Elisa- Beautiful photos---I've seen hoarfrost in meadows, but never in the woods. A very opportune day for a hike.
Steve On Sat, Dec 26, 2009 at 4:55 PM, Elisa Campbell <[email protected]>wrote: > On Christmas morning I hiked up part of the Mt Holyoke Range in the > middle portion of the Connecticut River valley of Massachusetts. The > weather was foggy - as I approached the range, I couldn't see any > mountains at all. > > Apparently during the night the air was both humid and warmer than the > trees - creating the most amazing ice show I've ever seen. I don't have > a GPS, but based on the maps, it was between about 450 feet above sea > level and the ridge (about 700 feet - these are small "mountains"!) in > the places where the sun had not had any effect. > > It wasn't like when we get freezing rain and it looks as if the twigs > have been encased in glass; instead, there were millions of little ice > crystals attached to things like spikes, thorns, or needles; some were > attached to each other, forming a dangling chain like a Christmas tree > decoration (harder to photograph with my little pocket camera). Beech > branches looked as if they had sprouted a multitude of protective spiky > thorns. > > Here are some of the photos I got. I hope you enjoy them. (and if you > have any comments on how it happened, I'd be delighted to hear them!) > > woods3_hemlock1-v-e.jpg - the overall look of the woods > > beech-leaf-close2A-e.jpg - some of the beech leaves that caught our eyes > > beech-leaf-close1crop-h-3.jpg -- closeup of some beech leaves > > beech leaf-close1-v-3.jpg - more closeups of beech leaves > > beech-leaves1crop-h-e.jpg - a bunch of leaves and the trunk (if you look > closely, you may see a free-dangling "string" of ice crystals near the > trunk) > > This morning, all the crystals were off the trees, but some were still > visible on the ground, rocks and leaves where the sun had not hit them > On the ground, they look more like very small grains of rice. > > > > > > > -- > Eastern Native Tree Society http://www.nativetreesociety.org > Send email to [email protected] > Visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/entstrees?hl=en > To unsubscribe send email to > [email protected]<entstrees%[email protected]> > -- Eastern Native Tree Society http://www.nativetreesociety.org Send email to [email protected] Visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/entstrees?hl=en To unsubscribe send email to [email protected]
