#red fir

[pickleweed2]

Early snow on Horse Mountain.

Six Rivers National Forest, California

[tpeakphotos]

Abies magnifica, more commonly known as Red Fir or Silver Tip Fir is a beautiful conifer that grows at fairly high elevation, generally between 5 and 9 thousand feet. Smaller trees are definitely favored as Christmas trees and when they get larger their bark takes on a reddish brown hue, hence their common name. Wherever they grow large, it’s a sure bet they’ll be the tallest trees in the area with large specimens reaching as high as 250 feet with trunk diameters occasionally exceeding 6 feet.

On this late August day I took a walk through the aptly named Red Fir Nature Trail near Mills Peak in Plumas County California. It was mid-day so some bright sun was making its way through the dense canopy; perfect conditions for near infrared photography. This image was captured using a full spectrum modified camera fitted with an 830 nanometer filter so no visible light was used in its creation.

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[pcttrailsidereader]

My Favorite Spot

For 25 years, Ronin Demele worked as a wilderness ranger. In his book, Pacific Crest Trail: Mountain Encounters of a Wilderness Ranger, Demele has gathered 30 short essays based upon his experiences. I appreciate this essay because it serves as a reminder that our favorite spot along the PCT doesn't have to be in the heart of the High Sierra or the North Cascades. It can be a magical place in the midst of nature, immersed in the trees, flowers and animals of the wilderness.

Cover image - Pacific Crest Trail: Mountain Encounters of a Wilderness Ranger

I have my favorite spot along the Pacific Crest Trail . . . where vistas unfold and caused me to sigh in wonder whenever I hiked past this scenic point. The location is up at about 7,000 feet along the trail in the northern Trinity Alps.

In a beautiful sloping meadow surrounded by red fir, I followed a break in the forest and crossed a downed log. A small granite pebble path led me to a large meadow facing east. In the middle of this green oasis of wet grass, red columbine and purple-blue penstemon flowers,, I came upon granite stone blocks of what looked like an ancient sculpture project -- rocks naturally arranged to delight all who passed the small wind- and water-sculpted granite, many the size of living room furniture. Like chairs and sofas strewn in perfect harmony with many angles of artistic interest, smooth grey surfaces placed for aesthetic effect.

As I approached this rock monument, I saw lime green rock lichens mixed with black and red ones covering the north shaded corners of exposed granite. Looking down, with the sun's afternoon rays bouncing off the rock, my eyes were treated to sparkling quartz crystal and mica reflections.

To add grace to glory, the rocks allowed me four steps up on top of this sculptural arrangement. On top, a perfectly flat, smooth rock with a concave shape awaited to accommodate my butt. Around and below me was a circle of light white granite, absorbing and reflecting the day's heat. I settled in.

Soon I heard chip-chip-chip-chip, caw, caw, and chook-chook-chook-chook-chook bird sounds coming fron the surrounding forest.

My eyes bathed on the rows of mesmerizing ridges far out across the sky, rippling perhaps fifty miles beyond. Larger still, and right in front of my landscape and dominating the mountains in all directions was a wonder twice the height of me now -- a volcano with a white hat, snow-covered year-round, and towering above all. The mountain in seen from every high peak around it and from valley dwellers 200 miles away. The Fuji of California, the peak punctures the sky . . . Mount Shasta.

I climbed down from my perch and smiled, and retreated back along the PCT. I thought about why I hike. Many times when I hike in the mountains, I want to get somewhere . . . a lake, a peak, and creek, or a meadow, but if I wanted to be somewhere, I stopped to let the place get to me. So I stopped and sat on a log. This log was grey and solid . . . perhaps a healthy snag until a windy winter storm dropped it there. As I sat, I heard a short chip-chip sound of a Williamson woodpecker.

Out on a large white fir, he surged down into a remaining snag twenty feet away, near the remaining brittle stump of my log. Then, I saw it was a she with young mouths to feed, second later, shooting out again and straight up into a large fir with lime green lichens ringing the trunk. Then, just as fast, shot a finch reaching into her tiny circular home in the same snag only feet away, perhaps feeding her brood.

Thuuuuurrrrrr, echoed above, as a thunderous sound vibrated the ghostly snag nearby. I spied a pileated woodpecker, a rarity around here. Quickly he was gone, a fast flight deeper into the forest . .. not to be seen again that day.

Below, as I looked to the ground around my log seat, black ants and large flies explored the green shoots of a corn lily growing alongside the granite pebbled trail; now some were heading for my boots. I was so used to being recognized as being human in a human-made world that I was reminded that other worlds exist, and this day it was wilderness, and it had come to me.

[spiritheyregone]

03/31/2002

[nemfrog]

“Trunks of two Red Firs of great size.” A primer of forestry. 1909.

Internet Archive

[musictherapy611]

Daily Tree: abies procera

In English please: noble fir, red fir, Christmastree

Grows: Cascade and Coastal mountain ranges, Washington, Oregon, and California

Conservation status: least concern

Wikipedia page: here

Photo 1: treesplanet . blogspot . com/2015/09/abies-procera-noble-fir-red-fir.html#.XC6XJVVKjIU

Photo 2: www . nwplants . com/business/catalog/abi_pro.html

[pickleweed2]

Lilies, budding at 4,000' in the shade of Red Fir atop the South Fork Mountains. Think these will turn out to be Leopard Lilies, Lilium pardalinum, based off the location and elevation.

Edit: I've gone back to the spot, turns out they are washington lilies, Lilium washingtonianum purpurescens

Six Rivers National Forest, California

[musictherapy611]

Daily Tree: abies magnifica

In English please: red fir, silvertip fir, California red fir

Grows: mountains of southwest Oregon and California

Conservation status: least concern

Wikipedia page: here

Photo 1: https : // www . hobbyseeds . com/abies-magnifica-shastensis-californian-red-fir-10.html

Photo 2: https : // sites . google . com/site/gloriahernandezsinvestigations/lessons/biology/tree-rings-climate/trees-of-california/red-fir-abies-magnifica