Posts Tagged ‘Balm Mountain’
Exploring Balm Mountain’s Slippery Slopes
The slope right below the lookout site is extremely steep and slippery. I didn’t even attempt going down there, although someday I think I might get to the bottom by following the trees down along the north edge. The tallest points in the distance are Mt. Thielsen and Mt. Bailey.
Great arctics have a two-year life cycle, so the adults tend to be abundant every other year. This year is an “off year,” but I’ve seen several this summer.
Balm Mountain, the highest point in the Calapooyas, has been one of my favorite places ever since I discovered it in 2010 (see First Exploration of Balm Mountain). Several times I’ve walked the trailless ridge between the old lookout at the north end and the high point at the south end, starting at both the north and south ends. What I’d never had time or energy to do was to head down the steep, gravelly slopes on the east side at the north end of the ridge. On July 18, I was on my own, so it seemed like a good time to see how much of this was traversable. Most of my friends either can’t or wouldn’t want to negotiate such a steep and unstable habitat, and I’d never ask them to. I also wanted to spend some time watching butterflies, which are particularly abundant in rocky areas of the Calapooyas when the mountain coyote mint (Monardella odoratissima) is in bloom; it had just been starting at Potter Mountain when I was there a couple of weeks earlier (see Finally Back to Potter Mountain).
The part of the road that gives me the willies while driving isn’t so bad on foot. There’s even a lovely display of Oregon sunshine. I had to stop and move some rocks before getting past it as soon as possible.
From the trip to Potter Mountain, I knew that Staley Ridge Road 2134 was in fine shape all the way up to the Calapooya crest, so there were less than 3 miles on roads 2154 and 236 before reaching the north end of the ridge that I was unsure about. I hadn’t been up here for 7 years since on the last few trips to Balm, John Koenig and I approached the ridge from the south end via Road 3810 (see Fabulous Loop Trip Around Balm Mountain). Ever since flatting my tire on the way to Illahee Rock in 2017 (see Ill-Fated Trip up Illahee Road: pt. 1, Illahee Meadow)—my fourth flat in a 4-year stretch, I’ve been much more wary of driving on little-used gravel roads, especially where there are burned or logged areas with open dropoffs on the side, like the spot where I was stuck changing my tire coming back from Illahee Rock.
This western white was hilltopping on the old lookout site when I arrived and was still there on my way back. Not landing very often, it finally stopped briefly to nectar on ocean spray (Holodiscus discolor).
It had gotten to the point where I was too nervous to enjoy the anticipation of going to many beloved spots because of my focus on all the negative “what-ifs”: what if I flat a tire, what if I get stuck up there for the night, what if I lose traction and go off the side of the road (the final scene of “Thelma and Louise” invariably goes through my head when I drive on roads with no trees forming a barrier along the edge!). I know I’ve done most everything I can to protect myself: I carry a Garmin InReach emergency communication device since cell phones rarely work in the Cascades, I tell my husband precisely where I’m going and contact him with the InReach throughout the day, I have lots of paper maps and software and GPS on my iPhone, and my all-electric car doesn’t have a gas tank to leak, belts to break, or spark plugs to fail. I’ve been up in the Western Cascades over a thousand times without ever being stranded (or flying off a cliff!), so you’d think that someone who majored in math in college would find the odds comforting. Still, I get uncomfortably nervous driving on backroads, and it doesn’t dissipate until I’ve successfully reached my destination.
Looking northeast to the northernmost slope below the lookout site, you can see the part of the slope I’m standing on is just a bit less steep and more stable, indicated by the shrubbier plants growing on it. The rocky spot a couple of ridges away is Potter Mountain.
Leafy fleabane (Erigeron foliosus) was in full bloom on the rocks of the old lookout site.
In the weeks before this trip, I’d decided I’d had enough of wasting so much time and energy—and impacting my health—stressing out about roads. I started meditating, worked on some mantras to boost my self-confidence, and came up with a 3-pronged approach to my driving issue. This was my first trip where I applied my new techniques. On the day before the trip, I worked on the relaxation techniques and tried to focus on how excited I was to go to one of my favorite spots rather than everything that could go wrong. Then, on the drive up, I took my husband’s advice to listen to a podcast to keep my mind occupied. I listened to an interview with Mark Egger, the Castilleja expert. It worked really well until he told a story about trying to get close to a rare species of Castilleja in Mexico by climbing out onto a cliff, and he thought he was going to fall off and die. I had to laugh about how that was absolutely the last thing I needed to hear at that time. As I approached the stretch of road where I knew there was one of those open edges with a steep dropoff, I focused on my breathing—deeply and slowly—and tried to keep my eyes looking down at the road surface. Upon reaching my parking area, I had a real feeling of accomplishment and didn’t have the fatigue that comes with stressing out for hours. I felt ready to do it again! Unfortunately, my plans for a quick return were thwarted by the start of fire (and smoke) season. Maybe in the fall. Hopefully, my stress reduction routine will continue to work for me going forward. It has also been really helpful dealing with the month of stress keeping an eye on the very large Bedrock Fire, which started a few days later (but thankfully is now more or less contained and never came closer than about 5 miles from my house).
Gray’s bedstraw growing in scree. I’ve never seen this species outside of the Calapooyas, but the few photos of the species on iNaturalist from California look very similar to where it grows here and on Loletta Peak.
The fuzzy, bluish foliage of Gray’s bedstraw doesn’t look anything like the thin, green leaves of our woodland bedstraws. I imagine it is a valuable adaptation for this harsh habitat. This is a female plant with hairy fruits.
With the road issues out of the way, I could focus on my plan to check out the slopes—if possible. In addition to my curiosity about what was growing in this extremely well-drained and rather unforgiving habitat, I was hoping to find one specific plant. Back in 2011 (see Not Balmy Yet at Balm Mountain!), I spotted a single plant of Gray’s bedstraw (Galium grayanum var. nanum), a species that is very rare in Oregon. It was growing on the ridge at the north end above a gravelly slope. I first discovered this species the previous year on nearby Loletta Peak (see Mystery Bedstraw Blooming in Calapooyas), which is more or less on the same ridge as Balm Mountain, so I had been looking for it on Balm. But while I had relocated this individual on each of the following 4 trips, I’d never been able to find any more plants. Surely with all this perfect habitat, there would be more plants. But scanning the slopes with binoculars hadn’t turned up anything, hence the desire to actually go down on foot (hopefully, not on my backside!).
Looking north from the first of the amazing rock formations, you can see both the main scree areas at the north end of the ridge and the lookout site at the highest point.
A fritillary (northwestern or hydaspe?) nectaring on coyote mint. This individual has an unusual spot-with-a-dot at the base of its hindwing.
The giant gash in the mountain below the lookout is too steep to even consider, but I was able to walk down a short way near its south edge, following a few trees and grabbing small shrubs when possible. I looked for solid outcrop rocks to put my feet on as I got more into the open gravel, but it was still quite slippery, and I had to use my hands quite a bit. When I felt stable, I pulled out the binoculars, looking for the unusual blue-gray color of the bedstraw. Well, I thought it was pretty distinctive, but in this habitat, it turned out to be rather common. Silverback luina (Luina hypoleuca), Oregon sunshine (Eriophyllum lanatum), and cliff penstemon (Penstemon rupicola) were all growing out in the scree. I had to remember the gestalt of the plant so I could form a better search image. I kept looking… and there it was! Now it was worth scrambling down a little farther to get close to a plant. I carefully made my way down to the nearest plant I saw. I found at least a dozen plants scattered about. So here finally was the main population of Gray’s bedstraw on Balm Mountain. There may well have been more farther down in the main gash, but I was satisfied at having found this much of it.
The slope a little farther south of the lookout is where the original Gray’s bedstraw plant grows. I walked down as far as the large clump of trees partway down. The bright green patch on the nearby ridge on the left side of the photo is the meadow I went to later in the day.
Rather than heading straight back up to the ridge, I continued sideways over to another gravelly area just to the south. This proved to be a little less steep and slightly easier to navigate, with a bit more solid rock. I found another dozen or two clumps of bedstraw here as well, so I collected one for the OSU Herbarium. Success! I headed back up to the ridgetop and over to the slope where my original Gray’s bedstraw plant was. I already knew from past visits that there wasn’t any bedstraw at the top of the slope, so I followed the trees down to an outcrop area about 300′ down the slope and 100′ of elevation loss. No sign of any bedstraw on the way down or farther down the slope within binocular range. I relocated the original plant, and—for the first time—noticed that it is a male plant. This species is dioecious. So a seed probably made it over here from the other scree area, but not being able to produce more seeds, it couldn’t start another population.
This friendly dark wood nymph stayed with me for quite a while as I tried to photograph other butterflies and moths in the meadow at the intersection of roads 2154 and 236.
With the hard climbing out of the way, it was time to switch gears and focus on the butterflies. There were lots of butterflies but the warm day made them active, and it was tough to photograph them here because of the steep grade and loose rock. There were lots of painted ladies, clodius parnassians, and checkerspots. I also saw a few swallowtails, some fritillaries, a great arctic, an anglewing of some sort, and a pacuvius duskywing. I only saw one hairstreak and a couple of blues all day and not a single copper. I’m not sure where they were. The most exciting thing for me was a beautiful sphinx moth nectaring on the abundant coyote mint.
Looking west from the Road 236 intersection meadow, you can see the long ridge of Balm Mountain and just barely make out the eroded slopes of the north end. The old lookout site is on top of the highest point on the north end at the right.
At this point, I was ready to relax and get on solid ground, so instead of heading farther down the ridge, I headed back to the car and drove down Road 236 to the intersection of 2154. There’s a large meadow there with a gravelly section at the north end that sits on top of the roadcut. This is right where John and I got stopped by snow back on our trip in 2011. There wasn’t much going on in the grassy part of the meadow, but with lots of blooming coyote mint, sulphur buckwheat (Eriogonum umbellatum) and northern buckwheat (E. compositum) in the gravelly area, the butterflies were very busy. Another couple of sphinx moths captured my attention. They didn’t seem to notice me, flying very close to where I stood but moving so much as to make even video hard to capture. It was a delightful way to end another awesome day in the Calapooyas!
Like most butterflies, this beautiful white-lined sphinx moth loves mountain coyote mint. The video is at half speed so you can actually see how it moves.
Fabulous Loop Trip Around Balm Mountain
Classic frosted paintbrush (Castilleja pruinosa) has narrow leaves that are often quite purple-tinged. Mount Bailey is the snowy mountain to the left. To its right, the rim of Crater Lake can be seen even farther southeast.
On my very last hike in the mountains last year, John Koenig and I found a great way to bushwhack up the south side of Balm Mountain, the highest point in the Calapooyas and one of the coolest places in the Western Cascades (see Another Way Up To Balm Mountain’s South End). We talked about coming back this year and doing a loop by climbing up that way, walking the entire ridge to the north, and returning via a road that leads to the north side. It was high up on both of our priority lists, so for our first trip together to the Calapooyas this year, on July 3rd, we decided to give it a try.
After a number of trips up here, this was the first time I was able to see the deltoid balsamroot (Balsamorhiza deltoidea) in good bloom at the far south end of the mountain. Some monkeyflower and large-flowered blue-eyed Mary indicates this area is somewhat seepy.
Meandering About Moon Point
From the rocky viewpoint at the end of the trail, we had a great view to the south of the east-west-oriented Calapooya Mountains, including Bristow Prairie where we were the day before and Balm Mountain where I went 10 days later. The coppery-colored shrub to the right is actually a very dwarf Pacific yew (Taxus brevifolia), while some snowbrush (Ceanothus velutinus) is blooming to the left.
I believe this is the caterpillar of the police car moth. Its host food plants are in Boraginaceae like this blue stickseed (Hackelia micrantha). He’s clearly been eating both the leaves and the inflorescence.
After our Bristow Prairie trip (see previous post), Betsy Becker decided to stay in the area another day, so on Sunday, June 23, I brought her up to the Moon Point trail. We had a mostly relaxing day (Betsy was not so relaxed when I persuaded her to sit on top of the cliff at the end of the otherwise easy walk!). It was a beautiful day, and the flowers were still fresh. We saw some more plants she wasn’t familiar with, including the rare green-flowered wild ginger (Asarum wagneri). We also made a loop through the lower meadows to pretty Moon Lake. Here are some photos. Read the rest of this entry »
Another Way Up To Balm Mountain’s South End
On the way up, we stopped for lunch at the top of the quarry. John’s proximity to the edge of the cliff gave me the willies, so I sat farther back.
On October 16, it was a beautiful clear day, and John Koenig and I headed up into the Calapooyas for one last chance to visit this wonderful area before winter set in. We headed down Road 3810 that runs along the west side of Balm Mountain. In the past, John and I had planned a trip to find a way to hike up to the south end of Balm Mountain (which is really a long ridge) through some meadows we could see on the aerial images. All my previous trips were approached from the north end of the mountain. We tried several times to get down to the end of the road in the past, but trees blocked it well ahead of where we needed to start (see Another Look at Aspen Meadow and Bradley Lake). On a previous visit to what we call Aspen Meadow, a wetland along Road 3810, we had driven down the road and discovered the trees were finally cleared, but there was a huge washout—one that I can’t see ever being fixed—about a half mile from where it used to dead end.
The fabulous rock formations near the top of the south end of Balm Mountain
Another Beautiful Day on Balm Mountain
The rocks at the southern end of the ridge are quite extraordinary, made even more beautiful by a fabulous display of colorful wildflowers, including sulphur buckwheat and skyrocket.
Clustered broomrape (Orobanche fasciculata) was popping up frequently. This particular plant had a reddish blush over the usual pale yellow flowers.
On July 26, John Koenig and I went for a long awaited trip to Balm Mountain. Back in 2011—a big snow year—we had made the trip up there (see Not Balmy Yet at Balm Mountain!), but since snow blocked the road and forced us to walk almost two miles to the parking spot, we didn’t have time to get to the south end of the mountain. We were relieved that nothing blocked the road on this trip or kept us from making it all the way to the south end of the ridge.
Although getting late in the bloom season, there were still plenty of flowers to satisfy us, including buckwheats (Eriogonum umbellatum and E. compositum), coyote mint (Monardella odoratissima), frosted paintbrush (Castilleja pruinosa), tongue-leaf luina (Rainiera stricta), and Oregon sunshine (Eriophyllum lanatum). We saw a gorgeous stand of western blue flax (Linum lewisii) along the road, but by the time we were hiking, all we saw of the many plants on the ridge were blue petals lying on the ground. Their ephemeral petals only last a day. Read the rest of this entry »
Another Exciting Day in the Calapooyas: The Sequel
Sliver Rock is an awesome pillar rock that protrudes from the slope below Road 3810 in the Boulder Creek Wilderness. There seems to be a lot of confusion about the name. The USGS quad map shows it as “Sliver Rock,” but their website lists it as “Silver Rock”. The Forest Service District maps that cover the area are also divided about the name. I’m going to keep calling it Sliver Rock because it really is like a thin sliver, and there’s nothing silvery about it. John and I contemplated how and whether we might be able to reach the rock. It looks challenging but too enticing not to give it a try…some day.
John Koenig and I had such a great day last week (see Another Exciting Day in the Calapooyas) that we wanted to pick up where we left off, so, on Thursday, June 4, we headed back up Coal Creek Road 2133 to our usual parking spot east of Loletta Lakes. We hadn’t gotten this far last week until 6pm, so we wanted to spend more time here and see the area in the sun. When we arrived, the area was under a cloud that obscured the ridge just above us. John was confident it would burn off, and indeed, within just a few minutes, we were under blue skies. The rest of the day was gorgeous, sunny, and pleasantly cool. Read the rest of this entry »
Return to Potter Mountain
Last July, I discovered an awesome new spot in the Calapooyas, Potter Mountain (see Natural Rock Garden at Potter Mountain). Since I’d missed the early bloom, it was high on my list of sites to revisit this year. On Sunday, May 31, I returned to see what else might be up there. Staley Creek Road 2134 is usually in good shape, but it did require moving a few small rocks. Still I got up there no trouble (and left it a little clearer for my next trip up). The day was rather overcast but the clouds came in waves, so I did get some sun off and on.
Cutleaf daisy (Erigeron compositus) growing right on the rocky, spine of the ridge. Diamond Peak can be seen to the east.
Natural Rock Garden at Potter Mountain
There’s a fabulous 360° view from top of Potter Mountain. Here you can see Mount Bailey to the south. The air was cool and clear after the recent rains, and I could see Mt. McLoughlin and maybe even the top of Mt. Shasta.
Have you ever heard of Potter Mountain in Douglas County? I may have seen the name on a map, but I’d never heard anyone mention it. I had no idea what I was missing! I’m always excited to find new places, and several weeks ago when my husband and I were hiking along the ridge of Balm Mountain (see Butterflies, Blossoms, and Boulders on Balm Mountain), I couldn’t stop looking at a craggy summit a few miles due east. Later, looking at a map, I discovered it was Potter Mountain, and I was thrilled to find it was just off Road 2154, a major road (for a gravel road, that is) that traverses much of the Calapooya crest. This might actually be an easy place to access. With so many interesting plants in the Calapooyas, I couldn’t wait to check it out. Yesterday, July 25, I finally got to do it. Read the rest of this entry »
Butterflies, Blossoms, and Boulders on Balm Mountain
The wild rock formations at the southern end of the ridge look to me like they were underwater. Spreading phlox (Phlox diffusa) happily filled areas where their roots could find cracks.
I’ve been wanting to show my husband the unusual rock formations on Balm Mountain in the Calapooyas ever since I first discovered the area. Finally on Saturday, July 5, we were able to make that happen. There were no great botanical discoveries or unexpected wildlife interactions, and since it’s a very busy time of year, and I’m way behind, I thought I’d just share some photos of a beautiful day on a beautiful mountain. Read the rest of this entry »
Not Balmy Yet at Balm Mountain!
End of the line. The first (but not the last!) snow bank we had to walk across on our way to Balm Mountain.
Crater Lake currant (Ribes erythrocarpum) is endemic to the Cascades of Oregon, mostly in the south. It is very common in the area near Balm Mountain. Its unusual orange flowers are followed by red berries.
Yesterday (July 20), John Koenig and I went to Balm Mountain to pre-hike it for an NPSO trip I had scheduled for the end of the month. I wasn’t sure if we’d be able to get there or not, but looking at photos of it I’d taken from various spots in the last week or two, I had some hope it had melted out enough for us to get there. It was clear sailing all the way up Staley Ridge Road 2134. We turned onto Timpanogas Road 2154 and hit snow at about 0.8 mile. It covered half the road but with some shoveling was safely passable. A tree had also fallen across the road but was held up by the steep bank. John had brought some equipment, although unfortunately he forgot his chainsaw, and we spent more effort tackling these obstacles than we should have—in hindsight. While the road seemed clear after that, we were stopped by an insurmountable snow bank covering the road a mere 1/4 mile farther up the road, just before the intersection of Road 236. Time to walk. Read the rest of this entry »