The Sun Stands Still

Tonight marks the northern hemisphere's winter solstice. The season of Seasonal Affected Disorder is almost behind us. Though many of my friends up north won't see spring for several long, cold months, it is coming. Today's snow in the US's northern corners (and rain here in the mid-Atlantic) is making kayakers and anadromous fish super excited for the April thaw.

Though this past Wednesday wasn't the longest of the year it felt that way for me. I departed from Seattle as a snow storm loomed over the city, only to be delayed several hours in Denver, before finally arriving in Philadelphia sometime around 230 that night. Which was somehow 45 minutes earlier then the airline predicted thanks to a pretty stiff tailwind and alot of really fun turbulence.

The previous several posts show some of my favorite pictures from the last several weeks. They are primarily from northern California. The bearded, often blurry guy is me, the big things behind me are Sequoia sempervirens trunks. Thank you to everyone who followed, fed, housed, hiked, and shared my time out west. I'm thinking about keeping this blog running into the spring--so keep checking in.


A parting holiday image--imagine this guy popping out of your chimney

Happy Solstice!

Various looks at the Pacific Coast

Good little Corolla

A hole in the sky

More tree hugging, I couldn't resist.
The opening in the canopy was created by a tree, like the one I'm getting to know, falling over .






















Don't forget our seedless friends!

Really big trees

I know I'm a tree hugger--how could you not be with these giants around.

Pictures from the West I

Sunset

Snow and cold-- not something the city of Seattle is prepared for. On Saturday night, before I was supposed to head out towards the Olympic coast ice and snow blew into Seattle and the coldest stretch of December weather in 20 years settled onto the city of hills, palm trees, and unplowed streets. Though only an inch or two of the white stuff covered the ground the city ground to a halt. Children sledded down muddy slopes while their excited parents documented the winter wonder land. The cold weather brought sunshine to the city and you could easily see the snow covered peaks on the Cascades, Olympics,and Mt. Rainier from any high point in the city.

The only parts of western Washington that weren't stopped by the light snow fall were up north. So on Sunday that's where I headed. Sadly the Olympics will have to wait for a return visit in warmer weather. Though I did enjoy the few days I spent up in Skagit County, where clear cuts dotted the hillsides and steelhead trout sat in fish passage facilities--showing the other side of the "wild" west. The frigid air and white mountains up north reminded me of Maine and reinvigorated my love for winter weather, weather I wont feel much this year. In March I will be heading out to a job with the Great Basin Institute in Las Vegas and the deserts of Nevada finishing after winter has left the east.

Today, my last in Seattle, was spent inside of an amazing organic chocolate factory--I'm still hyperactive from all of the free samples.

One more night in the city--then an early afternoon flight back east.

Patchy Sunshine

Been a while since I last posted. Since arriving Monday night I've been enjoying the rainy weather of western Washington. I've spent alot of time hanging around the city and checking out the University. The rainy weather has postponed my camping trip to the Olympic coast until tomorrow afternoon when it looks like we'll have some fair weather. I've had some chances to get away from the city. Thursday I went up into the northern cascades for some wet hiking through virgin forests of Douglas fir, western red cedar, and sitka spruce. The trail went through the Mount Baker-Snoqualmie National Forest in the Boulder River wilderness area. Through breaks in the forest you could see the snow covered peaks on the cascades and the aquamarine waterfalls of the creek below. More great mountain lion country, but still no sign of the big cats.

Tonight I'm invited to a botany potluck with a bunch of grad students from UW. Then if the weather holds off to the Olympics until Tuesday--then home to Jersey by late Wednesday night.

The long trip north

23 hours on an amtrak train was no where near as bad as I suspected. The seats were roomy and comfortable and the company on board wasn't too crazy. We moved through CA late sunday night and into the mountains of southern oregon by sunrise. The mountains were covered in a beautiful dusting of snow.
Since late monday night I've been hanging around seattle with a friend I met this summer working at a conference in Bar Harbor. Seattle is very gray(though no sign of the TV doctor) and rainy--though just below the cloud cover you can see the snow covered peaks of the cascade and olympic mountain ranges.

In more worldly relavant news, while driving back to SF on sunday I tuned into an NPR segment discussing a newly released book--Project Censored. It reports the most important underreported stories of each year, have a look at what corporate media tried to bury last year.

California Academy of Sciences

Returned the car to the dealer with no problem--my off road skills must be really good. Now I'm spending my afternoon at the California Academy of Sciences in Golden Gate Park in San Francisco. This place is seriously cool. LEED certified, 2 1/2 acre green roof, 3 story rainforest, dozens of aquariums, organic/compostable lunch, no lines, and a fully stocked library and natural history center. Not to mention free bag checks for my weary shoulders. They also have an interesting exhibit on global climate change. In the exhibit there is a quote from Wallace Broecker--"Climate is an angry beast and we are poking it with sticks." The sign with the quote says that Wallace Broecker is a scientist--this is an understatement--he is credited with among other things coining the term "global warming". Time for the planetarium show.

1236 Miles Later

Back in San Jose. The last week has flown by. Last Saturday I left San Jose on a train to visit my friend Tony in Berkeley. After arriving in town early and spending sometime soaking up the sun at the train terminal Tony pulled up in his truck--it was funny to see Maine plates on this coast. With him was his botanically inclined friend Jesse--who sadly days before had had his van stolen off the street in town. If anyone sees a 1980 Toyota van with Oregon plates and purple curtains in the windows please call Berkeley's finest. The three of us grabbed some delicious(cheap) sushi for lunch then drove off for a midday hike at the Golden Gate National Recreation Area. We worked on our tans as we hiked over chaparral covered hillsides to the beach at Tennessee valley--where offshore storms were churning up huge seas. After a few drinks at Tony's place we headed out for south Indian dinner and the night life of downtown Berkeley. The dinner was great--the night life only slightly more active then Bar Harbor.
The next morning I decided to get a jump on my drive north and picked up my car a day early. I drove all that day and arrived at Prairie Creek Redwood State Park later that evening and set up camp somewhere near the pounding surf.
In the morning--once a bull Roosevelt elk moved out of the way--I noticed the ocean was quite far away from my campsite up on the dunes. I spent that day hiking into a grove of old growth redwoods along Redwood Creek--trees in this grove are some of the tallest trees on the planet. I also hiked into Fern Canyon--whose steep walls are covered in sword and maiden hair ferns. I had to ford 3 streams with the rental to get to the trailhead (any representatives from rental companies stop reading now!).
That night I had dinner with Joe from San Jose and played cards in the rain with some other campers.
I left the redwoods early the next morning and headed north towards Port Orford, OR to visit with my friend Anne and Tim. Shortly after arriving we took off for a sunset hike at Cape Blanco--the western most point in the lower 48. That night we had a relaxing dinner at their beautiful home where we talked politics, rivers, mountains, and trees until heading off to bed.
Early the next morning Tim and I hiked Humbug Moutain (Salmon Cheek Mt. to Tim, the Native Americans, and I). The trial to the top weaved through old growth stands of Sitka spruce, Douglas fur, and California Bay before overlooking the Pacific coast from its summit.
Heading south back towards the redwoods I stopped to get some food in southern Oregon (the radio options were 5 christian talk stations or your favorite Country Christmas tunes). While trying to buy some Cous-Cous this crazy woman told me about the horrors of living in the county--from murderous police officers to speed traps--she, I kid you not, didn't stop blabbering at me for 20 minutes--I knew I should have ran when she said her organic daughter eats cous-cous.
On the way to Jed Smith Redwoods State Park I stopped at the mouths of the Pistol and Smith rivers to look for salmon. Sadly the area is behind on rainfall and any salmon are waiting for higher river flows before they head upstream. Though on the Smith I followed some fishermen who caught a 12 lb. steelhead.
I spend much of that evening driving through back roads in the redwoods before sleeping in my car back at Prairie creek.
Early that next morning I set off for the King's Range National Conservation Area and a night of wilderness camping on Humboldt county's north coast. It took almost 2 and half hours to cover the 28 miles of winding, decaying road into the valley where the Mattole River trailhead is located. The only things I saw from my campsite several miles down the beach were seals, pelicans, waves, and washed up invertebrates--there were no signs that people even existed out there at the triple junction of three very active tectonic plates.
After a night on the beach I headed down route 1 to Mendocino county and the pygmy forests of California. I hiked the trail into the pygmy's just as the sun rose this morning. The forest here is very similar to the pine barrens of New Jersey--except for a completely different set of species--my favorite is the dwarf cypress.
After two car washes (150 miles of back roads got the rental pretty messy) I made it back to San Jose in time for Malaysian dinner with Nishi and his student Susie.
Tomorrow its off to San Francisco for the day before a 24 hour train ride to Seattle.

Port Orford Library

I've put alot of miles behind me since I left San Jose on Saturday. In that time I've gone from walking in the shadows of San Francisco's skyscrapers to the shadows of the tallest trees on earth. I'll give a full update later, the library has a internet time limit that I'm about to exceed.

Off to Berkeley

I spent yesterday botanizing around the Edgewood County Park--a serpentine grassland, chaparral and oak community in San Mateo County. I saw a few herds of mule deer and a new serpentine plant, Quercus durata. In the evening Nishi and I headed out to a dinner party with lots of his friends from high school. They welcomed me into their community like an old friend--and subsequently stuffed me with delicious curries.

A random funny story from Thanksgiving--
After finishing our hike at Point Reyes, Nishi and I were preparing to head to a COA alum's house for dinner. Before we left the parking lot a BMW pulled up and out stepped a young couple--obviously not dressed for the sandy hiking trail. Nishi commented that they might not get very far in knee high boots and a tight skirt--Well he was right. They literally spent 3 minutes out of their car before opening the trunk and guzzling fruit juice and water to refresh for the 45 minute car ride back from the trailhead. Acadia in the summer has nothing on this place.

Off to Berkeley and San Francisco. Not sure when I'll get a chance to post again.

Some Photos from the First Week

My first look at the Pacific Ocean



Tule Elk at Point Reyes




Cliff's at Point Reyes



California Style Thanksgiving after a day at Pt. Reyes




She's not looking for turkey for dinner...

The first few days...

Since I arrived Monday night to San Jose, Nishi--fellow, former Bar Harborite--has been my host and tour guide to some of the best natural areas and restaurants in the region. We've traveled north through San Francisco--to Point Reyes National Seashore--and down the street a few blocks to Addis Ethiopian Cuisine. I don't want to advertise too much in this blog (though I have to pay the bills some how) but if you're ever in San Jose this place is awesome. They make this spongy flat bread, Ingera, made from a Ethiopian grain called teff (though what we ate was grown in Kansas), great curries, and vegetarian dishes.
My first two days in town were pretty urban based. I explored downtown San Jose and discovered a pretty random replica Egyptian temple complete with underground tombs.
I also got to know the bay area's efficient public transport system on a rather rainy trip to Stanford University, since it was just before the holiday much of Stanford was locked down--though I did get to see my largest Sequoia sempervirens (coast redwood) to date. Interestingly it was planted not far from a grove of palm trees--good thing COA doesn't have the right climate for ecologically awkward combinations like that.

Coast Redwood

Starting up...

For the last week I've been traveling around the San Francisco Bay. I'll put some details and photos about my first week out on the west coast up later tonight. Right now I'm heading to a Sinhalese party--that I've been warned can get a little rough. We'll see how well I can post later.