iN PHOTOS: Kamloops hiker finds whimsical world inside rotting stumps

When Rena Clare of Kamloops sees an old rotted out stump along the trail she stops to put her head — and camera — into it.

It’s something the senior does every spring while out exploring the forests and grasslands with her husband.

She’s looking for a lichen called cup lichen.

If the lichens have a bit of red on their rims, they’re commonly called lipstick lichen.  

“They’re just beautiful and tiny, they only grow like half a millimetre a year,” she said. “They don’t seem to grow in stumps where the tree was cut, but inside of ones where trees fell naturally. In the spring after rain, the lichens look a little more vibrant, a little greener.”

Clare discovered the lichen a few years ago inside stumps in the Barnhartvale area of Kamloops near Barnes Lake.

“It’s a very quiet place with lots of meadows in the grasslands and then you enter a deep, dark forest, she said. “It’s our favourite spring hike.”

“I stuck my head inside of this rotting stump and it looked like an undersea world or something.”

It’s become a tradition to go there looking for lichen every spring.

“How many years have I just walked past and never noticed them?” Clare said. “Now if I see a stump anywhere, I’ll look for them.”