3/31 Pack Forest

We took buses up to the UW-owned Pack Forest, near the base of Mount Rainer. The forecast said their would be non-stop rain, but we were lucky to have good weather. It was a bit overcast and in ~45 degrees Fahrenheit, with clouds breaking open intermittently throughout the day. This was the first time I had gotten names put to the trees, being that I am from a different part of the country. The vegetation was quite varied, but everywhere we looked seemed to have dense vegetation. See the journal entry for Longmire for a a species list of the day. We split off into smaller groups and explored some of the local trails, while learning stories and information about the many different plants of the area. Although the weather held out for us, we could tell it had been raining recently, as many of the trails were turned to thick mud. The fifty or so people we had walking on them didn't help their condition. Most of the trees here must have been old, as they towered over us. We learned to identify some of the more common trees, such as western whites, douglas firs, and western hemlocks by looking at a variety of characteristics. These included bark and even more important the look of the needles and leaves on the trees.

Posted on May 1, 2012 07:00 AM by beardendb