Alvy Moore
Joined: 15 May 2003 Posts: 14152 | TRs | Pics
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Quark
Niece of Alvy Moore
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Mon Sep 20, 2010 10:38 am
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I want to act like a big shot, so I'll use "hypothesis."
My hypothesis is that the wood cells of this particular kind of tree and/or its bark (Alaska yellow cedar) are such that they break up differently when the tree dies and the snag remains perfectly balanced (straight up and down, not tipped) and does not fall. Once the wood cells dry out (or whatever happens when they die), the tree fractures in this way due to the weight change of the snag.
If the tree were not balanced, if would be recruited to the forest floor, and would decay as a normally fallen tree would do.
It's like columnar basalt, only different.
I'll investigate - usually what I do is bother the land manager's biologist about stuff like this.
"...Other than that, the post was more or less accurate."
Bernardo, NW Hikers' Bureau Chief of Reporting
"...Other than that, the post was more or less accurate."
Bernardo, NW Hikers' Bureau Chief of Reporting
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