WNPS Backpack 2014

My first was at age 12, and my first introduction to backpacking, as well.  I've missed quite a few since then, but I managed to make it to this year's Washington Native Plant Society Annual Backpacking Trip down on the Dark Divide.  Besides, there was one mention of a plant from the previous trip to this location that I simply had to confirm.

I arrived at the trailhead an hour late, but unafraid because botanists and other native plant people are the slowest hikers I have ever encountered.  We stop to make sure that everyone has seen each new species we find . . . there is no such thing as adequate sampling until we have found every last species on our path.

So it was without hesitation that I took time to photograph the views from the start of the Sunrise Trail.  It was propitious, too, since we'd end up hiking out in the middle of a cloud, and since my camera would remember every five pictures or so that it had decided that something was wrong with the lens, and refuse to let me take any more.

First Time at Heronswood

I had never been to Heronswood, and I missed the May open garden despite planning to go, so I decided that I would not miss going this July.

You know what?  My alarm didn't go off (we tested it after I did wake up).  And you know what?  I went anyway.

We arrived close to 1:30, just after the event's halfway point.  First thing, I made my customary list of all the plants I might want from all vendors.  Then I crossed off all the plants that would drive me (too far) over-budget over an excellent lunch of fry-bread.  (The place is, after all, now owned by the Port Gamble S'Klallam tribe.)  Then I bought the plants.

Impatiens mengtszeana and I. puberula from Keeping It Green, Echinops ritro 'Taplow Purple' and Sarracenia leucophylla 'Tarnok' from Sundquist, Eucryphia x nymansensis 'Nymansay' and Eucalyptus neglecta from Celestial Dream, Geranium palmatum from Windcliff Plants, Rhaphithamnus spinosus from Longbranch, and Berberidopsis corallina, Grevillea victoriae 'Murray Valley Queen', and Myrceugenia ovata var. nanophylla from Desert Northwest.

My plants, my babies.

After a stop at will call, it was off to the more exciting part of the trip: touring the garden.