On Sunday there was a socially distant bioblitz via inaturalist that I took part in. In the morning I went up Verstovia. It had been a few months since I was last up to the top of Verstovia, so I was curious to see how much snow was up there.
I was at the trail head between 9 and 9:15. I took it slow much of the way up there stopping to look at and take photos of things along the way. There was hardly any snow before the first view point and most of the way to the second view point. The snow got to be deeper and more of a problem at the base of a set of stair with a big rope that was not to far from the second view point.
The snow was packed down, so I didn’t sink into it but it was a bit slippery. Since there was very little to hold onto and very few foot holes kicked into the snow, I had to be careful where I put my feet.
I got up to just before the second view point, when I heard what sounded like Ptarmigan. I looked up into the bushes up the hill from me and saw two white Willow Ptarmigan moving through the bushes ahead of me. I was able to get a few poor photos of them through the bushes before they disappeared over the hill from me.
I raced up the trail pasted the second view point after them. I got around the corner to see if I could get a better photo of the Ptarmigan, but by the time I got there the Ptarmigan had disappeared over the hill and down the other side into the bushes.
I continued up the trail and carefully picked my way through the switch backs so that I didn’t slip and slide down the hill. I came across a couple of people with a dog that were on their way down just before the ridge. After they passed me I continued up the trail. I ran into a set of what I’m pretty sure were Ptarmigan tracks in the woods along the ridge. The snow was hard all of the way to picnic rock, so I didn’t sink in at all which was nice.
When I got to where picnic rock was supposed to be, I looked around and there was no rock there. There was also almost no trees, and where I could see the trees, there was only a max of 2 feet sticking out of the snow up on top. I could see where people had skied over by Arrowhead Peak. I walked around there looking at things on the trees and trying to find the White-winged Crossbills that I heard. I was eventually able to find the Crossbills and take some photos of them.
After I had been up there for an hour or so maybe two, I headed down. I started slipping on the way down in several places, and after I was down below the second view point, I slipped and fell and slid down the trail a little ways before I was able to grab onto some brush along the side of the trail and stop myself. From there I carefully made my way down the snow trail without any more problems. It had taken me between 2-3 hours to make it to Picnic Rock, and I made it down in about an hour.
When I looked at the photos I had taken up there on Monday, it was interesting to see the change in how much snow was up there on Sunday compared to when I was last up there in mid January.
