Clear, calm, and cool. Overnight lows officially were only down to around freezing, but it was certainly at least a colder at my house. Officially it got up to 45F today, though I think places without direct sun probably didn’t see that anything so high.
A distinctive spruce with three major supports. The gap underneath is around 4ft high
I was reminded recently of a spruce I call the tripod tree that grows well up Indian River valley. I’ve been by it at least a couple of times since I first noticed it on a hike with my brother nearly 20 years ago. The last time I visited was early 2015, and I thought it was time for a return.
With the pleasant weather, today seemed like a good time to make the trip.
I headed out shortly after noon with the intention of being back in time to catch the sunset.
I made good time (30 minutes) up to the first bridge. From there I left the trail. I made my way through the forest mostly following a mix of hunter and game trails. It’s not very brushy, but there are plenty of fallen trees of varying ages as well as very wet low areas which can be annoying.
The streams were flowing higher than I would have guessed, especially the west fork tributaries. We did have some heavy rain earlier in the week. Early Wednesday the Indian River gauge peaked at over 25ft. It was back down below 22ft today, and continuing a slow downward trend. I imagine there is still plenty of water moving down through the ground (especially if it was warm enough to melt a fair bit of snow – which I think it probably was).
It took me an hour to make it up to the tripod tree. I was not 100% sure I would be able to find it at all. I knew roughly where it was, and once I got to that area, it seemed familiar. I did not have any trouble getting to it.
Much shorter after the top broke off about 10 years ago, the big hemlock is still alive
On the way down I went by the big hemlock. It is much shorter than when I first saw it (on the same 2004 trip with my brother). The top was broken off by late 2013. I’m not sure if it happened that fall, or maybe the year before.
Despite the damage, it still appears to be alive. There are two or three large branches below the break that support many additional smaller branches with green needles.
I mostly kept moving throughout the journey. If I had more time, I’m sure I would have poked around a bit more and seen what I could discover. Instead I just paused briefly for a few things that caught my eye as I walked.
Snakeskin Liverwort (Conocephalum conicum) has a sporophyte in development
One of my pauses was for an extensive area covered in Conocephalum. Last fall I had trouble finding enough of it to collect for use in a natural history class. I remembered seeing larger patches, but I didn’t remember where. I got my answer today.
I was interested to see sporophytes are already starting to develop on the Conocephalum.
At one point on my way back down the valley, I found it expedient to crawl on a gravel bar under a log that had fallen across the stream. Fortunately I noticed some alder nodules and wanted to make an observation right after that. My phone had come out of my pocket, and I have no idea when I would have noticed otherwise (nor if I would have figured out where it had come out).
My legs were definitely feeling it, but I did make it back in time for sunset.
I briefly considered walking out to the beach at the park for a picture of the lighthouse with the sunset. I decided the clouds didn’t seem promising for a good picture there, but it was probably just as much that I didn’t feel like walking out there with tired legs.
I did go up on the bridge. I appreciated the look of the sun as it set behind thin clouds. No green flash, but it has moved much further north. Still a ways to go before it gets to Vitskari Rocks, though.
The hike was a bit over 6 miles. There was not any significant uphill, but going over and under logs isn’t as easy straight trail walking. I haven’t been as active enough to stay in decent condition, and I felt it. I wouldn’t be surprised if I’m a bit sore tomorrow.
I didn’t go try for more comet pictures tonight. If it’s still clear enough tomorrow I might give it one more try. I felt like I could use the rest (and wanted to make more progress on getting more of last year’s observations into iNaturalist, and publishing photojournals from this year).
My iNaturalist Observations for Today
