Season’s last tour to the Lake? feeling kinda silly standing here on the beach on skis. But I did ski almost five miles today, almost all of it on snow, just a few inches of damp powder on bare ground.
Staghorn lichen on root drift wood, with beaver pruned willow
The last day of skiing on the shore, searching out patches that get close enough to the Lake for a view, after a season that lasted down here at lake level, from October to April.
Ponderosa Pines (Pinus ponderosa) grow at lower elevations here, along the lakeshore, but are otherwise a West Slope species. Closely related Jeffrey Pines are much more common here, east of the Crest and at higher elevations, though the two are at times difficult to distinguish between, and in fact will hybridize with each other. The mature Pondys tend to have bigger plates on their bark, and the sharp points on their pine cone petals are curved up and out, rather than down and in, hense the ‘prickly Ponderosa and gentle Jeffrey’ saying.
Incense Cedar (Calocedrus decurrens) flexing in typical cedar style. I remember standing on that branch, roped up, climbing that tree with a Park biologist, back in the early aughts.