For our 2025 alpine field trip, we chose a small lake – Vera Lake – on the west side of the Eldred Valley across from Emma Lake. Once again the weather intervened on our planned date (Aug. 9) and we had to move to August 10. However, Aug. 10 turned out to be a fantastic day, sunny and warm with few insects to bother us! We landed on a low ridge near the lake, with wonderful views across the valley to the Emma Lake – Triple Peaks section of the South Powell Divide. Once everyone arrived on site via helicopter, we spent more than an hour before lunch touring around the ridge and lakeshore and learning about the plants, geology, and the alpine environment in general. The area was mostly open with rocks, grasses, and shrubs (lots of heather and small blueberry bushes), and interspersed with patches of mountain hemlock and yellow cedar sub-alpine forest.
We had no wildlife visitors this year other than a western toad that hopped through early in the morning.
After an enjoyable lunch in the sunshine, we had a couple of hours of free time to explore. Some relaxed or explored near the lake, and even went for a swim in the refreshing waters (there was still a snow patch or two at the other end of the lake!). Several people hiked out to a spectacular viewpoint looking over Joan Lake towards Slide Mountain, and an adventurous (foolhardy? it was rather steep!) few even clambered down to Joan Lake for a swim there. It was a great day, and I think everyone had a wonderful time.
Sharon has kindly created a list of plants she identified on the trip (in alphabetical order):
- Alpine aster
- Alpine clubmoss and other clubhouses including Creeping clubmoss
- Alpine lady Fern
- Alumroot
- Black Alpine sedge and numerous other sedge
- Blueberries – mostly oval leaf blueberry but also bog blueberry
- Copperbush
- Dandelions
- Foamflower
- Grasses including hair bent grasses, timber oat grass and many other cousins
- Heathers
- Lily – likely either yellow glacier lilies or avalanche lily or both (not in flower)
- Partridgefoot
- Pipecleaner moss and many other moss relatives
- Small flowered penstemon
- Snow-mat liverwort
- And many more!
Thanks again to our drivers who got everyone to the staging area safely and to Cal Smith for handling all the trip registration and communications. And a special thank-you to Ben, our Oceanview Helicopters’ pilot, for his wonderful flying tours on the way in and out and for getting everyone on and off the mountain safely.
