Aug 15. Spider meadow. Chiwawa mountain it above (to the north). We haven't collected anything yet. Kerry is fumbling with a *walkman*. The first time he hiked with any kind of music. This is 1983! He was 25 , me 28. I remember walking to the tune of Yes, Tales of Topographic Oceans.
Next day, scoping out where M. tilingii might be. It seems kind of scraped out by a glacier. Dome peak just above his head (to the north). Lyman glacier to the left. Fog from the west.
There are no drugs involved.
No plants here. Just moraines. Kerry is my youngest brother, btw. Foot of Lyman glacier, below Chiwawa mtn.
Maybe the plants are out here!! (Lyman glacier).
Yes! they are here. This is probably LGL. They are not flowering, just these veg'ed out things by the side of the stream.
Still trying to figure out where they grow. Not here.
Not here either, but we did get two sites near the Lyman glaciers.
We camped the second night below Red Mountain, after collecting two sites. That is looking down the Chiwawa river to the south. Kerry looks like a squrrel in the bush.
Chiwawa Mtn (ele. 8459) in the center, and Red mtn on the right, view from route on the way to Pass no Pass.
We collected two sites this day (CM1, CM2). This is above Buck Creek pass. We made a transect across mountain streams. The smaller peak is Liberty cap, the icy thing is Glacier peak (looking west).
Lets see... looking at the topo that is Buck Mountain (8573 ft). We are close to at Pass no Pass (looking south). Hard day of work.
We collected 36 distinct ramets per population, and I would pack them in the freezette container and place a bit of snow with them in my sleeping bag. It worked totally.
Then we entered this dreamy state. Walkmen help.
We seemed to have achieved some type of ridge. Oh, we are at pass no pass, and off my topo. That is (need to get a bigger map)... that is the Honeycomb and Suiattle glaciers; they have totally melted in the last 25 years. Sad. Maybe 1/2 their length now. The Suiattle river is below. Over to the right is Glacier peak (can't see it in this pic). We are supposed to be collecting plants.
Ok, were are getting near Pass no Pass, I can tell that from this pic. We do have a PNP site at least.
This was the end of the first trip. Pass No Pass, Kerry looking in the wrong place. Got six sites.
We went back to our car via a trail that goes on the shoulder of peak 7534, down to Chiwawa River. Remember that much has been cross country so we do these deviant routes.
Me (Kermit). No plants here (not in that waterfall, the stream is too big).
I guess this is Phelps Ridge. Notice there is a bit of new snow, in mid-August.
Gary Paull says this is probably SW buttress of Fortrass Mtn, from near the bottom of the small creek west of Pass no Pass
Anomymous wilderness. Not mountain monkeyflower site (no small, permanent stream). Nor across the valley, that is all talus.
We are also interested in other species. Amanita (don't have this for dinner).
WTF is this?
HIKE TWO, two weeks later. I was crying in my tent the night before. It such pouring rain and I was wondering why I was still doing this. Also relationship issues I realized later. I was on my own on this trip. Glacier Peak is peeking out (Image Lake, looking south).
Getting higher above Image Lake, heading for Canyon Creek (CC) and Plummer mountain collection. This will be a good day.
Still clouds from the previous rainy day.
Wow! It cleared up. See the new snow at the top of the mtn. This is my campsite below Sitting Bull Mountain (takes two days to get here). Start of serious collecting.
Went over to Canyon Lake, nothing there.
I'm kind of lost here.
Head of Miners Creek, Fortress mtn on right. I made two collections below that moraine on the left bottom.
Classic North Cascades!!! I won't tell you where it was.
Suiattle pass, looking South. I am off trail looking for plants that I did not find. There were two sites in the foreground, ACL and ACU.
Head of Agnes creek, that is a site across the valley on a small stream.
Chiwawa Mountain again, and Spider pass on the left, but now looking south (before north). We collected plants below Lyman Glaciers (left) a couple weeks ago.
Cloudy pass; it is a bit risky to hike this in Mid September, expecially before global warming.
Looking down Agnes Creek, Mt. Goode in distance.
Went up Miners creek cross country, in the last part of the monkey mountainflower trip, this is the lake and glacier below Fortress mtn.
Upper Miners Creek. Plummer mtn to the north. Two sites here.
Looking up to Fortrass mtn (looking South, so its a North face).
MCU site, the last one. There were monkeyflowers here in the stream outlet.
I climbed above the outlet. Good bye MCL and MCU!
Heading up the trail from Miners Creek to Middle ridge.
Flower dome, a much better picture. Final sites BM, MRU and MRL.
Glacier Peak from middle ridge. It was a cloudy trip. I think this was MLU site.
Good bye Glacier Peak. Got my collections!!
This is going down middle ridge.
West buttress of Fortrass mtn. from the eastern end of Middle Ridge. Thanks to Gary Paull for identifying this.
The plants the following summer, after spending the winter on the roof (apparently freezing overwinter makes them flower the next summer)
Carol Ritland back when she was Carol Tam
