Fangirling and Writer-Nerd Chaos

Glacier Peak Circumnavigation by williswall

Looking west from the Tucson Mountains Bajada across the Avra Valley to a storm over the Quinlan and Coyote mountains.

It’s ginkgo time!

Autumnal

“An old god comes.”

“What? No. That’s just a cold front. It’s Autumn.”

“Yes, one of the oldest gods of all.”

Do y’all ever think about how absolutely bananas Lake Baikal is? It’s the world’s largest lake by volume. It’s the world’s deepest lake. It’s the world’s oldest lake. It contains nearly a quarter of the planet’s surface freshwater. It’s a rift lake, caused by the earth’s crust literally coming apart at the seams. It would be deeper than the Mariana Trench except the bottom is covered in a sediment layer that is miles deep. There are trains that have sunk to the bottom because Russia tried to build a railroad over the ice. The entire lake surface freezes for half the year. The lake is a focal point of multiple indigenous cultures. The lake has its own species of seal, which is the only exclusively freshwater pinniped in the world. There are unique ice formations formed by convection from the depths of the lake. There are 330 inflowing rivers.

I dunno, Lake Baikal sure is a thing.

a truly unique and magnificent Feature on our planet, as singular and fascinating as Jupiter's Great Red Spot

in the words of farmboy, as you wish

the lake is quite cold, and as a result, these seals are very loaf

the babbeez are white poofs with lil eyebrowses

it is incredibly deep, and over a thousand species of plant and animal live ONLY there

Lake Baikal Seals' faces look way too much like grey aliens for my liking. Those eyes have SEEN shit in the depths.

Lake animal...

there are freshwater sponges and giant amphipods in the lake too

and the Lake Baikal oilfish, which is the deepest-living freshwater fish, and has a lot of similar adaptations to deep sea fishes

by spirithiker

different viewpoints

Subtle but very important part of the American conception of nature is that far too many of us, when asked to think of nature, visualize old growth European style forests rather than the grasslands, deserts, riparian zones, parks, mountains and other biomes and ecoregions we actually grew up in and interact with every day.

𝖻𝖾𝖺𝗎𝗍𝗂𝖿𝗎𝗅 𝖺𝗎𝗍𝗎𝗆𝗇 𝖻𝗒 𝖢𝗁𝗋𝗂𝗌𝗍𝗈𝗉𝗁𝖾𝗋 𝖯𝗋𝗂𝖼𝖾

The sky is about to eat us.

Once the storm passed my boss and I SPRINTED out to take these photos.

Desert Garden by Eric Foltz

Saguaro National Park, Arizona

Coyote Buttes, Arizona by circleyq

feeling fish emotions today

I hate this mentality so fucking much. No, the Australian desert is not mostly sand. No, you will not die if you visit. Yes, it is racist to think like this.

showing non-australians (and tbh a fair amount of racist australians too) this map and asking them to explain how come the “empty and uninhabitable” desert is home to dozens and dozens of Indigenous language groups 🤨

link to a better quality version of the map:

Respect the desert!!!!!

Thank you. I was about to say. Dessert isn't just a place nature doesn't happen. It's its own biome deserving of respect. As are the people who have lived there since at least the goddamn ice age

In the case of Australia in specific, the indigenous cultures were living there during the Ice Age—to the point that their orally transmitted histories describe the characteristics of lands that literally don't exist anymore and are now ocean. It's really cool

also i don't think y'all understand how many plants there are in the outback, grass, bushes, trees everywhere, it really really isnt just sand

y'all really need to do away with this caricature you have of deserts in your head

hiking trails on the west coast: Begin climbing on a soft earthen trail through beautiful douglas fir-western hemlock forest for 2.5 miles along a series of switchbacks, then break from the tree cover for 1 mile of straight even trail through a stunning wildflower meadow just below the ridgeline, after which the trail makes a sharp right and continues to the summit with a further 2 miles of switchbacks. Enjoy beautiful views of the nearest dormant stratovolcano and also at least two waterfalls and a crystal-clear alpine lake along the way. Round trip: 11 miles, 3,000ft elevation gain. Difficulty: moderate :)

hiking trails on the east coast: Go 1.5 miles up. Yes, straight up. Switchbacks? What are you, a baby? Are you a little child? Fuck you. Go up. [Seasonal note: first half of trail is a running stream during mud season and a multipitch ice climbing route during winter.] Round trip: 3 miles, 1,200ft elevation gain. Difficulty: jesus christ

when I first started hiking on the west coast I was Flabbergasted that they didn't use blazes pretty much anywhere, but I quickly realized this is because on west coast trails are identified by the ingenious means of being built and maintained to look like trails.

on the east coast they have to put paint on trees to tell you where to go because 'trail' is often more of an aspiration than a reality

NO WAY

I’ve been doxxed 😨

I once worked on a phone campaign to disallow the trees around your crater from being cut down...

I am deeply deeply in love with you 💙 Thanks so much for your conservation effort!

It’s the small things we all do together that can make a big difference! 💙💙💙💙 And you’ve done it!!!

People just gotta know what Crater Lake and Wizard Island looks like

What in the Skyrim

been there several times. And yeah, Skyrim feels super duper Oregon in a lot of ways.

We gonna talk about Crater Lake, and Wizard Island and not mention the Old Man of the Lake?

The Old Man of the Lake is a log that floats around the lake. It is somewhat strange in that it floats vertically. It's roughly 30 feet tall, with only about 5 or so feet sticking out above the surface of the water. It was first 'offically' recorded in the early 20th century, though there are oral reports of it as far back as 1896 (and likely earlier still given the cultural importance of Crater Lake to the Klamath tribe of that area.

The Old Man should have rotted away long ago or at the very least become waterlogged and sank into the water fully, but nope. Over a hundred years, and there is this log still in the water just floating.

So y'know how I said the fact that it floats vertically was 'somewhat strange'? Let's get into some actual strange territory regarding the Old Man. It moves. Against the wind. It has been recorded moving in paths that do not make sense, never getting stuck on the shore of Wizard Island, nor the area of shore around the lake. Now that's strange.

So now let's get freaky: The free-floating Old Man posed a hazard to boats since it moves, and only a small portion of it was above water. (though personal boats are no longer allowed on the lake) Anyway, in 1988 a team was using a small submersible to explore the lake. The scientist figured it'd be a good idea to moor the Old Man near the coast of Wizard Island out of their way, for safety. So they tied some rope to it, to move the Old Man. As soon as they did so, the clear blue skies of a warm August day turned dark. The wind kicked up, bad, and it started to rain, then hail, then snow in the span of a few minutes...again in August. Now snow in that area is common, but not in the summer months. It gets super warm in that area in summer (like 70 to 90 degrees on average) So the scientists decided to nope the fuck out of the water, because of this freak storm. They unmoored the Old Man, preparing to get the fuck out of dodge of this summer snowstorm. As soon as the rope loosened and was in the water, as quickly as the storm had come on them, the darkened skies cleared and it was once more a fine sunny summer day.

As a kid, I spent my summers with my family who lives like... 40 some odd miles from Crater Lake National Park so I had this knowledge just kinda buried in my head somewhere.

I excitedly added a thing about the old man before I checked the notes so now I'm gonna reblog this great story instead but here is the old man!!!

"The Old Man floats vertically through the lake on a calm day"

"THE OLD MAN FLOATS. VERTICALLY. THROUGH THE LAKE ON A CALM DAY"

!!!!!!!!!!

Finally

Cryptobotany