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Beyond
the well, the trail continued moderately uphill through a deciduous woods
that seemed to go on forever. I was surprised at how high I was climbing
without entering the usual spruce/fir boreal forest. It seems to
begin much lower on the slopes of the Presidential and Franconia Ranges.
Finally,
I pretty much suddenly entered a spruce/fir woods after rounding a bend in
the trail where the trail began angling northwest up the mountain. The
trees were spectacularly covered with thick drapes of snow.
The higher I went, the more snow clung to the branches. If it had been
windy, these trees would have dumped a ton of snow on me as a walked by.
Luckily, it was very calm and quiet. I couldn't even detect a hint of a
breeze in the treetops.
I
was amazed at the amount of snow on the trees, especially considering the
thickness of the forest. They looked as if they had been flocked. I would
have expected this on an exposed slope in the krummholz, but this was a
still a tall sheltered forest where the storm shouldn't have been able to
penetrate so deeply. Whenever the storm occurred, it was probably not a
good time to be outside without shelter.
As
I climbed even higher, the trees began to get smaller and even more
plastered with snow. I knew that I must be getting close. Finally, the
trail turned sharply right to ascend a short distance to the
partially-open summit of Mt Starr King. |
The
Starr King Trail as it's approaching the beginning of the spruce/fir
forest. The deciduous zone seems to grow a bit higher here than it does in
the Presidentials or the Franconia Range. |
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