Tag Archives: hoary marmot

Canon EOS 20D 2005-2009

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A close-up view of a hoary marmot on the Skyline Trail in the Paradise area of Mount Rainier National Park

I spent all day Saturday hiking around Mount Rainier with some good friends. The Northwest was blessed with warm days and clear blue skies this weekend, but Rainier is large enough to create her own weather, so we actually had clouds all day and never got to see the mountain. Which was fine, we had good company and a good trail and the hoary marmots were out in force to keep us entertained. The clouds provided nice soft lighting so normally I would have photographed the marmots throughout the day.

Normally I would have, but unfortunately my camera died early in the hike. We stopped for lunch near a marmot that was fattening itself on the mountain meadow grasses when my Canon 20D threw up the dreaded Err 99 error message and then the shutter started firing continuously. Even with the camera turned off. A sure sign that the shutter had given up the ghost and my camera was done for. And even more unfortunately, I only brought one camera to save weight, so my lenses were dead weight for the rest of the day.

This hoary marmot was not the one I was photographing at the end, but rather one from a colony we observed earlier in the morning. We were watching a handful of marmots in the distance when this one came waddling down the path, posed for a picture, then ran down the hillside and off into the distance.

The 20D has been by far my favorite camera. It’s been my main camera through four and half years and thousands of exposures. I took it all over the place: Yellowstone, the Tetons, the Redwoods, Mount Rainier, the Olympics, the Oregon coast, the Columbia River Gorge, Mississippi, New Mexico, South Carolina, Texas, and even Tokyo. And of course Ridgefield. So, so many times to Ridgefield.

It survived my smashing it on the mountain. It photographed Sam and Emma and Ellie when we welcomed them to our home, as well as the nieces and nephews we welcomed into our lives. It photographed my stepfather and my grandmother and Templeton before they passed away. The picture of my stepfather brings tears to my eyes and a smile to my face when I look at it still.

Technology had passed it by, but my 20D was a great camera and captured many great memories.

Thank You Little One, Thank You

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A young hoary marmot sits in front of fall colors on the Summerland Trail in the Sunrise area of Mount Rainier National Park

Back in the fall I spent the afternoon watching the large colony of marmots at the end of the Summerland Trail in Mount Rainier National Park, but it wasn’t until the tail end of my day that I spotted this youngster, the only young one I saw on the day. It was so much smaller than the other marmots that I’d guess that it had been born in the spring and was about to face its first winter.

As the sun disappeared behind the mountains, some of the marmots started to head up towards what I assume was their home in the rocks above the trail. When the little one jumped down to follow, it landed on an unstable rock that crashed loudly onto the rocks below. The other marmots rose and froze to attention while the youngster sprinted up and away. I’m so jealous of how marmots speed across a jumbled talus field compared to my slow plodding even on the open trail that it was nice to see that even they occasionally put a foot wrong.

Hibernation

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A hoary marmot rests on a rock on the Pinnacle Peak Trail in Mount Rainier National Park

This hoary marmot in Mount Rainier will have long since started its hibernation, here though it’s just resting on a nice day in the fall. Take a look at those claws, I thought our cats needed a trim!

I did a little hibernating of my own today, I felt ill when I woke up this morning so I went back to bed, the next thing I knew it was 3 p.m. I had a partner hibernating with me, or at least it seemed that way, as every time I woke up Sam was curled up tight against my body. He wasn’t there when I first woke up, only Scout was keeping me company, but as soon as he joined us Scout moved so she could curl up with both of us.

Snow Not White

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A close-up view of the face of a hoary marmot high on the Skyline Trail in the Paradise area of Mount Rainier National Park

Another picture of snow, this time high on the Skyline Trail on the flanks of Mount Rainier, but the distant snowbank behind the hoary marmot was dirty and gave a gray background and not white.

I didn’t have long to photograph this marmot, although I hadn’t seen any others on the trail that morning right after I took this picture hikers came from both directions. They were really nice folks so I took time to chat and by the time we parted the marmot had wandered far from the trail.