| Today
I went for a hike along Long Bunk Trail out of Little
Cataloochee in GRSMNP, I wanted to check out a few parts of Dude
Branch I hadn't seen. Overall, the forest was beautiful, with an
open understory and many good-sized northern red oaks, sugar
maples, black and yellow birch, buckeye, and tuliptree. For the
most part, though, nothing outstanding size-wise, but for a few
exceptions (at least that I measured). In an old field area, I
measured one black locust about 4 feet in circumference to
125.9. Okay...
In an area
of older trees, on a tuliptree 19' 5", I got 171.7 feet
tall. I thought it might be one that Will Blozan and I had
measured many years ago, but I'm not sure, the area looks
different than my recollection. It's a beautiful tree. If I had
calculated and realized the height there, I would have tried for
a couple more shots. Later I nearly missed one hophornbeam right
by the trail, 4' 2" circumference. From one spot I got 72.5
feet, but I felt I couldn't see it, I moved and got another
shot, and got 81.9 feet. I was pretty surprised by this. Not
many numbers, but pretty good ones.
Yesterday I
went back to remeasure the pignut hickory in Swannanoa that I
had measured recently. The light was good, the shots were good,
and I had someone at the base with a reflector. The
circumference is 11'2". From one shot I got 161.75, very
close to the other measurements I had. I moved around, and saw
what looked to be a higher point, and shot up a few times and
saw that it was reading farther, so I found a good spot in the
middle of a multiflora rose bush to measure from, and got
166.95. That's crazy tall. I think this warrants a tape drop,
owner permitting. I'll keep y'all posted.
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