9/27/12 -- The Hoh Rain Forest

So much has happened on our trip that it is going to take me a couple of blogs to catch up! 

Some of you asked about the differences between Indian tribes in the Midwest and the Pacific Northwest. Pacific Northwest Indian tribes are small compared to the huge tribes of the Midwest. Every 20-30 miles down the road, you encounter the area of another tribe.    A commonality with the Midwest tribes is that they all belong to The United Tribes and participate in powwows around the country.   


Tribes of Washington State
Note how many tribes there are on the Olympic Peninsula --
you'll see some of the tribes I've talked about.
The Olympic Peninsula is the northwest corner that looks broken off from the rest of the state.
Portland Oregon is in the lower left part of the map.  That blue line is the Comumbia River
Our new home is just across the river from Portland.
(portion of a public domain map)

Although a couple of Indian language families are common to a few tribes, most tribes speak a unique language. The Quileute language is unrelated to any other language on earth, a very complicated and complex language. A tribe in Oregon, the Chinook, lent their language to all tribes as a trade language.

Most of the tribes have lived in this area for 4-6,000 years.  They have a rich, complex culture.  They have a lot to teach all of us about living with the land and respecting its gifts.  I am content with my own history and traditions but I admire them and respect them.  We both do.  It is a gift any time we can receive the wisdom that they hold. 

Our last day in the La Push/Forks area, we began by picking huckleberries.  These sweet red gems spark up any dish of cereal or make pancakes special.  We took enough for the next day's breakfast and left the rest for the birds and chipmunks.  The other day I saw a chipmunk climb a bush and balance on the slender branches while he filled his cheek-pouches with succulent berries.   


Huckleberries, the forest's treasure

That was the day that we went to the Hoh rain forest. This area bears the name of the Hoh Indian tribe.  A coastal rain forest stretches from the Oregon coast  north, clear up into Alaska.  In some places, it is only a few miles wide.  At other spots it reaches up river valleys 20-30 miles or even farther.  It covers the mountains with the velvet of evergreen trees.

What makes a rain forest?  Clouds form passing over the Pacific Ocean and move from east Asia and Japan and Hawaii, picking up moisture as they go.  When the moist winter winds, the winter storms, hit the coastal mountains, they drop it all that moisture on them, creating a rain forest.

We drove along the winding Hoh River, up to the Ranger Station.  There's a nice campground there but I've never stayed there.  I've always looked for a place with a little less rain.  A little anyway.

There are several lovely hikes up there ranging from 1/4 mi. to many miles.  Our hike was called the Hall of Mosses.  With a short leg we took to get to the trailhead, it came out to about a mile. 

The signs said it "bigins with a slight incline."  Maybe it was a slight incline if you were a teenager who had been working out for a while.  It was a serious hill, folks, but I made it.  We also encountered stairs periodically on the hike.  The scenery was so beautiful that it made hiking it easy.  Besides, we always have fun together.  I was pretty tired afterwards but I wouldn't have missed it for the world.

We saw so much beauty in the rain forest, I don't know how I can share it all.  There were huge trees everywhere.  People go to the Redwoods to see big trees.  We've both been there and they are wonderful, but Washington has her share of big trees too.  Sitka spruce love an environment like the rain forest.  They grow much larger than elsewhere, an average of 220' tall.  Douglas fir in the rain forest grow an average of 250' tall.  Many are over 8' in diameter.  


This sitka spruce is really, really wide

The tree top world that we never see is full of a life of its own. Birds live there that never come to the forest floor. People like us walk beneath them but we never see the flying squirrels that live in its branches.

The rain forest was sunny the day we were there.  I've been to the Hoh many times, but that's the first time I ever saw it when it wasn't raining.  The moist air encourages many kinds of moss to grow.  One kind is the club moss.  This moss mounds up and sometimes hangs down on tree trunks and branches.  Although it attaches to the tree, it feeds on light and air.  The moist air of the rain forest provides the club moss with enough nutrients to live on.  This moss is so moist and dense that other plants flourish in it as though it were soil.


Club moss forms clumps as it climbs the trunk of this tree
Note the ferns growing in the moss

In other places, moss hangs down like hair.  When Adina was a child, she came to the Hoh with her family.  She and her brother, Bruce, played with the moss and posed for pictures wearing it like hair.  (They didn't pull any down though.)  We crossed a creek on our hike and saw this moss hanging over the water. 


Moss hanging down over the creek
Other mosses grew on the sides of the creek
and beneath the water
Moss comes in many different colors

The agencies that manage our national and state forests have policies about letting the forest develop on its own, with a bit of help now and then.  If a tree falls, they leave it because it will contribute to the life of the forest in many ways.  Insects help break the wood down.  Small animals find refuge there.  Birds feed on the insects.  The web of life goes on.


This woodpecker has just munched a bug that he dug out of a huge fallen log. 
Note the size of the knot that he is sitting on.

One way a fallen tree contributes to forest life is that they may become a nurse log.  This means that first moss forms on the top of the tree (or the sides).  Seeds lodge in the moss and take hold.  Some seedlings cannot survive on the forest floor but can live on nurse logs.  As the log disintegrates, it provides shelter and food for these new trees.  The seedlings run their roots down the sides of the nurse log and reach the soil below. 
 

A nurse log holding up several large trees.
Actually, this is only about 1/4 of the total length of the tree
You can see by this picture how wild the forest is here

Eventually, the nurse log rots away and all that is left is the twisted roots of the seedlings, now full grown trees. 


Twisted, intertwined roots like this are evidence:
they once embraced the nurse log that gave them life.

These giant trees have massive root systems that spread out near the surface.  However they do not have a deep taproot like many trees have.  The ground water level is always adequate here, even in dry weather.  Why would they need to seek for deep aquifers? 



This root system towers above Adina's head
so high I couldn't get it all on the picture
and that's only half of it
The other half is below the ground level

We found some downed trees and root systems that had interesting shapes.  I'm sure that this tree was a dragon in a former life. 



A Dragon Root -- friendly, don't you think?

Talking about a rain forest is interesting, but do you know how much rain a rain forest really gets? 

The Hoh gets about over 130" of rain each year.  Up on the top of Mount Olympus, the highest mountain in the Olympic Range, they get over 240" in per year, much of it as snow which settles on the glaciers up there. 

Seattle WA and Milwaukee WI both get between 30-35 in of parcipitation per year.  Of course, a lot of Milwaukee's comes in the form of snow.  Looking at the rain forest makes those 30" per year total pretty small. 



Adina is standing in front of the Ranger Station at the Hoh Rain Forest.
The little white sign on the beam above her
shows how deep the water would be if all the rain came at once.
Adina would be swimming!
The sign reads: Average Annual Rainfall: 137.69" per year

Wow!  One thing is for sure, when you visit the rain forest, you see what a whole lot of rain can do.  It is beautiful, eerie, and a vision that stays with you.  Next time it rains in Vancouver, I'll remember the rain forest and I won't complain, not one bit.

The next day we left for Klaloch Beach and what an adventure we had there! 

Watch for the next installment!  We are so pleased to have you along for the ride!