goals for 2025

• find Usnea lambii ; this is a rare species in a genus i love very much. its niche is high elevation volcanic rocks, making it dependent on our wonderful cascade volcanoes. i'm planning on a hike in the late summer/early fall on the mt adams highline trail (a known locality) to find and photograph this lichen. if possible, i'd like to do other hikes that are in its niche. so far i've found two good ways of finding these; one is searching for site:https://www.peakbagger.com/ "sub-peak (volcanic)" washington, and the other is scanning wta's hike finder map for hikes above 7k ft around our volcanoes.
• hike cow heaven every month; this is a trail i love in the north cascades. it's not an easy hike, especially when it's snowed over half the year, so this is partially a way to force myself to stay in hiking shape. there's many cool ferns on this trail (including the first Asplenium trichomanes i've ever seen) and some cool lichens as well! the hike spans lowland temperate rainforest to an alpine meadow; i'm looking forward to seeing how these ecosystems change with the seasons.
• see some of our endemic wildflowers; last year i did a wonderful hike up buckhorn mountain. had i done it a few months prior, i would have found some of the olympic peninsula's endemic wildflowers! i'm planning on not missing them this year. also, i'd like to see Tweedy's lewisia east of the cascade crest. i'll have a busy early summer!
• photograph hummingbirds a lot, including a rufous; i put up a hummingbird feeder recently and have been having a great time photographing the several anna's that frequent it! i'd like to get more photos of them, and also get some of rufous hummingbirds when they arrive in march.