Duckabush River Trail, May 25th, 2007          ( trail info )

The dogs and I hiked this wonderful trail for five miles up, ten miles round trip, and we saw vanilla leaf every step of the way.  The trail had been maintained by the Washington Trails Association recently, and it was smooth, clear, and never too steep.  Still, it was slow going for us because I had to stop every ten feet and look at the abundance and variety of native plants.  I noted over 71 species of natives, without ever venturing off the trail, and I don't think I saw a single invasive species.  I had used most of the 1 gigabyte memory card in the camera by the time we reached the five mile mark, and I had to edit and delete pictures on the return hike so I could take a few more shots.

The Cornus canadensis in these woods looked better than mine in the yard, which is scraggly and bug-eaten.  It was sparse, and never a continuous ground cover.

We climbed over "Little Hump" without really noticing it, and arrived at the river again at the 2.4 mile mark.  The river ran fast and cold.  It worked as an air conditioning unit for the area near the river, and I could feel the stream of cold air rushing down the valley over the surface of the river.  I cautioned the dogs to stay near me, and just dip their feet in a shallow, quiet eddy.  The whole river is shallow, and I could have remained standing at almost every point in the river, so I wasn't too worried about the danger, just cautious.  I turned to set my pack down, and in just a few seconds, Kelsy popped up on the river bank twenty feet downstream.  Her eyes were wide and she held her ears down in that way she does when she knows she has misbehaved.  The water danced off of her, like it does off a newly waxed car, instead of dripping off of her the way it does when she swims, so I know she wasn't in the water long at all if the water never had a chance to soak in.  After her little adventure, she didn't need any more warnings from me to be cautious around the river.  All three dogs enjoyed the natural air conditioning, and laid on the cool, mossy rocks. 

The green color of the river seemed unusual.  The result of a particular mineral suspended in the water?  The river was one of the few sunny spots, as the canopy was usually completely closed for the whole hike.  It was the brightest and the coolest area in the forest.  It looked like it tasted good, although I didn't try it.  While we rested by the river, a solitary duck zoomed up the Duckabush river at about a hundred miles an hour, about ten feet above the surface.  Where was he going in such a hurry? 

Sweet cicely, above, lined the trail along with many interesting ground covers.  The trail seemed to have the most species of any place in the woods, perhaps because the trail created an edge, and provided an opening for plants that might otherwise be crowded out. 

Climbing "Big Hump", which was noticeably steep and had many switchbacks, the woods of fir and cedar gave way to a rocky outcropping.  In this bare and sunny place, nature seemed to have thrown every known native plant against this wall to see what would stick.  I found licorice fern growing right next to madrone and Oregon stonecrop.  The rock ledges held a pleasant variety of native flowers: paintbrush, bleeding heart, saxifrage, enchanter's nightshade, false lily of the valley, false Solomon seal, Oregon grape, salal, huckleberry, honeysuckle.  Much of it was in bloom, so I happened to have picked a good time for the hike. 

 

The rocky outcropping provided one of the few opportunities for a view.  We were right near the snow-capped peaks of The Brothers and Mt. Jupiter, but the trees and the terrain never allowed us to see either one.

The rhododendron flowers at this exposed place, about 1600 feet in elevation, were oddly crinkled.  I'm guessing the buds were damaged by a late freeze, and they later bloomed in their distorted state. 

What species is this one below?  A Brodiaea?

 

After Big Hump, we dropped down to the river again, five miles from the trail head.  The dogs had another rest on the mossy rocks, and carefully waded in a sheltered pool of the river.  When it was Kelsy's turn to carry the back pack, she punished me by walking right at the heel position and banging the pack into my calf on every step.  She would rarely heel if I asked her to, but with the pack on, she insisted on walking right in that spot, even when I politely asked her not to.  I had to put up with it, because, when a dog is heeling, is it wise to tell her she's doing something wrong?  So, we trudged along, bang, bang, bang, the pack against my calf.  I tuned it out after a while and just enjoyed the forest and the company of my sweet and annoying companions. 

This hike also had a few birds.  Not as many as at home, but more than I have heard and seen on most of the other hikes.  We saw a deer on the drive out.  Kelsy found this very exciting.  She jammed her nose in the gap between the canopy and the cab and inhaled the scent of the deer.  She yipped and howled for about a mile, anxious to visit with the large, smelly beast.  She had seen horses at Useless Bay, and thought nothing of it.  The deer must have smelled wild, somehow.  After the scent of the deer faded away, all three dogs crashed in the bed of the truck, and I didn't see their heads in the rearview mirror for a hundred miles. 

Here's a list of the species I noted.  There were a few more I couldn't identify, including two species with tiny blue flowers.  I'm sure there were many more species I didn't see, and I didn't try to identify the mosses and lichens.  This hike had so many good natives that I could probably have spent days slowly hiking the five mile section, along with a backpack full of books.  (I subsequently learned that WNPS has species lists for popular hikes posted on their web site.  Had I known, I would have printed out their list and taken it with me as a checklist and a guide on what to look for.  Next time.  Go to this page and select the Duckabush link to get the Word file.)

Abies grandis
Acer circinatum
Acer macrophyllum
Achlis triphylla
Achillea millefolium
Adiantum pedatum
Alnus rubra
Amelanchier alnifolia
Arbutus menziesii
Aruncus dioicus

Asarum caudatum
Athyrium filix-femina
Blechnum spicant
Brodiaea?
Castelleja miniata
Ceanothus integerrimus
Circaea alpina
Claytonia sibirica
Cornus canadensis
Dicentra formosa

Disporum smithii
Epilobium angustifolium
Erythronium oregonum
Fragaria vesca
Fragaria virginiana
Gaultheria shallon
Geum macrophyllum
Heuchera micrantha
Holodiscus discolor
Linnaea borealis

Lonicera ciliosa
Luzula parviflora
Mahonia nervosa
Maianthemum dilatatum
Mimulus gutatus
Oemlaria cerasiformis
Osmorhiza chiloensis
Pachistima myrsinites
Pinus monticola?
Polypodium glycerrhiza

Polystichum munitum
Populus balsamifera trichocarpa
Pseudotsuga menziesii
Pteridium aquilinum
Rhamnus purshiana
Rhododendron macrophyllum
Ribes bracteosum
Ribes sanguineum
Rosa gymnocarpa
Rubus leucodermis

Rubus parviflorus
Rubus pedatus
Rubus spectabilis
Rubus ursinus
Salix scouleriana
Sambucus racemosa
Sedum oreganum
Sedum spathulifolium
Smilacina racemosa
Symphoricarpos albus

Taxus brevifolia
Tellima grandiflora
Thuja plicata
Tolmiea menziesii
Trientalis latifolia
Trillium ovatum
Tsuga heterophylla
Urtica dioica
Vaccinium ovatum
Vaccinium parvifolium

Viola glabella