The first collecting site on the 6th spider collecting trip (29 April – 1 May 2008) of the Elwha River Biological Survey was inside the national park boundary on the West Elwha Trail, which goes through some really wild country even though it's right across the river from houses, campgrounds and so forth. This trip shows a major disadvantage of fixing the dates of field trips in advance: weather! Our site had been dumped on by a major rain and hail storm just shortly before we arrived. But on the bright side, we were lucky we weren't there sooner to be drenched ourselves! Most habitats were too wet to collect and we only got a few species under rocks, but it's clearly a spot we need to re-visit. Photos by Laurel Ramseyer and Rod Crawford.

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This trail section skirts a high cliff (USGS)	Elwha River from partway up the west cliff    © Rod Crawford
The trail was soggy       © Laurel Ramseyer	But in due course we reached the cliff area        © Rod Crawford
Pocket of hail among the leaves © Laurel Ramseyer	Moss and a seep on cliff face       © Laurel Ramseyer
Mossy tree root        © Laurel Ramseyer	Trail bridges a chasm           © Rod Crawford
Calypso bulbosa       © Laurel Ramseyer	Cliff-base rocks, our spider habitat       © Laurel Ramseyer
Cicurina pusilla with egg sac    © Laurel Ramseyer	Web of Neriene digna          © Laurel Ramseyer
Plethodon vehiculum among rocks © Laurel Ramseyer	Rod sets out in search of more rocks      © Laurel Ramseyer

This page last updated 4 February, 2009