Looming rock face, and a question

 Beside Buttle Lake, I stopped to look at a mass of pillow lava. Walking  back to the car, I was facing this cutaway slab of streaky, brown rock atop the cliff face.

And the mountain goes on up and up and up.

Zooming in on the slab itself.

Back home (why do I never see these details when I'm there and could maybe get a bit closer?) I saw these additions to the rock face:

Do you see them? Pegs set into the rock itself, each one anchored with a square plate.

Cropped. One of those pegs has ropes attached.

What was that? I Googled "rock climbing equipment" and found nothing like these. I "drove" on Google street view up and down that stretch of highway, looking for more, but not finding any. Would they be leftovers from the rock-shaping crew cutting out a flat spot for the road?

From that Google street view; here's the same rock face.

Facing north.

Facing south. The pillow lava lump is the next rock down the road.

I guess this could count as a Skywatch post.

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En la orilla del lago Buttle, me detuve para mirar una masa de lavas acojinadas en el acantilado. Regresando al coche, veía este peñasco; rocas cortadas, un poco inclinado hacia el lago, con manchas de color café con leche.

1. Perspectiva, desde el camino.
2. Mirando esa cara cortada.
3. Y en casa (y ¿porqué será que nunca veo estos detalles cuando estoy allí en el terreno, cuando me podría acercar para verlos mejor?) en la foto descubrí estas estacas clavadas en la roca, cada una con su placa en la base.
4. Un corte de la foto previa. Una de las estacas lleva atada una cuerda. ¿Qué son estos? Busqué equipaje para alpinistas en Google, pero no vi nada parecido. "Manejé" en Google Street View por una buena distancia alrededor de este sitio, pero no vi otras estacas. ¿Serían, acaso, equipo abandonado por los que cortaron la roca para hacer el camino?
5. De Google Street View, este es el mismo peñasco. Esta vista, mirando hacia el norte.
6. Y mirando hacia el sur. Adelantito se ve la masa de lava acojinada.

Parece que esto podría llamarse un post de Skywatch. 

Do you see what I see?

 And another troll. The hills are alive!

He'll wake up after dark.

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Y aquí hay otro troll. ¡Los cerros viven!

(Despertará cuando se pone el sol.)

Sunburnt

 A couple of weeks ago I went to look at the cliff faces along the shore of Upper Campbell Lake again, wondering how the rock-dwelling mosses and other plants had weathered the heat wave.

Not well. The moss was brown and crispy, crumbling when I touched it, even the moss in the ditches at the bottom where they could hope to find moisture. Ferns near the top were toasted and shrunken. Here and there curled, brown leaves clung to cracks in the stone.

A few green leaves surviving near the foot of the cliff.

Ocean spray, crispy.

And yet, and yet ...

Some small plants are managing to find water down there somewhere in the cracks.

Up top, where the cliff levels off, the forest stays green.

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Hace un par de semanas fui a mirar otra vez los precipicios rocosos al lado del lago Upper Campbell, queriendo saber como habían aguantado los musgos y otras plantas durante la reciente ola de calor.

No muy bien. Los musgos estaban tostados, color café pardo, crujientes; se desmoronaban al tocarlos, hasta los que crecen al pie de la roca en la zanja donde normalmente se puede encontrar un poco de humedad. Los helechos allá arriba estaban quemados y encojidos. Esparcidas entre las grietas quedaban hojas muertas, secas y quebradizas.

Primera foto: todavía había una que otra hoja verde al pie de la roca.

Segunda foto: Rocío oceánico, Holodiscus discolor, achicharrado.

Pero sin embargo ...

Tercera foto: algunas plantitas de alguna manera han encontrado un poco de agua allí en las grietas de la roca.

Allá arriba, donde el cerro se aplana un poco, el bosque permanece verde.

Like toothpaste. Or bread crust.

Near Lupin Falls, beside Buttle Lake, I stopped once again to look at those heaps of rocky pillows.

Pillow lava. About 250 million years old.

I wrote about this formation last July, here and here, the first post wondering what it was, the second with information from a government pdf. I won't repeat that post: follow the links for more details.

In brief, 

Molten lava commonly erupts from cracks and fissures in the earth's crust onto the ocean floor. Each pillow is formed by lava which squirted forward in front of an advancing, submarine lava flow, like toothpaste from a toothpaste tube. As the lava contacts the colder water it forms a tough crust, like a loaf of bread. However, the molten interior of each pillow makes it relatively plastic and pillows therefore tend to take on weird shapes as they settle and pile up on the ocean floor.(BCGS_IC1995-07)

The same pile of pillows, from another angle.

Towering high above the road and the lake.

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Cerca de las cataratas Lupin, a la orilla del lago Buttle, me detuve, otra vez, para mirar esos montones de almohadas de piedra.

(Tres fotos de lava almohadillada)

Escribí sobre esta formación rocosa en julio del año pasado, aquí, y luego aquí; el primer post preguntando que cosa sería, y la segunda con una explicación tomada de una publicación del gobierno canadiense. No repetiré lo que dije entonces: sigue los enlaces para más detalles.

En breve:

"Lava fundida sale de grietas y fisuras en la corteza terrestre, emergiendo en el fondo del mar. Cada almohada se forma de lava que se proyecta en frente de un flujo submarino de lava que se exprime como pasta dental de un tubo. Cuando la lava se pone en contacto con el agua fría, se endurece formando una corteza fuerte, como la de una barra de pan. Sin embargo, la parte interior de cada almohada, todavía en estado líquido, la mantiene flexible, y las almohadas (o cojines) adquieren formas extrañas mientras se acumulan una sobre otra en el fondo del agua." (BCGS_IC-19955-07)

Eso hace unos 225 millones de años. Ahora, se alzan muy por arriba del camino y del lago.

Devil's matchstick

 In the spring of 2017, I found a tiny clump of Devil's matchstick lichen on a cliff facing Upper Campbell Lake.

Pilophorus acicularis

I searched the surrounding cliffs and found only this one small clump. This week, on an outcropping of rock in the hills behind this area, I found more. Many, many more:

So many matchsticks; like hair on the rocks.

Almost every exposed surface of this outcrop was covered in a forest of these black-tipped lichens.

Zooming in on the photo above.

Depending on the light, I think, sometimes the matchheads look black, sometimes a deep blue.

Another rock, another crop of matchsticks.

I must go back, with a lens more suited for close-ups. These rocks were full of interesting tinies!

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Hace tres años, en la primavera encontré unos pocos líquenes con cabezas negras en las rocas que miran hacia el lago Upper Campbell.  Busqué en todas las piedras alrededor, pero solamente encontré este brote. Los pude identificar como el liquen "fósforo del diablo", Pilophorus acicularis.

Esta semana, en un afloramiento rocoso en los bosque arriba de los peñascos, hallé un montón. Cada cara de piedra estaba cubierta de miles de estos pequeños líquenes.

Tendré que regresar al sitio con una lente apropriada para miniaturas. ¡Estas rocas están llenas de interés.

Lumpy cliffs

The highways crossing the island follow valleys and lake shores. But the terrain is standing on end, so the road usually runs along a narrow shelf; water at the bottom of a slope on one side, almost vertical rock faces or towering forest on the other, with only a narrow shoulder or ditch separating road from rock. I watch the rock faces as much as I do the lake views.

A wide spot on the highway beside Buttle Lake. Goldenrod, cliffs, forest.

At one spot along the Buttle Lake shore, the rock face turns lumpy, pillowy.

Brown and blue rock.

It looks like something made out of PlayDough.

Same rock, slightly different angle.

I don't remember seeing rock like this before.

Another face, a few curves down the road.

A few more turns, and the cliff faces returned to "normal".

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Las carreteras que cruzan la isla siguen el agua; ríos y lagos. Pero porque el terreno está tan accidentado (mi mamá decía que era una mesa, pero con las patas para arriba), los caminos normalmente ocupan un corte angosto, con el agua allá abajo de un lado, y los bloques verticales de roca del otro.

Me paso mucho del tiempo mientras manejo, mirando esas caras rocosas.

Al lado del lago Buttle, vi estas rocas algo raras; parecen bolas de plastilina todas amonotonadas juntas.

Solid comfort

I find masses of rock, the bones of the earth, curiously comforting. Maybe it's their indifference to the passing whims of wind and weather and the feeble scratchings of people below them. Maybe it's because they're always just there, while the centuries roll over them.

Mount Flannigan, Elk River, central Vancouver Island.

Rivers wander about, chewing at the land they flow through, changing their paths, rising and falling. The rocks remain.

In a valley near the Elk River

Summer brings a froth of green around the base of the mountains; evergreens blanket the upper slopes. Even they come and go. The rocks remain.

The face of Mount Flannigan

Somehow, amid the panics and enthusiasms of the day, a look at a rock face slows time, calms me.

No-name hills behind Drum Lakes (really two small, shallow puddles, but the map names them.) Rising water levels have killed the lower trees.

Photos on a rainy afternoon near Gold River.

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Contemplando la roca, la materia esencial de nuestra tierra, me trae consuelo. Tal vez por su indiferencia a los accidentes del día, el viento y las tormentas, los rasguños que hacemos los humanos, el paso de los años.

Los ríos vienen y se van, cambian su camino, suben y bajan. La roca permanece.

Lo verde es una espuma que pasa. La roca permanece.

Entre los terrores y los entusiasmos del día, miro la cara de una montaña y descanso.

Las fotos son de cerros al lado del Rio Elk, en una tarde lluviosa.

Elephant Rock

I'm calling this cliff "Elephant Rock".

Seen on Hwy. 19, south of Woss.

Terry Pratchett lives!

A Skywatch post

Ferns on a rock face

Throughout this long, hot, dry summer, mists from the falls keep the opposite rock wall moist and, wherever there is a toe-hold for roots, green.

Even on the sheer face to the left, constantly spray-blasted, two or three ferns have found a safe shelter.

Everything but the kitchen sink

It's that time of year; everything's budding, leafing out, blooming, running, multiplying. And so are my "to be posted later" photos. Before I start processing today's batch (and what a day it has been!), here are this month's holdovers, in no particular order.

New cones on fir spruce, Tyee Spit.

Pollen cones, on pine. Myrt Thompson trail.

Unidentified moss, Elk Falls.

Another view of that moss.

Lichen and moss on a rock face, Upper Campbell Lake

Hyacinth in a dark corner of my garden.

Purple dead-nettle, Lamium purpureum. These are astonishingly pink, growing in large patches along Tyee Spit. Later in the season, they'll be greener.

Service berry, aka Saskatoon. They're in bloom wherever the sunlight reaches.

Crimson clover, Trifolium incarnatum. I saw only two of these along the Myrt Thompson trail. When I returned, on my way home, they were gone. I hope the roots remained.

One of many small waterfalls, plunging down the cliffs near Upper Campbell Lake.

Unusual cliff formation. 

Water seeps through the bore holes, made for the dynamite that blasted out the space for a highway. I've been corrected: the holes might be geophysical tests of the lava rock magnetic orientation. Highway 28

Unnamed mini-lake beside the highway. The camera could not record the calls of early red-wing blackbirds.

A wolf spider, running. These are common on the upper beach, but are always running. And they're fast! I chased this one until he was tired. So was I.

Grows on rock

Even in the most inhospitable of locations, life will find a way. Enthusiastically, even.

On a tall rock face, scoured by wind, rain, ice and snow; alternately baked and frozen, dripping wet and bone-dry; bereft of soil, hard and knife-edged; lichens, mosses, ferns, and even trees find a foothold and happily settle in.

Cliff face over my head, beside Upper Campbell Lake. Bottle-brush moss lines the cracks, small lumps of dark brown moss speckle the bare face of the rock. There's even a bit of grass taking advantage of a dip.

Across the lake: yellow and green mosses basking in watery afternoon sunshine.

The moss is a primary colonizer; it traps bits of dust from the air and crumbling rock, and adds its own organic detritus. Other hardy plants and animals find shelter and nutrients under the moss, and a community is born.

Licorice ferns, three kinds of lichens, pine needles from the trees above, and mosses. The white stuff behind the ferns is snow.

A haircap moss, growing on the rock face.

At the foot of the cliff, on a cement wall (no more hospitable than the cliff). Moss and its spore cases.

And under and through all this green life, beetles, ants, springtails, and assorted flies go about their business. There's good eating up there on the mossy crags!

Still here. Where the arrow points to lichen.

Overhead, underfoot

Driving to Gold River, I stopped at a rock face beside Upper Campbell Lake to look at lichens. I found some I've never seen before.

Devil's matchstick, Pilophorus acicularis. These were in the corner of a photo I took of moss on the cliff face. I hadn't seen them when I took the photo, so I missed half the patch.

Unidentified bush lichens growing on bare rock.

Bulls' eye lichen, Placopsis gelida, growing on the cliff face. This lichen bears three kinds of reproductive structures; powdery soredia, fleshy pink cephalodia and saucer-shaped apothecia. (Click for a full-size view.)

Some sort of bone lichen, plus a few strands of reindeer lichen. On a broken branch at the foot of the cliff.

A bit of lungwort, Lobaria pulmonaria, I think. And some delicate white polypores, on another dead branch.

Rag or bone lichen, with cup-shaped fruiting bodies.

Farther along on the same branch.

White, stalkless mushrooms. With beetle, snail, and globular springtails. Click to zoom in and see the crinkly texture, like gathered fabric, and the furry edges.

This one, as shot, uncropped, has everything; shrub lichen, leaf lichen, moss, cedar twigs, cup lichen, a pine twig, pine cone, yellow jelly, and a few mushrooms. And a red stem. Everything lands higgledy-piggledy at the bottom of the cliff.

The cliff face is at the head of the middle arrow. More photos of this trip, tomorrow.