Spring In The Fall

Speaking of snow - you do remember that I wrote about snow last week? - there are multiple places where we still have snowfields left over from last winter. The Crystal Range on the west side of Desolation Wilderness. Steven's Peak. Mt. Tallac even has a few patches left. Just a bit south of Tahoe in Hope Valley, you can see large snowfields on Roundtop and The Sisters, and on Highland Peak and Raymond Peak down by Markleeville.

Would you like a dose of Spring during the Fall? Hike up to one of those snowfields and look in the soil/Grus just to the edges of the snow. These are areas that were covered with snow a week or two ago and they have just melted. In those places, you'll find plants that have suddenly felt the warmth of the sun after being buried in snow for most of a year. Those plants have evolved to take advantage of this sudden, short "spring" in the beginning of November. They do a little bit of growing in the few hours of sunlight that they see each year. They have to be fast because they could get covered by snow any time and be buried again for 12 months. Or more.