The ferry boat arriving at the island, with a view 
of the lighthouse.

The old champ at this
site had died several years ago. A full trip report will be forthcoming,
but here are the numbers for the biggest trees we found in order of
height:

Northern White Cedar 104" 83.4'
Northern White Cedar N/A 79.6'
Northern White Cedar 136" 78.0' Spread: 46'
Northern White Cedar 145" 77.7' Spread: 24'
Northern White Cedar 108" 74.8'
Northern White Cedar 149" 67.5'
Northern White Cedar 179" N/A....Old Champ, dead
Northern White Cedar 186" N/A....Fallen over, dead

Ironwood 40" 59.5'

We could not break 85 feet in height, although we limited ourselves to
measuring the trees with the greatest girth, and there may have been a
skinnier cedar that could have exceeded 85 feet. The published height of
113' for the old champion was way off, as we suspected. It was probably
in the 80 to 85 foot range before it died. A giant fallen cedar had a
very impressive cbh of 15.5 feet. Many of the trees, including the
ironwood, were leaning quite a bit. We measured the spread for the two
largest trees and, despite its smaller crown spread, it looks like the
77.7 footer will be the points champion based on its greater girth of
145".

Ernie

You have to have reservations on the Manitou Island Ferry which runs from
Leland MI, and at this time of year only runs a few times a week and ends
October 6th for the season: http://www.leelanau.com/manitou/manitou.html

Lee



At 07:37 AM 9/12/2007, you wrote:

The understory was extremely lush because deer do not occur on the
island, and many species of plants attain relatively huge size because
they are not grazed by deer. Yew (Taxus Canadensis), a species that has
been steadily disappearing due to deer grazing over the last century, is
quite abundant in the forest understory on the island. Several invasion
fronts of European earthworms were present, including the nightcrawler.
Although the native plants were wiped out in some of these invaded
areas, many areas still had lush vegetation because it is really the
interaction of deer and earthworms that leads to a completely denuded
forest understory.

We set up camp overlooking Lake Michigan, at the site closest to the
access trail to the beach, which would be the most direct route to the
big trees, about 2.5 miles away. On the hike along the beach we saw
plenty of young cedars as well as a big white spruce. After almost two
miles, the hulking, rusted remains of the Francisco Morazan came into
view. 

 Lee Frelich in front of the wreck of the Francisco 
Morazan, the most prominent of the many shipwrecks 
around the island.

This is the most prominent of the many shipwrecks around the
island, and serves as a landmark indicating where the trail to the old
growth is. After taking some photos of the shipwreck, we ascended the
steep dune and followed the trail into an area of big trees, notably
sugar maple, yellow birch, beech and white ash in an area that was
probably selectively logged for cedar. The maples across the island were
largely defoliated, probably the result of saddled prominent, a
caterpillar that defoliates hardwoods except for white ash during
droughts, and many trees looked drought-stressed. Lee noticed the
luxurious understory and yet more evidence of the lack of deer; a huge
Spikenard, about 6 feet tall.

 Lee examines the largest Spikenard he had ever seen. The lack of 
deer on the island has allowed many understory plants to flourish and 
attain sizes rarely seen elsewhere.

After another half mile, we reached “The Valley of the Giants”, the area
along and between two large forested dunes where the ancient cedars are
found. The first group of big cedars along the trail was relatively
short, about 70 feet tall and not as thick as the trees further on the
trail. We reconnoitered the trail, noting where the biggest cedars were,
and then began measuring. We measured a big ironwood that Lee had
noticed, and got a height close to 60 feet, pretty impressive for this
species. As luck would have it, a hiker who was leading a group of
students came down the trail, and turned out to be a tree enthusiast who
had explored this stand before. He led us off the trail to what he
believed was the leading contender for the title of new champion cedar.
We measured it and then measured a few others, included girth
measurements of two dead giant cedars that may have been champion trees
while alive. Their girths far exceeded any of the living cedars we
measured. There are two close contenders for the championship northern
white cedar; the first (champion by just a few points) is the relatively
young 300-350 year old tree (shown to us by the hiker) with straight
trunk and fairly symmetrical crown, while the other is several hundred
years older, leaning with a twisted trunk and deep fissures in the bark
filled with little moss gardens growing on sand deposited by winds
blowing over the top of a nearby sand dune, and a highly irregular
crown.

Lee contemplates a fallen giant cedar that he estimated may have been up to 900 years old. A cbh of 186 inches was measured and the height of the tree when standing was estimated at 75 to 80 feet.
One of the two main contenders for the title of champion Thuja Occidentalis at this site with a measured height of 77.7 feet, cbh of 145 inches and spread of nearly 24 feet.	Lee stands near the trunk of the 77.7 footer, which he estimates as being a relatively young tree compared to many of the other giants found here. This tree could continue growing for several more centuries.
One of the most amazing finds here was that of this ancient fallen cedar that was actually still alive. At first sight we thought that this was a nurse log supporting a young cedar tree. But that young cedar turned out to be a limb of the fallen tree! In fact, two of the limbs of the fallen giant were still producing foliage and growing vertically up towards the sunlight from their gnarled bases.	Although this cedar was a relatively short 67.5 feet in height, it had the greatest girth of the living cedars at 149 inches cbh. The girth was measured just under the large burl seen in the photo. Note the yew growing around the base of the tree. Yew was very widespread in the understory, reminding me of the rhododendron seen at many ancient hemlock stands.

The white cedar forest is all aged, with many small seedlings, saplings,
young pole-sized trees, and mature trees mixed together. The ancient
trees are scattered about the 40 acre grove as single stems and groups
of 2 or 3. Many of the ancient cedars have the same growth form
characteristics in old western red cedars portrayed by Bob VanPelt. Lee
estimated ages of some up to 800 years.

After recording the measurements of the biggest trees, we followed the
trail back out of the valley and then decided to make an assault on the
huge perched dune across the western edge of the island. This area
affords some of the most spectacular views in the entire Great Lakes
region and, as we discovered, the trail passes by many species of very
rare dune plants. Soon we were looking down on the forest we just passed
through and at freighters crossing the Manitou Passage in front of
Sleeping Bear Dunes. After admiring the panorama we trod on along the
trail, looking for a way to the beach. 

The view of the Manitou Passage and the Sleeping Bear dunes from the perched dune on the west side of the island. Many rare plants of the coastal dune ecosystem can be found here, as well as the spectacular panoramic view of the island and the surrounding land and water.

Looking northwest across Lake Michigan over the edge of the 350 foot perched dune along the southwest coast of the island.

We followed fresh footprints in
the sand which eventually led us to the edge of the tall perched dune,
as well as a trail that ascended the very highest point on the island.
We very briefly considered climbing the high point, but our water was
pretty much gone and we thought better of it. Then we came to the edge
of the dune. It was a rather steep 300 foot drop to Lake Michigan and we
were somewhat intimidated by the thought of converting the considerable
potential energy we had accrued to kinetic energy. Buoyed by the sight
of footprints going down the steep drop, Ernie decided to take the
plunge and began “sand surfing” down the dune followed by Lee’s more
sensible and deliberate descent. We both had to carefully avoid stomping
on several endangered Pitcher’s Thistle clinging to the steep dune side.

Lee is the tiny dot in the center top of the photo, gingerly making his way down the steep and fragile dune, careful not to trample some rare pitcher's thistles growing there.

Young, verdant cedar trees basking in the late afternoon sunlight on the side of the perched dune on the southwest coast of the island.

Upon reaching the beach, we began the 3.5 mile hike back to the
campground stopping only to get re-hydrated and fill our water bottles
from the fresh water ocean of Lake Michigan. After a peaceful,
star-filled night’s sleep we broke camp and hiked along the beach to
pick up the ferry back to the mainland. We looked for the elusive
Petoskey Stone, a fossilized Devonian Period coral that is the state
stone of Michigan, without success, although Lee found two nice fossils
of another species of Devonian coral.

 The view shortly after sunset from our campsite at the edge of 
the dune, looking south across the Manitou Passage to Sleeping bear dunes.

The winds and waves really picked up as the ferry arrived and the ride
back was considerably rougher, with the boat buffeted by 3 to 5 foot
waves. We pulled into the port of Leland around 230 pm and began making
our respective ways back home.