MILEPOST #1010

By Ken Brafman, Image from Ken Brafman Collection

TITLE: THE SAGA OF THE SNOW WORM: One evening in Crestline, close to ten years ago, I ventured out to my shed in the dark night, with around six inches of snow on the ground. I was using my flashlight, and as I was about to enter, my peripheral vision caught something on the snow that looked like a major catfight had taken place. But on closer inspection I observed that…these “hairs” were moving, and they were spread out as far as the light carried! I immediately shared my discovery online. As one might expect, the reactions were varied, leaning mostly towards incredulous. In an attempt to legitimize the discovery, I invited Lee Reeder to come over and take a few professional photos. Lee is a noted photographer and naturist and can be found at 1000wordsphotos.com. This week’s image is one of those photos. Lee used a penny to give the size perspective. In the coming days, a scientist by the name of Artyom Kopp PhD from U.C. Davis contacted me. He has a special interest in snow worms and he had found my group post in a Google search. In an email he told me, “I cannot explain their behavior, and neither can anybody else that I know of. They are indeed mysterious and virtually nothing is known about them. Last summer I collected their distant relative ice worms (which live only on permanent glaciers, not in seasonal snow) on Rainier. Nothing is known about those, either. I hope to start figuring out some things about these cold-loving critters little by little.” When the worms are active, they thrive on algae on the snow’s crust. They shun any light, so to see them you must go out and search in total darkness. Bottom line, snow worms are not supposed to be in this part of the world. Worms are ancient creatures, making this perhaps the oldest bit of mountain history reported here to date.

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