[Note: I did not write a journal entry at the time, so the notes that follow are based on the photos, any data I collected, and what faded memories I retain from years after the fact.]
Adam Andis, Kitty LaBounty, and I had a morning float plane flight to get dropped off at Rust Lake in the West Chichagof Wilderness area on Chichagof Island.
Kitty had been to Rust Lake last year, but it was a first visit for me, and this was Andis’ first year with SCS in his role helping with these wilderness trips.
Leading up to this trip, Kitty had been travelling and had been unable to help with the logistical planning (which would come into play later). The overall plan was for the three of us to fly in to Rust Lake and do some surveying there. A couple of days later we would be joined Lily, a Raven Radio reporter, and Peggy, a Forest Service employee. Once they arrived, we would spend two days walking over to Patterson Bay for a pickup there.
Weather consisting of broken clouds and sun made for a pleasant 50 mile flight north.
Rust Lake has some aspects that make it an interesting destination.
It’s accessible by a float plane (though take-off can be a bit tight, as I understand it).
It has a ‘bathtub ring’ due to being tapped as a source of power for the Chichagof Mine. The mine closed down decades ago, but hole used to supply water for the hydropower remains open. Given the timeline, I’m assuming that at certain times of year (maybe fall and early winter?) the lake is consistently filled to its historical spill level, or the ring would have been more colonized by plants.
There are also large exposures of limestone and associated karst geology readily accessible on foot from the lake.
After getting camp set up (Kitty and Andis were in a shared tent, I had brought a visqueen tarp to try a more minimalist approach for myself). We set out to hike up a nearby mountain.
My specific memories of the hike are vague to absent, but based on the time of photos, it took us about 6 hours to make the trek up about 2200 feet from lake shore to minor summit. This was a very leisurely pace in part due to Kitty and I spending much time making note of the plants we were seeing along the way. The left side of the loop on the track at the top of the page shows our uphill route, and you can see where we started making getting into it by all the purple dots. Kitty had spent time in the lower sections in 2009, so mostly just moved through those more quickly.
As the day went on, clouds built up a bit, especially around/over the peaks, but our views were still lovely.
At the summit we were partly in the clouds, but stopped for a break so Andis could do our daily check in via satellite phone.
Our downward route took us along a minor ridge of limestone. Here we found some plants that were new to me, including Geum rossii and Anemone parviflora, the latter of which seem to prefer calcareous geology. In Southeast Alaska, Geum rossii appears to be known only from the limestone of west Chichagof Island, though it’s unclear to me whether it is restricted to calcareous conditions generally. It makes me wonder if it is a glacial relict (though where it’s growing now was completely glaciated), or a more recent post-glacial arrival. The latter seems more likely, but I am curious.
My iNaturalist Observations for Today
