Serendipity Week -- 4000-footer-free alpine botany

[arghman]

I took a week off to go hiking, mostly around the Presidential Range but also a few other places:

Sun 7/10 -- Ammonoosuc Ravine Trail up to Lakes Hut, puttering around the hut & lakes, then over Crawford Path skipping Mt Monroe and over to Mt Franklin (5001 ft, not on the official 4K list)
Tue 7/12 -- Boott Spur Trail to Boott Spur (5501 ft, not on the official 4K list) & down Glen Boulder Tr
Wed 7/13 -- Mt Caribou
Thu 7/14 -- Sucker Brook Preserve
Fri 7/15 -- Tuckerman Ravine Tr, Alpine Garden Trail all the way over to the Auto Road, back to Lion Head Tr & down
Sat 7/16 -- meandering around the Ossipee Mountains

I'm calling this "Serendipity Week" due to an unusually large number of coincendences, including (but not limited to):
(1) The book sale. [Skip this if you like, it's not hiking-related.] One of the houses on Rt 113 has a barn full of books (Baldface Books -- hours 3pm-5:30pm Tues & Thurs or by appointment) & I found quite a few to purchase, including two on my hard-to-find list. The owner came by while I was browsing and asked me what I was looking for. I told him I had eclectic tastes in books which was too hard to describe, and was trying to think of a few books I'd been looking for. Only one or two came to mind, both of them out-of-print, but I didn't mention either of them. About 30 seconds later I ran across one of those further along the wall. (This is either a remarkable coincidence or an example of unconscious peripheral vision.)
(2) You can't always get what you want. On Sunday I went up to Lakes Hut & over to Mt Franklin, looking for a number of plants, including alpine bearberry, which I did not find, but I ran into a small patch of mountain-heath. On Tuesday I went up to Boott Spur, looking for a number of plants, including mountain-heath, which I did not find, but I ran into a small patch of alpine bearberry.
(3) You can all join in. Thursday was predicted to be bad weather; I figured I'd pick an easy hike & had run across a brochure for the Sucker Brook Preserve over in Lovell, ME. I happened to show up right when there was a guided hike led by someone from the Lovell Land Trust, so I tagged along & learned about bear habits & other things.
(4) Moose! Three of them -- two on Rt 113, one on the pond on Rt 2 in Shelburne next to the wood products factory. The first one of these was a big bull moose trotting along in the early morning just north of Brickett Place. Followed him for a while, frantically trying to retrieve my camera from my pack with one hand while driving with the other, but just as I had it out he turned & went into the woods. Drat. I did manage to snap some pictures of the one in the pond.

Highlights:
The upper part of the Ammo Ravine Trail. The trail crosses threads of the river as they cascade over ledges. Geum peckii was in bloom and I must have taken about 3 dozen pictures.

Boott Spur loop -- this gets a solid A in my book. Good views, lots of above treeline, not excessively travelled, far away from the Cog Railway and Auto Road. (If you can spot a car, do it -- I took the Direttisima back to AMC Pinkham Notch, after having been warned by Eric Savage against this trail's ups&downs at the end of the day. It's got too many ups&downs and is rather slippery.) This loop also includes the Glen Boulder, which I thought would be larger (it's only maybe 10-15 ft diameter), perched precariously on a bunch of smaller rocks on a steep slope. Diapensia and alpine azalea are abundant nearby on open ledges, at a very low elevation (almost down to 3500' !)
Tuckerman Ravine -- If you are at all interested in alpine botany, you must stop reading this report & immediately check the weather forecast and drive up to Pinkham Notch as soon as possible. Do not pass Go. Do not collect $200. Really. The word "ravine" has such a negative connotation & it should be renamed the Hanging Gardens or something, as it is basically a giant drip-irrigation system -- July seems to be the best time to see most plants in bloom. There was a little bit of snow left in the ravine and someone who I shall call "Deathwish Dan" had brought up a pair of skis and proceeded to give it a whirl:

He did this about 5 or 6 times, to the wild cheers of onlookers.

Ossipees -- a nice area. Hurray for Lakes Region Conservation Trust for preserving a large chunk of land when the Castle of the Clouds went up for sale. They have a map of the area; I parked in the hiker parking lot and went over to ask the lady at the Castle entrance booth about getting a map -- she said I could buy one in the gift shop, but I wasn't allowed to walk up the road and if I took a car I'd have to pay the entrance fee. I seem to have the worst luck whenever my path crosses Castle in the Clouds. Anyway, the nearby areas are interesting to explore & have good views of Lake Winnepesaukee.

Now I have to get back to reality. Argh.

Pictures at http://www.pbase.com/jms_nh/serendipity_0507

 

[NewHampshire]

Sounds like a blast! Great pics and report.
Brian

 

[dr_wu002]

I wish I had your eye for bottany... I love the indian pipes and the Pinesap. I see Indian Pipes near my parents house in the Berkshires sometimes but never in the Whites so far.

Any trip report from Mt. Caribou? I hiked that in the early spring during the pouring rain. It was a nice hike.

-Dr. Wu

 

[arghman]

Any trip report from Mt. Caribou?

I went there as part of a group, nothing particularly interesting that I could comment on w/o going into a long prologue. It has kind of a confusing maze of ledges, all of which are nearly alike. I can't remember whether I like that one more or Speckled Mtn; Speckled has more trail choices. Both are in the Caribou-Speckled Mountain Wilderness Area (which always makes me think of mountains speckled with caribou), that's the Wilderness I've been to most often so I use that as my yardstick when commenting on Wilderness-related issues.

There are some other interesting-looking ledgy mountains/spurs below & nearby Caribou (a spur immediately SE and something to the NE... Tyler Mtn?) but there aren't any trails and when I asked some well-traveled hikers familiar w/ the area, I got the impression that it would be kind of a long haul to get to.

re: botany -- you can always learn, I didn't pay any attention until about 4 years ago & didn't get going in earnest until last year. quick quiz: name the other 4 plants besides bunchberry shown in this photo (one of them may not be showing enough detail to ID properly)--

 

[dr_wu002]

There are some other interesting-looking ledgy mountains/spurs below & nearby Caribou (a spur immediately SE and something to the NE... Tyler Mtn?) but there aren't any trails and when I asked some well-traveled hikers familiar w/ the area, I got the impression that it would be kind of a long haul to get to.

I'm not sure they're so bad. I saw a distinct herd path going up Gammon Mountain (right near Caribou, NE) and even in the wilderness region I saw old trails and whatnot crossing the regular trail to Caribou. Plus it seemed to be for the most part open woods. If you want to go up to some of those peaks, perhaps you'd want to arrange a trip with Barbarossa and I. Barb's been interested in that area for a while and I've been there already and would feel somewhat confident with a bushwhack.

-Dr. Wu

 

[Tom Rankin]

Diapensia ... are abundant nearby on open ledges, at a very low elevation (almost down to 3500' !)

Does anyone know if Diapensia grows in New York state, either in the ADKs, or the Catskills?

 

[arghman]

Does anyone know if Diapensia grows in New York state, either in the ADKs, or the Catskills?

From the USDA PLANTS database it looks like ME/NH/VT/NY/AK is it, in this country.

From NYS DEC Natural Heritage website, (see the rare plant status list) they show it as Threatened status within the state, state ranking S2 (S1 is rarest / most concern), known to exist only in Essex County. (or whatever "ESSE" stands for)

I have no experience in the Adirondacks, but in the Whites & in Maine it almost always requires exposed open ledgy rock (not talus/felsenmeer), in the 4000' to 5000' range. Inclines from flat to maybe 20-30 degrees. (I don't remember seeing it on steep ledge; alpine azalea -- which also exists in NY state, Endangered, S1 only in Essex County -- tends to tolerate steeper ledge with thin soil, and I have seen it up to a sheer vertical face as long as there's something to cling to. Otherwise it has the same elevation range & exposed open ledgy sites.)

 

[Tom Rankin]

From the USDA PLANTS database it looks like ME/NH/VT/NY/AK is it, in this country.

From NYS DEC Natural Heritage website, (see the rare plant status list) they show it as Threatened status within the state, state ranking S2 (S1 is rarest / most concern), known to exist only in Essex County.

Thanks.

Essex County is where Lake Placid is, so I assume this means it's found up in the DAX. I'll have to ask the summit stewards next time I'm up there.