Month: February 2015

Mountain Beaver an unusual rodent-animal of West Coast North America

Zoology Thulefoth Comments
Mountain Beaver skull, top view

Mountain Beaver skull, top view

Mountain Beaver, binomial Aplodontia rufa, is very familiar to country residents of the coastal Pacific Northwest, but less so in the towns and cities, or on University campuses, where it may have an aura of mystery (or misinformation). Though many rural citizens rarely see the animal itself, they are well aware of it from the abundant holes and dirt-piles it excavates (and its landscape-depredations). The general country can seem saturated with the tunnel-warrens of mountain beaver. … cont’d >

Mount Mueller Trail, US Forest Service, Olympic Peninsula

Trails Thulefoth Comments

Mount Mueller Trail is a US Forest Service project just outside Olympic National Park, near the west end of Lake Crescent along the main US Highway 101.

The trail is a loop from its Mount Mueller Trailhead.  The main attraction is a high, sharp, forested ridge (with Mount Mueller itself about midway).  The other side of the loop runs along the valley floor of the Sol Duc River, a few tenths of a mile back off the highway, through classic valley-floor rainforest .  US 101 runs right down the Sol Duc valley for miles, almost to the town of Forks.

Superhuman emergency strength

Biography Thulefoth Comments

Superhuman emergency strength is most often illustrated in the lifting of automobiles off victims pinned underneath, by a rescuer who is not a powerful person, and not athletic. The lesson taken & offered is, that when it is really needed, ordinary people are capable of extraordinary strength – which is not in itself a remarkable, much less Supernatural – assertion.  In the nowadays classic example of lifting a car, it is however underreported that cars have springs, and that normal strength is sufficient to ‘lift’ the car several inches, at least, and that the top of a car is typically rounded, and that when upside down it is rather easy to rock it back & forth quite a bit.  Just shifting the car like this, will often suffice to pull someone out from under it.

Nuclear Quadrapole Resonance

Physics Thulefoth Comments

Nuclear Quadrapole Resonance, NQR, is a science tool, technique or instrument of the same family as the more-familiar MRI or Magnetic Resonance Imaging.  Both probe the nucleus structure of the atom or molecule using radio waves and coils attached to electronic circuits.

NQR equipment can be built in elementary forms that are simple, undemanding and inexpensive – yet useful.  MRI, however, generally requires a larger commitment in engineering, support and financing.

NQR resembles the Fluorescence of minerals under a ‘black-light’ or ultraviolet illumination, which has been used as an exploration tool.  This type of ad hoc fluorescence works very well, is easy & cheap … but it does not give the same results for the same materials & substances, in different conditions.  Variations of impurities or chemical and environmental factors can lead to different results for different samples of the same material.  (This sensitivity can of course also be useful…)

MRI, on the other hand, is not influenced by incidental complications, the way NQR is.  This allows certainty that NQR can’t give, and in cases like medicine this can be the difference between acceptable and not.

Quadrapole resonance has received attention in the late 20th & early 21st C, as a practical method of detecting buried landmines. Princess Diana was famous for spearheading the landmine initiative.  The high variant-sensitive of NQR, which can impair its formal scientific utility (or disqualify it in medical applications) means that it can detect an arbitrary object in varying ground-materials, and may even detect that specimens of the exact same model of explosive device were made at different (specific) factories, which can then deprive makers, providers and users of plausible deniability.

 

Deer foot-Vanilla leaf a ground-cover of North America's central West Coast

Flora Thulefoth Comments
Deer foot vanilla leaf, Storm King

Deer foot vanilla leaf, Storm King

Deer foot-Vanilla leaf is a delicate spring-flowering perennial of moist & shady woodlands, characteristic of coastal zones with marine influence … and stream-valleys and lake-sides.  The leaf is a triplet, with a shape more like a duck or goose foot; the hoof-analogy is a stretch … but the leaf-edge shape is distinctive.  It has a narrow, erect stalk that bears the flowers and seeds; about shin-high.  They grow & spread in patches from a rhizome-runner, in loose, well-drained woodland soil.  The rootstock seems like it would be worth a try, transplanting; easy to collect.  The soil is often like a friable-compost lightened potting soil, which is fairly common in the woods it likes.  Very tender, the plant crushes underfoot. … cont’d >

Lake Ozette, Olympic Nat’l Park

Olympic Nat'l Park Thulefoth Comments

Lake Ozette is regarded as a premier destination of the Olympic National Park, both for the large, remote & isolated lake set in the coastal rainforest, and for the seashore trails that branch out from its visitor center.  There is a conventional boat launch on the east shore, and docks by the Ranger Station and campground, at the far north end.  Ozette is well off the mainstream roads, and takes roughly an extra hour to reach, along and finally at the terminus of deadend roads – undoubtedly part of the attraction.  There have been reservation systems advertised in recent times, but they have not been in evidence lately.  Do check with WIC Wilderness Information Center.

Happy Lake Ridge Trail, Olympic Nat’l Park close-in, easy-access, lightly-used, less-dramatic, classic backpacking, loop

Olympic Nat'l Park Thulefoth Comments
Happy Lake Ridge Trail, lower timber & salal

Happy Lake Ridge Trail, lower timber & salal

Happy Lake Ridge Trail is part of a complete loop-route, 17 miles long.  It’s a 3,000′ climb from the Happy Lake Ridge Trailhead, topping out in about 3 miles, and then a subalpine walk along a very broad & mild, semi-open ridge-system; almost rolling plateau-like.  There is standard camping at Happy Lake, which someone once called wet and buggy (weather-related?), but is set in a fine geology-exhibit & invitation to explore.  The trail makes a tee with the Aurora Divide Trail at about 7.5 miles, and then reaches its end at Boulder Lake, at 9.5 miles.  Then it’s downhill for the rest of the loop (partly on the low-key, antique road).

… cont’d >

Happy Lake Ridge Trailhead, Olympic Nat’l Park a well-made pullout, hidden in glare of famous neighbor

Trails Thulefoth Comments
Pullout trailhead for Happy Lake Ridge Trail

Pullout trailhead for Happy Lake Ridge Trail

Happy Lake Ridge Trailhead is a roomy pullout along the upper Olympic Hot Springs Road.  It’s a shy mile beyond the Observation Point lookout, and a couple miles before the end of the road at Boulder Creek Trailhead.  It is at 1,700′, up the northern side of Boulder Creek canyon some 650′. Traffic is usually light; the main useage being folks using the trailhead at the end.  A good spot to stop and look around, without being committed to the almost 3,000′ climb of Happy Lake Ridge Trail. … cont’d >

Observation Point, Olympic Hotsprings Road, Olympic Nat’l Park old feature of old road - with a new future?

Elwha River / Olympic Nat'l Park / Roads Thulefoth Comments
Obvervation Point rock-cut, Olympic Hotsprings Road

Obvervation Point rock-cut, Olympic Hotsprings Road

Observation Point is a small developed lookout above the now-drained of Lake Mills reservoir of the Elwha River, along the Olympic Hot Springs Road on a jutting shoulder of Happy Lake Ridge.  The road then turns and heads into the Boulder Creek canyon.  In former times, the hillside below the little lookout parking lot was cleared of trees growing up and blocking the view.  But more recently, it has become evident that this clearing is no longer being done.  With the new valley below – the Elwha Restoration Project – will Olympic National Park again remove trees to restore this viewscape? … cont’d >