Pack Forest and Longmire, Mt. Rainier 3/31

Pack Forest
After arriving at the UW Experimental Pack Forest near the foot of Mt. Rainier, we split into smaller groups to take a short hike/ walk before lunch. We began in a wet, coniferous area dominated by douglas firs (as identified by the many douglas fir pine cones littering the floor and lots of branches on the ground from blow down that exhibited the classic pipe brush needle arrangement), hemlocks (identified by the softer needles that do not occur cylindrically around the branch), and cedars with their characteristic bark that is more dark and easily peeled and the dipping braches that curl back upwards near the end and the very closely arranged needles in a sort of scaly pattern. The forest floor had a lot of oregon grape, and ferns, with the majority of them being sword ferns, but also observed some of the smaller ferns like licorice and lady ferns. After a little while of walking we observed a transition to a more deciduous part of the forest, dominated b alders being identified by the tell tale catkins present on the tips of the branches, and lots of big leaf maples, as well as relatively infrequent madrones, as easily identified by their peeling red bark with the smooth coffee bark underneath and their crooked shape. In this part of the forest the floor had a large amount of salmonberry bushes, mostly not blooming yet but some pink flowers were noticeable. We did not see many animals, although throughout the walk we heard various birds calling, such as robins, winter rens, kinglets, towies, chickadees, and others I could not identify and was not made aware of. We encountered a stream, and found several types of fungi on downed logs and some mushrooms in the wetter areas by the stream. We headed back to the camp to leave for Longmire at about 3.
Longmire:
We then took the 40 minute or so drive up to Longmire in Mt. Rainier National Park, and took a short hour long hike through a short loop that took us through a coniferous forest. There was probably one to two feet of snow on the ground, so there was limited fauna visible and alive on the forest floor, but we saw a lot of ferns, and came across two cleared hotsprings areas with prairie-like grasses. The ground around these areas was rich with iron deposits all around the nearby areas. I am assuming it was hotsprings based on the sulphorous smell and colors, and the steam rising from the sater. The loop we took went around these two clearings. There were many pines, such as the pacific silver pine, with other conifers common such as yew and douglas firs.
Species List:
douglas fir
hemlock
red alder
red cedar
salaal
oregon grape
bigleaf maple
osoberry
ferns
pacific silver pine
yew
madrone
salmonberry

Julkaistu kesäkuu 4, 2012 05:55 IP. käyttäjältä drwlyons