Black cliff face

 About those black cliffs. I first noticed them in December of 2016. The cliff is on the west side of the southern tip of Upper Campbell Lake, noticeable from the Elk Portal on the east bank, but from the highway under the cliff, except for one vantage point, it's hidden behind the trees. 

The rock face, 2016.

This week I drove to that one spot at the foot of the cliff where it is visible through the trees to see if I could get a better view.

Not much has changed in the 6 years.

I wondered what had painted the rock. Was it part of the rock itself? I asked a geologist, who suggested it might be lichen. Some lichens are black when they're wet; this rock face is black whatever the weather has been.

Some small rocks, fallen from the cliffs on the east side of the lake, are smeared with a tarry black coating, hard as the rest of the rock. Is that what this is?

A closer view.

It almost looks like something was drizzled down from above. But what?

No trail leads up to the foot of this cliff, nor to the top. And I'm not up to bush-whacking these days, so I'm left wondering still.

Any ideas?

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Acerca de ese peñasco negro. Lo vi por primera vez en diciembre de 2016, desde el otro lado del lago Upper Campbell. La roca está en el lado oriente cerca del extremo sur del lago, pero desde la carretera a su base, hay un solo tramo de donde se puede ver por el bosque que lo esconde.

Esta semana fui otra vez a ver si podía verlo mejor.

Me pregunto que es lo que ha pintado la roca. Le pregunté a una geologa hace 6 años; ella sugerió que tal vez podría ser un liquen. Hay líquenes que son negros cuando están mojados, cafés en tiempo de sequía; estas rocas se mantienen negras sea cual sea el clima.

Algunas piedras caídas de los acantilados del lado occidental del lago están bañados de una capa negra brillosa, parte de la roca misma. ¿Será esto, entonces, pura roca?

Hasta parece que algo se goteaba desde arriba. Pero ¿qué?

No hay camino, ni un pequeño sendero que llega al pie del peñasco, ni tampoco hasta la cima. Y en estos dias, ya no me siento capaz de romper camino entre los bosques, así que me quedo todavía con la pregunta sin contestar.

¿Qué piensas?

No end to mysteries

I do routine maintenance on the aquarium, daily, and half the time, it seems that I have to say, "What on earth is that?"

Last week I emptied the tank, washed the sand, and replaced everything. As usual, I kept out the dirty water I'd washed the sand with, and let it sit overnight, just in case any tiny snails were hidden in the gunk. Normally, the dirt settles, and the snails climb to the top, where I catch them and return them to the tank, then dump the goopy mess.

But this time, there was a white network of fibers just on top of the settled gunk, below the inch or two of clear water. I stirred the water again, and let it sit. Two hours later, there was the net again. Three times I stirred it; every time, white lines made a road map along the top two hours later.

Monday evening

I looked at the clumps under the microscope: all I could see were tiny, straight threads. Watching one for a while, I could see it grow, lengthening at both ends. When I stirred the mix, I could still see shreds of threads, unconnected. But two hours later, there was the network again.

Monday evening, overview. The bowl is 6 inches across. This is about a 3 inch section.

I was gone for a day, and came back Wednesday afternoon. Part of the bowl was covered with a papery coat; the rest was still clumps of threads, some still making a road map.

Wednesday afternoon

Zooming in, Wednesday afternoon.

The filled-in areas looked like papier-mache pulp; all short, white fibers, arranged every which way.

Thursday afternoon. The "roads" are gone, replaced by individual clumps.

I looked at several of these clean clumps under the microscope. There was nothing to see but the white fibers, still short and straight, sticking out in all directions.

Zooming in. Nothing but white fibers on the dark background.

Over the weekend, the threads covered the whole area, without any organization into clumps or roads. When I shook the bowl Sunday night and again this morning, they disappeared, and returned in a couple of hours to the final, uniform covering. No roads, no clumps.

I don't even know where to start to find out what this was.