Adirondack High   Robert Leverett
  Aug 29, 2006 07:48 PDT 
ENTS,

   A 4-day stint in the Adirondacks to include canoe camping at a
wilderness site left Monica and me tired, but happy. We camped in an
area where the old growth came down to the lake. There is a ton more of
it on the ridge that drops down into Moss Lake. The Daks are a natural
treasure by every measure one can think of.   

   I was able to reconnect with some old friends (trees). One was the
huge yellow birch near Piseco Lake in the southwestern section of the
Daks that I discovered in the mid-1990s. It is the largest of the
birches that I know of in the Daks, but unfortunately it is dying. It's
top is dead, but hasn't broken up yet. The birch's final measurements
are 14.7 feet around at the standard 4.5-feet above base level. Its
girth at 2 feet above base is 18.1 feet. The height ois 96.1 feet. But
alas. everything is down hill from here on for the venerable old tree.
BTW, the tree's 56.0-inch DBH is the largest by 3 inches that I know of
fro a birch in the Daks.
            
   I also discovered a new large white pine in the Raquette Lake region
of the Daks. The new big pine has a broken top, so we named the tree
"Old Broken Top". The pine measures exactly 13 feet CBH at the point
selected as mid-slope. Up-slope CBH is 12.6 feet and lower slope CBH is
13.2 feet. So for those who average the upper and lower slope CBHs, the
figure would be 12.9 feet. The pine's height to the top of the limb that
has become the leader is 132.0 feet. The broken top is at about 125
feet. It is a very large pine. At one time, I suspect the tree would
have been 145 feet tall, if not more.

   More on the Dak old growth in coming posts. I'll try to explain the
efforts to document the OG that have taken palce over the years and why
we are at a spot where a new effort can pay handsome dividends.

Robert T. Leverett
Cofounder, Eastern Native Tree Society
RE: Adirondack High   Robert Leverett
  Aug 29, 2006 11:34 PDT 

James,

   Yes, the modern view of the Adirondacks is that there is an ongoing
upward doming of the region. I think that early measurements assumed
glacial rebound, but I guess that process has a different footprint. It
is extremely exciting to think of an area in the east as actually
undergoing mountain building. The Daks are Way Cool!!

Bob
  James Smith wrote:

Eventually, I hope to visit the Adirondacks. One thing that always
struck me in viewing photos of the high peaks is that they sure don't
look like other eastern ranges. They look, to me, like some kind of
mishmash of older, worn peaks and mountains that looked for all the
world as if they were still undergoing mountain-building. I asked some
geologist pals of mine about this and was told that the Daks are,
indeed, undergoing some kind of uplift, and that's why they don't look
much like the eastern Appalachians in which I've spent my life hiking.
RE: Adirondack High   fores-@earthlink.net
  Aug 29, 2006 20:48 PDT 

don't forget to hit up the southern dacks too though, tons of HW OG acreage
there and that's where a majority of the really fat HW are. the high peaks
do have some OG too though. it is true that they do have a different sort
of look, a few parts of NC are getting a little closer compared to the ones
in NJ, PA, MA, etc.