31-Jul-2015 Mt Ellinor, Washington

Site location map (click to enlarge)

One way to extend the collecting season into the dry summer months is to collect at ever-higher elevations.  This principle led Rod Crawford, Jessi Bishopp and me to Mt. Ellinor, a popular hiking destination on the Olympic peninsula featuring old-growth forest, panoramic views of the Olympics and Cascades, and mountain goats. The peak was named by 19th century geographer George Davidson in honor of his fiancée Ellinor Fauntleroy, later described by their daughter as a woman whose "knowledge of life and the world made her inclusive rather than exclusive -- an universalist in religion and deed".

Mountain hemlock cone microhabitat

Cryphoeca exlineae female in
mountain hemlock cone

Before reaching the trailhead we stopped to collect a lower elevation sample near Skinwood Creek.  I tapped 50 Douglas-fir (Pseudotsuga menziesii) cones that I found lying next to the road and collected 1 spiderling.  Hiking up into the hemlock-fir forest on the Mt. Ellinor trail I tapped a second set of cones, this time from mountain hemlock (Tsuga mertensiana).  Tapping 50 mountain hemlock cones got me 3 spiders and 1 harvestman.  Two of those spiders were female Cryphoeca exlineae (Agelenidae).  I found each in a web located between cone scales.

Boulder talus on upper Mt. Ellinor

Araneus gemmoides

The ascending trail eventually leaves the closed-canopy forest and skirts a boulder talus field before reaching the peak.  Despite the intense heat in the talus field, I found numerous orb-weaver webs strung up between the stones.  From one of these came what for me was the most striking spider of the day, a melanistic Araneus gemmoides (Araneidae) female.  Usually this species is orangish-brown in color.

Mt Rainier viewed from talus
field on Mt Ellinor

The talus field was as high in elevation as I got, but Jessi bounded on up to the summit with her net.  She apparently did some great spider p.r. while up there because numerous descending hikers smiled and asked whether I was collecting spiders too.  Several stopped to talk, including two energetic little boys who wanted to pick up any spiders that I might have in my net.  It was fun to get so many positive responses when "ew!' is the norm.

Goat hair

Everyone I asked had seen mountain goats along the trail, but much to my disappointment I never did.  However, I did find tufts of goat hair stuck here and there to the vegetation.  This helped me spot goat-made game trails that otherwise I probably wouldn't have noticed.

Read Rod's account of the day here!