Last year my wife and I took a trip to Cathedral Lakes/Sunrise HSC in mid September. On the hike out back to the meadows it was a sunny day and we noticed little "sparkles" in the trail. It literally seemed like the trail was twinkling.
Finally it dawned on us that this part of the JMT, being heavily used and a little sandy had formed tiny bits of glass in the trail from all the grinding boots and hooves over the years which would catch the sunlight and yield this "sparkle" effect in the right conditions. It was magical and something I'd never seen before.
Have other hikers noticed this too? Which trails? It was really cool and something I've been wondering about ever since..
JMT "sparkle" effect?
- Alpenbro
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- The Other Tom
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- giantbrookie
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Many of the trails of the Sierra have sections where the trail bed is essentially granitic sand. The granitic rocks are generally composed of quartz, feldspars, and micas. The sparkles most likely come from cleavage faces of the feldspars and the micas.
Since my fishing (etc.) website is still down, you can be distracted by geology stuff at: http://www.fresnostate.edu/csm/ees/facu ... ayshi.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
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