My third View since the beginning of August. I guess it is that time of the year. The equinox is tomorrow, so the good months are coming. At any rate, with the help of a shuttle driver, I walked with several colleagues yesterday from the trailhead on Miller's Flat to the bottom of the Left Hand Fork of Huntington. The weather was nice—though still hotter than it might be—and the colors were spectacular.
VSO forgot her hiking boots, so she was unprepared for steep country. I was very annoyed by the motorheads and loose dogs, so I would not get out of the truck except for steep country. We didn't do very well.
We did, however, find a patch of fireweed that had gone to seed, some of which VSO collected (above). And I did help her when the steep country required walking on downed wood (below).
There is an 11,000 foot feature in central Utah that is visible from I-70 near Salina. It is, somewhat unfortunately, called Mary's Nipple. We weren't sure whether the county had a structure on the summit, so I went out there yesterday to see. Round trip from Price I may have driven 250 miles, much of it on the gravel. From where I parked on the south end of the Skyline, it was 1,500 vertical feet to the top. I made it there and back in three hours.
I also found the structure: A survey sighting tower. I'm not sure how it works or whether it remains relevant to surveyors, but there it is. I was back at the office by 5p. Mission accomplished: In about nine hours you can drive from Price, walk to the top of the Nipple, and return.
The Dead Wood Library (DWL) is finished (for now). In the end, I included 24 species, though I collected just 22 of them. I don't have white fir or blue spruce specimens, but the project was beginning to feel like overkill. For the 22, I included a cross section and stem or branch for each. The full list is below:
|
Pinyon Pine |
Pinus edulis Engelm. |
PIED |
|
Utah Juniper |
Juniperus osteosperma
(Torr.) Little |
JUOS |
|
Rocky Mountain Juniper |
Juniperus scopulorum
Sarg. |
JUSC2 |
|
Douglas Fir |
Pseudotsuga menziesii
(Mirb.) Franco |
PSME |
|
Limber Pine |
Pinus flexilis James |
PIFL2 |
|
Serviceberry |
Amelanchier utahensis
Koehne |
AMUT |
|
Alderleaf Mountain
Mohagany |
Cercocarpus montanus
Raf. |
CEMO2 |
|
Curl-leaf Mountain
Mohagany |
Cercocarpus ledifolius
Nutt. |
CELE3 |
|
Greasewood |
Sarcobatus vermiculatus
(Hook.) Torr. |
SAVE4 |
|
Sagebrush |
Artemisia tridentata
Nutt. |
ARTR2 |
|
Box Elder |
Acer negundo L. |
ACNE2 |
|
Bigtooth Maple |
Acer grandidentatum
Nutt. |
ACGR3 |
|
Rocky Mountain Maple |
Acer glabrum Torr. |
ACGL |
|
Aspen |
Populus tremuloides
Michx. |
POTR5 |
|
Narrowleaf Cottonwood |
Populus angustifolia
James |
POAN3 |
|
Fremont Cottonwood |
Populus fremontii S.
Watson |
POFR2 |
|
Narrowleaf Willow |
Salix exigua Nutt. |
SAEX |
|
Gambel Oak |
Quercus gambelii Nutt. |
QUGA |
|
Chokecherry |
Prunus virginiana L. |
PRVI |
|
Black Hawthorn |
Crataegus douglasii
Lindl. |
CRDO2 |
|
Bitterbrush |
Purshia tridentata
(Pursh) DC. |
PUTR2 |
|
Skunkbush |
Rhus trilobata Nutt. |
RHTR |
|
Blue Spruce |
Picea pungens Engelm. |
PIPU |
|
White Fir |
Abies concolor (Gord.
& Glend.) Lindl. ex Hildebr. |
ABCO |
