Selected photos by Rod Crawford from my 1 March 2015 spider collecting trip with Audrey Zehren to an unimproved section of the Whitehorse Trail west of Oso, Snohomish County, Washington. We began by driving to an entirely different place, the Index-Galena Road washout on the North Fork Skykomish River, but found the site too cold and wet and with too much posted land. So a lot of unnecessary extra driving was needed to get us to another unsampled area. The trail segment where we collected isn't in use as a trail yet but is still partly hikable. The good news, there are some excellent marshy and swampy habitats there amid the private land. The bad news, it's badly invaded by Himalayan blackberry. With four hours to collect, and Audrey succumbing to a food allergy halfway through, I managed to get 22 species, just squeaking by with a sample but including some very cool wetland specialists.

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Index-Galena Road; note nearly snow-free mountain © Rod Crawford	Road ends abruptly; when they say a washout, they mean a washout! © Rod Crawford
Habitats were sodden…                © Rod Crawford	…those that weren't posted private               © Rod Crawford
Water literally oozing from the ground       © Rod Crawford	Whitehorse Trail (in red) west of Oso        (Snohomish County, 2012)
Audrey really stands out amoung the muted winter colors © Rod Crawford	Trail passing through the marsh        © Rod Crawford
Pond shore: note new spring grass already! © Rod Crawford	Beautiful marshland, just off the trail             © Rod Crawford
Distinctive symmetrical tree        © Rod Crawford	Audrey helps scan the sifting cloth              © Rod Crawford
Horrid invasive blackberry          © Rod Crawford	Blackberry vines hiding in the grass           © Rod Crawford
Trail bridge           © Rod Crawford	Nice marsh habitat is too wet for blackberry          © Rod Crawford
Old winter and new spring grass       © Rod Crawford	But all the Dismodicus were still juvenile            © Rod Crawford
Ferns on alder (some moss removed for sifting) © Rod Crawford	Mossy alder trunk              © Rod Crawford
Planted fir tree beside the trail          © Rod Crawford	Fern understory beside alder trunk              © Rod Crawford
Female Ceraticelus sp. fron conifer foliage   © Rod Crawford	Pachygnatha dorothea from our first bag of alder litter      © Rod Crawford

This page last updated 4 March, 2015