I flew into St. John's, Newfoundland last night for work. Today was warm and very steamy - around 27c. On the way back to St. John's from Spaniard's Bay this morning I made time to stop along the highway to climb up the Hawk Hills - about 30km west of St. John's. You can just see my rental car in the spruce trees above the highway. The second pictures shows the view uphill hill to a crest halfway up where the wind increased dramatically and the temperature plummeted. The green areas are peat mats, very spongy under foot, filled with Empetrum, Cornus, Maianthemum, Ledums, Vacciniums and a delicious Arctuous alpina - 3rd shot. The mats are overlying heavy wet clay. The bare areas in the mats harbour some plants not seen in the mats although there are Empetrums there and a few stray Maianthemum; these areas are the same wet clay but covered in a generous layer of gravel.
More in the next post.
johnw
