Toandos Bear to Crescent Formation Pillows to Crazy Roots

Yesterday was my first bear encounter of the year. I have no expertise estimating bear size as I have never attempted weighing a bear, but I’d estimate it was a 250 pound bear as the bear appeared bigger than me by a fair bit. But then bears within 50 feet always loom a bit large. The encounter was short as the bear had no interest in interacting. It was the first bear I have ever seen on the Toandos Peninsula despite many trips there and having seen plenty of bear evidence. The Toandos is a long peninsula with Hood Canal as its east shore and Dabob Bay as its west shore.


The other highlights of the day were “discovering” a new large landslide on the Toandos, observing the basal till contact on pillow basalts of the Crescent Formation along Hood Canal, seeing an impressive root structure of a red alder clinging to a steep slope, and avoiding sinking up to my knees while traversing a tide flat on the Duckabush River.

Headwall scarp of large landslide. The slide involves approximately 50 acres of land.

Pillow basalts of the Crescent Formation. The basalt erupted on the ocean floor approximately 55 to 55 million years ago.

Red alder roots can't penetrate the basal till. The till was depsoited directly by glacial ice. Clasts in till consist primarily of the underlying basalt.