| Heading
to Ash Flats |
John
Eichholz |
| Sep
04, 2004 20:15 PDT |
The south face of Clark/Todd mountain in the Mohawk Trail State
Forest
is much drier than the north face. The lower slope, on the banks
of
Cold River, are dominated by red oak and eastern hemlock, with
some oaks
reaching 7' to 8' cbh and a bit over 100' in height. The lower
slope
has an absence of ash, shagbark and pignut hickory, and red
maple, but
these appear in large numbers after climbing a couple hundred
feet,
together with white oak, hop hornbeam, birches and black cherry.
There
were quite a few mushrooms, including some nice chanterelle.
Following
one stream bed directly across the river from the parking area
on route
2, which eventually leads to the Ash Flats grove, I quickly
encountered
a nice red maple, at 110.6' height, and a bit above that, one of
several
shagbark hickories at 109.2' height. The shagbark hickory may
seem
short but may be the tallest found so far in MTSF (by an inch or
two).
This area is easily accessible this time of year, but is a much
longer
walk when the river is high or frozen, so I want to take a more
extensive look soon. A quick visit, but it was nice to get out
again.
Today's
list:
species cbh height
red oak 7.4'
103.4'
white ash 4.4'
104.8'
red maple 5.8'
110.6'
shagbark hickory 2.6' 93.0'
shagbark hickory 3.7' 109.2'
pignut hickory 3.5' 103.1'
John
|
| Re:
Heading to Ash Flats |
John
Eichholz |
| Sep
06, 2004 18:26 PDT |
Bob:
That would be great if the timing works. I went up again today,
and
somehow missed any groves of super tall ash, etc. It would be
nice to
have a guide. I did come across a few interesting trees:
Bitternut Hickory 114.0' 5.1'cbh
BH 107.6'
4.0'cbh
BH 103.8' ~2.7'
BH 104.6'
4.9'cbh
Bigtooth Aspen 110.6'
5.9'cbh Nice tree
Eastern Hemlock 114.1'
6.4'cbh
Hophornbeam 78.5' 2.3'cbh
The hophornbeam is not a typo. It is losing its leaves and
doesn't look
so great, though. The leader was bare of leaves. I measures it a
few
times.
John
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