Badger Mountain versus Skagit Valley Tulips

                                

Long leaf phlox

I took a hike up Badger Mountain south of Richland, Washington late last week. I did the same hike last November. This time of year is a great time for flowers and the hike did not disappoint. My ability to identify very many plants and flowers is severely limited, but regardless I can still appreciate the flower display. It’s a great hike with sweeping views covering hundreds of miles and lots small scale things to observe as well. This time of year provides the best flora displays, but there are lots of other plants that will bloom later and some that have barely begun to grow.

Carey's balsamroot

Cushion fleabane

Rosey balsamroot

Upland larkspur

Bingen lupines

This is the first of a series posts I am planning on Badger Mountain and the broader landscape that includes Badger Mountain. Part of what I want to do with Reading the Washington Landscape is to better understand the landscapes we see in Washington. Badger Mountain looks the way it does because of its geology, climate, ecosystem, history and land use policies. More posts on those subjects will follow. And I will add future land use policies will define greatly how Badger Mountain will look in the future.

Thanks to all the hard work from Friends of Badger Mountain  http://www.friendsofbadger.org/ . They have worked to make a great landscape even better.

Waiting for Summer

"And keep in mind that summer generally start around here a week or two after the July 4th weekend."

I have been distracted by other activities so have not  put up anything I think might be of interest. Work, some local growth planning, taxes have all kept me distracted. But the above line from Cliff Mass’ Weather Blog tells us a lot about western Washington. I do sometimes wish it did not have the ring of truth it does. Mr. Mass’ blog link is on the side bar and I check it frequently. It is mostly weather related but he does talk about other things close to my heart like math in schools – I taught math for several years including teaching algebra in the school auto shop.

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. 

April Showers and a Hanging Garden

Field work today entailed a trip up the Skagit Valley. The low pressure system off the coast was causing a strong east wind out of the valley this morning. Not an uncommon phenomenon.
Up the valley it was wet and cold and with ice in the rain drops. One reason western Washington has such thick vegetation like that described in yesterday’s post is the rain. I have little to complain about though as this winter was very mild. The weather today may have been the worst I have been in since - well last April.

This big leaf maple growing along the flood plain of the Skagit River had created an impressive hanging garden, a common characteristic of big leaf maples.

A Piece of the British Columbia Coast Range via the Juan de Fuca Lobe

I came across this small boulder in the sand of Shishi Beach on the west coast of the Olympic Peninsula. My purpose that day was to reach some unusual bedrock outcrops, but this rock got my attention as I used the beach as my route to the outcrops of interest. The boulder is granitic (likely tonalite for hard core igneous people). However, I know of no granitic rocks anywhere on the Olympic Peninsula. This boulder hitched a ride on the Juan de Fuca lobe of glacial ice approximately 18,000 years ago. This lobe of ice extended out beyond the current coast line and this boulder derived from the coast range of British Columbia is a reminder of that period. The distance traveled is a minimum of 120 miles.


I always enjoy seeing rocks like this one as it reminds me of great adventures I had mapping and collecting rock samples within and along the margins of plutons in the British Columbia Coast range and crystalline core rocks of the Washington North Cascades. Who knows this small boulder may be a transported fragment of the Spuzum Pluton or Scuzy Pluton.

Some how this rock was sitting alone on the beach, but there were plenty of similar rocks along the upper beach where the bluff consisted of very boulder rich glacial till.

The boulders in the sand were not the only thing that got my attention. I was not the first to walk the beach that morning. I am assuming an otter, but alas I never saw the creature that made these prints.

Big news out of Quilcene

Oysters at low tide, Dabob Bay with Toandos Peninsula on the right and Bolton Peninsula on the left.

I posted this picture of oyster beds on Dabob Bay at the upper end of Hood Canal before on a post regarding efforts to protect water quality for this very valuable resource. This large oyster crop covers hundreds of acres of tide flats. Last summer my wife and daughter were in Philadelphia. They called from the restaurant to tell me that Washington State Dabob oysters were on the menu. Shell fish are a very valuable Washington State industry.

Last week arrests were made by the Washington State Department of Fish and Wildlife and the Jefferson County Sheriff for theft of oysters and clams from both private and public tidelands in Dabob Bay and Hood Canal. http://ptleader.com/main.asp?SectionID=36&SubSectionID=55&ArticleID=26544
If it is true that theft was taking place, it was at a remarkably large scale and involved what appeared to be reputable companies. For several years my company shared an office building with an office of Washington State Department of Wildlife. I for one have always appreciated the work they do. They have a difficult task protecting our resources.

Diablo Lake Rock Slide

A rock slide slid into the upper end of Diablo Lake in eastern Whatcom County. (I love reminding people that Diablo Lake is in Whatcom County). The slide blocks the access road to the Ross Lake Dam power house.

The slide took place in vertically foliated banded biotite schist and is part of Skagit gneiss complex. This formation consists of very highly metamorphosed sandstone that has been heated pressurized during deep burial during the Cretaceous. These rocks were buried as much as 30 km below the surface approximately 75 million years ago. The rock failure appears to be the result of a combination of vertical foliation with cross cutting horizontal joints. And of coarse the slope is a cliff and gravity and some freeze thaw will cause things to fall down. It won't be the last in this area of very steep slopes.