Category Archives: nature|trees

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Thanksgiving Hike & Run on the Wildwood Trail

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Runners on the Wildwood Trail

Even by Pacific Northwest standards it had been wet. Over the past five days Portland had recorded over four inches of rain. Earlier in the week heavy rain and strong winds had pummeled the area — flooding roads, toppling trees, causing numerous traffic accidents and leaving thousands without power.



Today, Thanksgiving Day, was the first in several that no rain was forecast. Taking advantage of the good weather our Thanksgiving Day — and that of many Portlanders — started with a hike at the Hoyt Arboretum.

The arboretum’s collection includes over 1000 species, accessed by a 12 mile network of well-maintained and marked trails. The collection includes species from around the world. Some examples are dawn redwood from China, butterfly maple from North Korea, Himalayan Juniper from Nepal and Patagonian Cypress from the Andes. Given they are usually found near treeline, I was surprised to see the arboretum’s collection includes bristlecone pines.



My run on the Wildwood Trail started at Fairview, at the end of a loop hike in the arboretum that had taken us to an overlook with a view of Mt. St. Helens — and on a clear day — Mt. Rainier and Mt. Adams. I had promised to be back to the house in “about two hours ” so the plan was to run north on the Wildwood Trail for about an hour and then head back.

Trail runners love running new trails — especially trails as beautiful and well-maintained as the Wildwood Trail. The 30 mile long trail is just part of a 70+ mile system of trails in a 5100 acre urban park managed by the Forest Park Conservancy.



I was amazed — after all that rain the Wildwood Trail was in great shape. My socks were dry and my running shoes were just a little damp around the edges. The running was superb. I’d run down to Burnside, up to Pittock Mansion, and then down to Macleay Park. Continuing to descend, I’d run along Balch Creek and past the iconic Stone House.



The theme was green on green, with towering Douglas-fir, hemlock and cedar. A mixed understory of alder and maple was highlighted by mosses, ferns and remnant splashes of yellow, orange and brown.

At Wildwood’s junction with the Aspen Trail I was about 55 minutes out. Time to start thinking about turning around. I ran a few yards down the Aspen Trail, then decided I’d rather stay on the Wildwood Trail.

It had been just four days since I’d run a 50K in Kernville, California, and I knew I was going to be slower on the way back. At some point soon I really would need to turn around. I started up some switchbacks, wondering what was on the trail ahead…


nature, nature|trees, photography, photography|landscape, running, trails, trails|san gabriels

Throop Peak Limber Pines

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A nearly pure stand of limber pines on the north slopes of Throop Peak in the San Gabriel Mountains near Los Angeles.

Limber pines can be very long-lived. The Rocky Mountain Tree Ring Research OLDLIST lists several crossdated limber pines older than 1600 years. The Wally Waldron Tree near the summit of Mt. Baden-Powell is estimated to be 1500 years old.

From an out and back run last week from Dawson Saddle to Mt. Baden-Powell.

nature, nature|trees, nature|wildfire, photography, trails, trails|san gabriels

New Growth on Bigcone Douglas-Fir

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New growth on bigcone Douglas-fir

These young-appearing bigcone Douglas-firs along the Valley Forge Trail are probably older than they look. According to the Forest Service Silvics Manual, Volume 1: Conifers, saplings may be only 2 ft. tall when 40-50 years old and as old as 70 years when they break through the oak overstory.



The bigcone Douglas-fir is a very resilient tree that is remarkably fire tolerant. It can lose virtually all of it foliage to a fire, appear to be beyond the point of recovery, yet survive and regenerate its foliage. Fire-scarred bigcone Douglas-firs have been used to analyze fire history and regimes.

The photograph on the left is of a bigcone Douglas-fir along the Valley Forge Trail that was burned in the 2009 Station Fire. Here is a closer view of the same tree showing how new foliage sprouts from buds along its limbs and trunk.

The Valley Forge Trail is in the canyon of the West Fork San Gabriel River in the San Gabriel Mountains near Los Angeles. It connects the Gabrielino Trail to Eaton Saddle on Mt. Wilson Road. The trailhead for Mt. Lowe Truck Trail is at Eaton Saddle.

The photographs are from a trail run in May 2012.

Related post: Red Box – Bear Canyon Loop

nature, nature|trees, nature|weather, nature|wildflowers, photography, photography|landscape, photography|trail running, running, running|adventures, trails, trails|san gabriels, weather, weather|southern california

Mt. Wilson Rim Trail – Kenyon Devore Trail Loop

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Big cone Douglas-fir on the Rim Trail near Mt. Wilson

Brett was down for Father’s Day weekend and one of the things we wanted to do was get in a couple of good trail runs. He’s heard me talk (a lot) about the Mt. Disappointment 50K and how it ends. Basically you run 27 hilly miles with over 3600′ of elevation gain, THEN finish the race by doing a 5 mile, 2650′ climb from West Fork up the Gabrielino & Kenyon Devore Trails to the top of Mt. Wilson.

This final climb tells the 50K tale. If you’ve trained well and run a good race a middle-of-the-pack runner might gain 15-20 minutes on this leg. If not, you could easily lose an hour or more. In any case you put everything you have left into this climb. An elevation profile and some stats for Kenyon Devore are included in the post Hitting the (Big) Hills of Southern California.

There are several ways to incorporate Kenyon Devore into a loop, but I could only think of two that didn’t involve running on Mt. Wilson Road. One option was a 22 mile/5000’gain loop from Shortcut Saddle to Mt. Wilson and back. That wasn’t going to happen because just five days before I’d run the Holcomb Valley 33 Mile race. Instead we opted to start on top of Mt. Wilson and use the Rim Trail, Gabrielino Trail and Rincon – Red Box Road to get to West Fork. This would pare down the loop to a manageable 12 miles and 3000′ of gain.



Other than a “few” gnats, a lot of poison oak and some Turricula (Poodle-dog bush), the Rim Trail was in good shape and the running excellent. Once away from the observatory complex the trail has an adventurous, backcounty feel. The trail was in good enough condition that Brett enjoyed running it in the KomodoSport LS.

The day was going to be a scorcher and I was glad that much of the Rim Trail was on the shaded, north side of the crest. The Gabrielino Trail and Rincon – Red Box Road were also relatively cool and in the shade. With no race clock ticking away, we stopped at West Fork and ate some blueberries and PB&J. So far the route had been down, down, down; but in a few minutes it was going to go up, up, up.



One of the surprises of the day was how much the Turricula (Poodle-dog bush) had grown along the Gabrielino and lower Kenyon Devore Trails since I had been here in early March. A rain gauge near here (Opids Camp) recorded nearly seven inches of precipitation from March 25 to April 26. This appears to have promoted the growth of the Turricula. In a very dry rain season the rain and snow had been much needed. It rejuvenated the streams and vegetation, and the area looked much as it would if the seasonal rainfall had been normal.

The Turricula could not be avoided in some places, but that will be remedied in a couple of weeks when Gary Hilliard’s Mt. Disappointment Endurance Run volunteer trailwork group works on this section of the Gabrielino Trail and the Kenyon Devore Trail.

Update June 21, 2012. Although my contact with Turricula on this run was very limited, I did have a mild reaction, mainly on my arms. There was very slight inflammation and the “prickly” itching that is characteristic of Turricula. The itching became noticeable about a day after exposure and persisted for 4-5 days. Although mild, the reaction was stronger than occurred following several similar encounters last year. One difference was the exposure to poison oak on the Rim Trail earlier in the run. It’s possible that there was a cross reaction. This was observed in animal testing, but not in (limited) human tests. However, my reaction following this latest encounter was much, much milder than my first bout of Turricula, which resulted from wading through large patches of the young Poodle-dog plants on miles of overgrown trail. That first very strong response may have also involved a cross reaction with poison oak.



With the Summer Solstice approaching and the Sun so high, the temperature difference between sunny and shaded sections of trail was remarkable. About the time we were on Kenyon Devore the Clear Creek RAWS recorded a fuel temperature — the temperature of a wood dowel in direct sun — at a scorching 104°F. Brett did well on the climb and could have zoomed ahead. I had not recovered from Holcomb and struggled a bit on the exposed and steep sections of trail. Higher on the trail there was a breeze and more shade and that helped. It also helped pouring water over my head at the creek crossing!

It was great to show Brett Kenyon Devore, and what better way to sharpen the appetite for one of his superbly prepared dinners!



Humboldt Lily

Turricula (Poodle-dog Bush)

California Sister
nature, nature|trees, nature|wildfire, photography, photography|landscape, weather, weather|la nina

Angeles National Forest Reforestation, the Natural Way

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Area near Mt. Islip burned in the 2002 Curve Fire

The photograph above is of an area on the Pacific Crest Trail near Mt. Islip that was burned ten years ago in the 2002 Curve Fire. Here’s another photograph of an area along the PCT near Throop Peak that was also burned in the Curve Fire. These are from last weekend’s trail run.

The forest conditions are quite a bit different in each case. The Mt. Islip trees are on a cooler northeast-facing slope that was densely forested, and the Throop Peak trees are on a warmer, more open, south-facing slope. But in both cases you can see numerous pines, from small seedlings to young trees two to three feet tall.



Reforestation doesn’t happen overnight, but nature is remarkably resilient, and as long as an area is not burned too frequently, many forests are able to recover from fire with minimal intervention.

However, the process of recovery is multi-faceted and complex. It may involve varying degrees of regrowth and succession. In some cases, such as in the blast zone of Mt. St. Helens, the ecosystem has to be effectively bootstrapped, and seemingly restored from scratch.

Ultimately the mature forest that results from these processes will be comprised of an ecosystem — and vegetation — suitable for the array of climatic and other factors present at the time.

Attempts to shortcut this process are not often successful — such as the recent attempt to plant nearly one million seedlings in the Station Fire burn area. An Angeles National Forest official is quoted in an April 7, 2012 Los Angeles Times story as saying, “When we planted seedlings, conditions were ideal in terms of soil composition and temperature, rainfall and weather trends.” Beyond the criticisms outlined in the story did anyone in the Forest Service consider that La Nina conditions were present, and there was a good chance La Nina conditions would be present during the 2011-2012 rain season — along with a likelihood of below normal precipitation?