Bugged on the Mountain

Today I got a bit of a late start today, and seeing how I did not work out at all during the week I figured that I’d be way behind today.

The fact of the matter is that I was making pretty good time until just after an hour into the hike I had to make a big STOP.  Here, you can see it in the image below which is a log of my heart rate on the climb.

There it is, the second big plunge in the rate.  The first one happens every time because the trail climbs for a bit and then you have a descent when you have a chance to rest very early on the trail.  But the second one, I just said to myself, too bad for the time trial, I’m sitting right down here in the trail to take some photos.

For a time I guess, this will just have to remain a mystery flower.  Found at 7,700 ft on the old Laluz trail.

Actually, until I got just below the 10,000 foot level, I didn’t stop to take another photo. But then I saw the first bee and moved on in for a closeup.

I know this flower, it’s a Fern-leaf Lousewort and with the upper mountain having had sufficient rainfall recently, it was out in abundance.  I decided after a couple of attempts, not to push my luck with the bees, and moved along the trail.

But, although I was rapidly coming up to a point where I could finish the trail in maybe three hours and 20 minutes, the flower count was overwhelming and I gave up on the idea of a quick finish and settled into photo mode.  By the time I was done I had taken over 80 images, a few of which follow.  Note the falloff in the heart rate at the end of the hike.

I did learn something about macro photography on this jaunt today.  Since my lens will focus very very close, I may need to move away a bit so that I get the whole flower, or whole bug in view.

Such is life, you live and learn. Next time I plan to compensate.

Tassel flower, hard to imagine why it has that name.

When the mountain trail ends it meets up with an asphalt trail that runs to the tram station.  Just as the trail ended and  I started up the steps to the tram, I saw this  and had to sit back down and see if I could get a decent shot.

Now that I have finished posting, my left knee is giving be a bit of trouble.  Hopefully I’ll be able to hike again tomorrow.  If not, I’ve got another project to work on, but that involves study and test taking.

I’d rather hike.

Larger images of the bugs over at the photo blog.