Delirious Ramblings

Tangerine Sunrise

Sunrise from Elden Mountain, July 2011

I thought I'd share another photo from my recent sunrise hike on Elden. This one is very orange.

Sunrise from the Sunset Trail

Sunrise from the Sunset Trail, Elden Mountain, July 2011

Sunday I got up earlier than I did on my previous Elden hike and caught a proper sunrise from the Sunset Trail. There was a lot of smoke from the Bolt and Beale fires in the eastern sky so the sunrise was spectacularly red and orange. I'm not sure if the results are better than before or not. Definitely more colorful, but maybe a little less serene. Still, a nice shot.

Smoke over the Valley

Smoke over the Little Colorado River Valley, July 2011

I hiked Mt. Elden this morning and the early cloud cover plus the smoke from the Bolt Fire filtering down the drainages into the Little Colorado River Valley made for some interesting photography. I kept looking over my shoulder as I climbed, watching for the clouds to part and allow a big shaft of sunlight to shine down into the haze. It never really happened, at least not like I was hoping for, but it was still a beautiful show. It was one of those things that make you glad you got out of bed. At five-fifteen a-effin'-em.

Here is another view, this time in color and from a bit higher on the trail:

 

Smoke over the Little Colorado River Valley (2), July 2011

One of these days I'm gonna get a proper camera and a tripod and maybe these pictures will sharpen up some. This softness is driving me crazy!

Dancing with the Anemoi

Clouds building over Mt. Elden, June 2011

I hiked up Mt. Elden this afternoon to experience the sheer power of the planet's atmosphere, to revel in the thundering passage of the Anemoi over the mountain top. The wind was gusting very hard out of the southwest at the summit, perhaps 60 or 70 mph or even more near the towers. The gusts were powerful enough to knock me backwards and force me to lean into them to stay vertical.

 

Clouds building over Mt. Elden, June 2011

I didn't stay long, lingering only long enough to drink some water and listen to the howl of the wind through the guy wires and observe the manically twisting, gyrating aspen near the microwave towers. This place is not safe for you now! they seemed to cry out, their normally peaceful, fluttery voices a deafening hiss of alarm.

I heeded their warning and descended back down the trail to where the wind, while still strong, was much less dangerous. Perhaps in exchange for allowing the mountain to complete its dance with the wind spirits unobserved I was rewarded with some good light to photograph clouds building above the summit.

In the Sea of Gambel Oak

The Great Sea of Gambel Oak, Mt. Elden, June 2011

Saturday I hiked up Mt. Elden to see if the smoke plume from the Wallow Fire burning some 160 miles away in eastern arizona was visible from the summit. I wasn't really expecting to directly sight the pyrocumulus cloud itself as even at 30,000+ feet tall the top should've been beyond the horizon at this distance. However, I suspect that the white haze on the far horizon in the above panorama was the smoke drifting north and backwashing to the west over the far painted desert region.

On the way down the Heart Trail I was struck by how green and healthy the post-Radio Fire Gambel Oak community on that part of the mountain is. Gambel Oak is one of my favorite tree species so it's always nice to be among them. Higher up the slope after you leave the aspen it is very exposed so dropping into the lush oak forest below is a welcome respite from the glaring sun of the Heart Trail.

Gambel oak, sometimes called scrub oak, is pretty common in these parts and seems to have done particularly well after the fire. It makes sense that they would: they are a drought tolerant pioneer species and love to grow in sunny places with thin, rocky soils. And like aspen they have evolved defensive mechanisms to protect themselves from wildfires, so they love these burned areas. I have a sneaking suspicion that they fill much the same ecological niche as the aspen do but at lower, drier elevations. In fact, I have seen gambel oak supplanting fading aspen clones south of Flagstaff and Mormon Lake, the oaks happily moving into the places where the aspen have died.

 

In the Sea of Gambel Oak, Mt. Elden, June 2011

If you hike from the Sandy Seep trailhead you begin to enter the "sea of oak" (as I like to call it) just after you get onto the Heart Trail proper. The environment really changes when you get back in there, becoming more enclosed, brushier, and wilder. When the trees get their leaves in mid to late May the area becomes a maze of oak clusters, grassy drainages, and twisting corridors. It is perfect habitat for many types of birds like Black-headed Grossbeaks, woodpeckers, and Steller's Jays. You can also see big old jackrabbits, mule deer, foxes, and coyote. One time I was amazed to see a mule deer fawn being chased by a coyote who was in turn being chased by the fawn's mother! The trio bounded right past me on the trail, one after the other, none of them even noticing that I was standing there.

With this region expected to become hotter and drier due to climate change Gambel Oak will probably become even more prevalent here. The oak will move higher up the mountains and expand into new habitat, taking over from previous tenants like Ponderosa, Douglas fir, and aspen, which will in turn push higher yet. Unfortunately the preferred mechanism for this migration will probably not be pretty or pleasant to us: fire and beetle infestations that clear the stage for the newcomers.

First Elden Summit of 2011

This morning I hiked up the Elden Lookout Trail to the towers. It was windy as hell but otherwise okay for an early spring day. I didn't need my jacket until I topped out into the full brunt of the 35mph+ wind and the windchill dropped the temperature by fifteen or twenty degrees. The trail was dry all the way to the Sunset Trail saddle but beyond that there was a fair bit of residual snow and ice, especially on the last couple of hundred feet before trail's end. It wasn't a big deal - I had my microspikes along and they made short work of it. I think you could do it easily enough even without extra traction gear, you'd just have to go slow and be really careful of your footing.

In the above pic you can see a lot has melted off up there but I think it's going to be a few more weeks before the high Mt. Elden trails back in the trees and on the northern aspects will be passable for the "average" hiker. I bet it's posthole-city on Sunset Trail where it's in the shade and impassible beyond the Hart Trail intersection. I thought about going back that way to see what the conditions are like, but decided against it.

On my last couple of hikes I've been carrying a lightweight hiking pole (actually, just an extra snowshoe pole with the powder basket removed) along with me for added balance on steep descents and tricky spots. In the past I've been something of a purist when it comes to hiking poles -- I didn't think they were worth the trouble or the extra weight. But I guess all the snowshoeing on insane slopes over the winter and the extra stability provided by the poles has convinced me to add one to my summer gear list. And having a hiking pole along also comes in handy when you're on really brushy trails and you need to probe ahead for creepy-crawlies and snakes.

I'll probably stick with using just the one pole for now, though. I think unless you're carrying a heavy backpack or really need the stability of two poles then the weight-to-benefit ratio is too high for regular day hikes.

The Children of the Sun

Yeah, it's a little late in the year for posting pictures of Fall aspen colors, but what the heck; it's my blog and I'll post 'em if I want to. This one was taken early in the morning back in mid-October on Mt. Elden's lower Sunset Trail. The clouds are blown out, but I still like this pic.

Aspen trees really like sunlight. They are very shade intolerant and grow best when a disturbance like a fire, avalanche or a timber sale opens up the canopy so they can see the sun. There is nothing more beautiful than a thicket of aspen saplings glowing in the sunlight. They truly are the children of the sun.

Orange Aspen Leaves?

You bet! Aspen can sometimes turn red or orange in the Fall:

As green chlorophyll production winds down in the Fall the yellow from the xanthophyll in the leaves will show through, causing the brilliant yellow color show we're all used to. But sometimes the tree will have a higher proportion of orange carotene in the leaves and you'll see portions of it turn a beautiful red or orange as the above photo from Mt. Elden illustrates. Orange or red aspen leaves are relatively rare, but still very neat.

Mt. Elden Fall Color Show Starting

I hiked Elden Lookout and a big chunk of the Sunset Trail today and the aspen in the Radio Fire burn area are beginning to change color. In the above picture you can see that several of the aspen clones growing on the middle of the mountain have gone full-on yellow and a few others are just starting to go. That they are not synchronized is how you can tell that there are multiple aspen clones up there.

On a side note, I wish I could find some high quality color pictures of this side of Elden from before the fire because it would be sooo interesting to see where the aspen were growing prior to the burn. That way it would be easier to identify the "parent(s)" for the regen taking place now. My guess - and this just a guess based on what's happening on Hochderferr Hills and Kendrick Peak - is that there were already established mature aspen scattered around the slope and most of the young aspen we're seeing now are spreading out from their original root systems and not new growth from seeds.

Anyway, it's still a little early as most of the trees up there are still mostly green, but they all have a few yellow or orange leaves so the whole bunch should start any day now. My guess is that the the next couple of weekends will be good ones to catch the color show on Elden. Barring a big wind event the peak will probably come around the the weekend of October 9th or so.

On my way back from FoNAF's big National Public Lands Day aspen workday yesterday I also noticed that a few of the aspen stands high up on the Peaks were losing their dark green color and that one of our aspen exclosures off Highway 180 had begun to turn yellow. So get your cameras and hiking boots ready - in only a week or two the lower Humphreys Trail, Kachina Trail, Viet Springs, and Hart Prairie are gonna be amazing!

Couple pics of potential Mount Elden fossils

Last weekend I was hiking the Heart Trail up on Elden and got some pictures of what appears to be fossilized sea creatures:

The recent monsoon rains have washed a lot of soil off the trail, baring some new rocks. I hadn't noticed these before, but that doesn't mean anything: I could've just been paying closer attention to what I was walking on this time due to all the new rocks making the trail even harder to negotiate.

To my untrained eye they look like some sort of segmented worms or maybe coral impressions. I'm more confident that the first picture is of an actual fossil than I am of the second. I've read that Elden's fossils date back to the Devonian period, 409-363 million years ago. During that time fish became abundant in the seas, the first amphibians evolved, and the first forests appeared on land. This area was under a shallow sea then and scientists have found fossils of early fish, shells, bony plate impressions, corals, and other ocean creatures up on Elden.

I'm pretty psyched that I actually might've found some fossils up there. Yeah, I know - My inner 8-year-old is showing through...