Sunday, August 12, 2007

chena dome

as usual i had overly ambitious plans yesterday, wanted to hike out to chena dome (and back). but i got a late start, it was way too hot, and there were WAY too many blueberries along the way. needless to say i didn't make it even close to the summit, but i did come home with nearly 2 gallons of berries!

the trail traverses through a 2004 burn before quickly getting above tree line.

alaska in august is all about wildflowers and berries.

caz was desperate for shade, wherever she could find it.

the land of many false summits. i keep saying i would stop for lunch right up there... it was 4 pm before i finally ate!

i always think the aspen leaf miner is fascinating - the way you can trace it's path and life history through the maze on the aspen leaf. fascinating, but disturbing. this is the third or fourth year of this bug infestations, and it's just one of many infestations descimating the boreal forest out our backyard. hard to ignore climate change impacts in our neighborhood...

1 comment:

patcaribou said...

my neighborhood has been hit hard with that budworm thing. all the spruce tips are brown and lots of people have been cutting down the trees in their yards cuz they're dying. today, all the chickadees were trying to find pinecones in the spruce outside my window but none were to be found!