Snoqualmie Pass

I went up to Snoqualmie Pass on a trip with my friends. A few of us decided to go snowshoeing on April 27. The weather is overcast and 40s degree f with many feet of snow on the ground. The most common trees were Spruce, Douglas Fir, Cedar, and Hemlock. Kayleigh Wells and I went snowshoeing and were able to explore the alpine region. I discovered that Hemlock needles taste like tangerine-it's delicious! I sketched many cones in my journal of all the trees we could find since we couldn't sketch any understory plants due to the copious amounts of snow. Many of the cones we found were individuals and were not found anywhere else. This led me to presume that cars from I-90 may have been carrying pine cones from other areas. We crossed a stream and I wasn't sure, but I think there is flattened Red Alder next to the stream. It's being crushed by the snow, but I imagine they'll be just fine. However, the snow is very thick. Interestingly, /i found many types of fungi-Witch's butter, shelf fungi, and other brightly colored fungi, sketched in my journal. The fungi were all on dead stands-most likely white rot fungi that feed off all woody materials. There was one tree that had a very interesting fungi that had created a pattern around a notch in the wood-possibly white rot again?

Species List: Thuya plicata, spruce, hemlock, noble fir, shelf fungi, witch's butter, red alder, tamarack, douglas fir- Pseudotsugaa menzezii, Lichen, moss, and sap.

Posted on June 5, 2012 06:32 AM by ajwick24