Selected photos by Rod Crawford and Laurel Ramseyer from our 2 October 2021 spider collecting trip to a stretch of Forest Road 18 on the north slope of Deer Creek Valley in the Cultus Mountains (a western outlier of the Cascades), Skagit County, Washington. Once again, a phantom road on a topo map (see below) fooled me; but we parked along the main #18 (Segelsen) road at a point near a small stream crossing, with accessible forest on both sides. The downhill side was alder-dominated and the uphill side was the best mature conifer stand in the vicinity! As Pasteur is supposed to have said, "Chance favors the prepared mind." The roadside hemlock foliage, alder litter, moss, grass, dead wood and roadside herbs were all so rich that although we quit a little early we already had 42-43 species!

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Our site in red; conifers to N., alders & creek to S.     (NAIP, 2017)	Maples becoming fall-colored already                 © Rod Crawford
Roadside waterfall along the way          © Rod Crawford	Just another typical stretch of forest road?                        © Rod Crawford
Alder-dominated forest south of road       © Rod Crawford	Alders carried plenty of moss for the sifter                © Rod Crawford
Rod emerges from a hemlock-beating foray      © Laurel Ramseyer	Hemlock foliage along road was very spider-rich                © Rod Crawford
Cottonwood tree isolated among the alder    © Rod Crawford	Male & female Ethobuella tuonops, regular moss-spiders   © Laurel Ramseyer
Little nameless creek adjoined our site     © Rod Crawford	Grassy slope along the road                  © Rod Crawford
Pockets of alder litter between boulders     © Rod Crawford	Mossy boulders lined the creek: not the firmest footing!      © Rod Crawford
Eris militaris from roadside herbs      © Laurel Ramseyer	Laurel sifted rare Wubana sp. #1 from moss       © Rod Crawford
Colorful Theridion varians from herbs      © Rod Crawford	Invasive Metellina segmentata well established         © Laurel Ramseyer
Sticks & dead wood, with spiders      © Rod Crawford	Mature conifer forest on north side of road             © Rod Crawford
Very impressive shiny fungus             © Laurel Ramseyer	Magnificent pile of dead wood                © Rod Crawford
Nurse log with hemlock seedlings       © Laurel Ramseyer	More and more dead wood                © Rod Crawford
Pityohyphantes tacoma on herb          © Laurel Ramseyer	Sisis rotundus from dead wood                     © Rod Crawford
Lovely Misumena vatia on roadside herbs  © Laurel Ramseyer	Creek crossing homeward road, nameless despite its size      © Rod Crawford
Topo map shows dirt road to creek, passing pond    (USGS)	You can barely make out the track on aerial photo, but not on the ground!   (NAIP, 2017)
Whitehorse Mountain from Darrington        © Rod Crawford	Only edge of sunset visible near Arlington             © Rod Crawford

This page last updated 13 October, 2021