First Full Day at the HJA (May 22, 2012)

 In the morning, waiting for one of the lab technicians, Jay Sexton, to pick me up I caught sight of these two black-tailed deer on the edge of the campground. A pleasant wildlife introduction to the HJA.

 Jay and I drove up as far as we could along one of the forest roads leading towards Carpenter Mountain where he had some to do. He took me along so I could get a feel for the tree species I will be studying as well as the lay of the land near the plots I will be working on. The photo above is standing along a ridge looking toward the Three Sisters Mountains about 40 miles away which are obviously not visible due to the cloud cover.

We drove for about 30 minutes and then hiked an additional 10-15 minutes to make it to where he had to work. This is a view looking farther up the road where it bends and the Carpenter Mountain trail-head begins.

Top: The Carpenter Mountain trail was still covered in about 2 feet of snow which was hard packed enough for me to able to hike along for a little while.
Bottom: Old Man's Beard moss hangs from a branch (on the left). In some areas this funky moss adorns everything in sight.

        

 By far the most astonishing aspect I have witnessed in the Northwest so far is the sheer size of the trees. Jay told me that in the HJA Forest alone there are an estimated 25 trees taller than 95 meters, and the largest has a base diameter of 2.76 meters! No matter how long I stand among these giants staring upwards I can't get over the fact that these are living, growing beings. Most of the trees don't even start branching until 50 meters up.

             

 Coach Taylor was definitely right, the water here is unbelievably clear. Here, freezing snowmelt and rain runoff (it has been steadily drizzling my entire time here so far) pours of the mountain tops. The sound of flowing water is ever-present.

Wildflower #1: At some point I will go through and properly identify all of the flowers I find, but for now I only know this is some kind of trillium (I think). Found this flower right along the roadside next to Jay's truck where we had to park due to the snow blocking any further driving. Also nearby our parking spot was a talus of large moss covered rocks where Jay said last week a pika (small furry mammal) was chirping at him, so hopefully in the future I can sneak a photo of one.

In the evening I decided to go for a walk when the rain had slowed to a light drizzle. Here are some canoes and kayaks that I have been told a man named Terry (I have not met him yet) makes himself completely off of his own designs and models...pretty cool.

At the back extent of the camp there is this large concrete slope which I have been told is used to artificially recreate landslide and runoff situations.

Heading out towards the trail I ran on in the morning I found these two black-tailed deer (probably the same ones from the morning) munching away in the woods adjacent to the path. These deer didn't seem to mind my presence but were bordering on paranoia in the way they flinched at almost every raindrop that landed. But, as Jay said, "nature is not kind to an introspective deer." 

Reaching the beginning of the path I ran on I took a moment to snap photos of Sword Fern (top) and a close up of Old Man's Beard (bottom). The Sword Fern gets its name from the shape of the leaflets forming what can be thought of as the hilt of a sword, this plant also seemed to be a preferred snack of the black-tail deer. 

Some shots from the trail I ran on this morning. Just so beautiful I will let the pictures speak for themselves.

This is of a stream bed which, although it appearing rather dry as far as streams go, is almost certainly an active underground stream. From the amount of snowmelt and rainfall this time of year all streams should be flowing at close to maximum levels, so Jay pointed out that any streambeds that don't have an obvious above-ground current are more than likely flowing strong just a foot or two beneath the surface.

It looked lonely.

The trail swoops down to the bank of Lookout Creek which is the body of water whose watershed forms the boundary of the HJA Forest. Lookout Creek runs to the nearby Blue River which then flows to the McKenzie River at the bottom of the valley. As stated before, the water is profoundly clear...and cold. I have heard that the Blue River Reservoir just down the road become warm enough in the summer months for swimming, but Lookout Creek, constantly being fed snowmelt runoff from the high peaks will make for a great natural ice-bath location even in July.

 Wildflower #2 (top): Found these little guys on a branch sweeping out over Lookout Creek where I stopped to take photos of the water. They were found on a branch featuring hardwood leaves which may be Big-Leafed Maple (but that could, and most likely is, way off). Jay told me every year they have a contest to see who can find the largest Big-Leafed Maple leaf and last year's winning leaf was 19 inches across.

Wildflower #3 (bottom): Walking back towards the camp along the path I came across a few of these flowers scattered in the brush. I love the coloration and spreading appearance to the petals. I believe that is Bear Grass surrounding the plant, and Jay pointed out the group of magnificently flowering Bear Grass along our drive earlier, so I will make sure to get a photo of that at some point.

Almost back to camp I decided to take a glance and see if my black-tailed friends were still munching away. Turns out the reason they may have hesitated to flee me earlier was that they were about to bed down for the night, which is how I found them on my way back.