Subject: more on White-tailed Ptarmigan
Date: Jul 26 20:41:03 2003
From: Michael Donahue - mgd at u.washington.edu


I've had several requests for logistical information on the hike to the area where Alan Grenon and I saw the WHITE-TAILED PTARMIGAN, so I thought I'd post the information on Tweeters. Call it Mike's Ptarmigan Ptips. I'm not going to give directions to the locations, see my email of earlier tonight.

Park in the east parking lot at Paradise, near the lodge, not at the visitor's center. (There is construction going on in the lodge parking lot.) While you can pick up the Skyline trail at the visitor's center, it's probably easiest to pick it up where it starts by the lodge.

Pick up a map of the trail system at Paradise. (You should always hike with a map.) The visitor's center opens at 10 a.m.; the Ranger Station near the lodge was open at 8:15 when we arrived at Paradise.

Start the Skyline trail from the west side; this will get you to the ptarmigan locations previous outlined the quickest. The trail gains 1400 feet in elevation in about 2 miles. It's steep in places, but levels out in places, too. It took Alan and myself 1 hour, 15 minutes to get to the point. I'm not in the best of shape, and Alan was gracious enough to let me set the pace.

Plan on spending as much time as you can on the half mile of the Skyline trail east of Panorama Point where Alan and I (and two others in the last week) had the ptarmigan. In the past I've spent hours combing a particular location without success, only to have one pop up right in front of me. I can only assume that it was there all along, and it was just "hanging out." Alan and I noted that the group of males moved around in the 3 hour period that we observed them, and at times were hard to spot as they were hanging out behind rocks or under snowbank ledges.

I'm sure many of you are experienced hikers, but I still have to add: take plenty of water, sunscreen (which only works if you put it on), hat, sunglasses, and sturdy footwear. And don't forget to look up. The mountain is spectacular.

Mike Donahue
Seattle
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