ENTS,

Yesterday Joy and I hiked a section of the Mountains-To-Sea trail located alongside the Blue Ridge Parkway between I-26 and Hendersonville rd. The section is about 3 miles in length. We took two cars parked at each end of the hike so we would have not had to backtrack but Joy forgot the keys in the car we departed from ( My Honda Element ) so we ended up having to backtrack anyway. She was at first a bit miffed but I just shrugged and said " It is just more time in the woods " so we hiked 6 miles. Before entering the forest I looked around at the trees and mentioned to Joy that I thought the majority was between 45 and 100 years old. A mature but fairly young forest. Counting tree rings would largely support this as I would soon find out since several recently cut trees were found cleared from the trail. The Parkway & MST is bordered on both sides by Biltmore property.

The forest is a mixed hardwood conifer forest. Hardwoods like various Oaks ( Mostly white & scarlet), Tuliptree, Sourwood, Hickory and some Sassafras. Conifers are White Pine, Shortleaf Pine, Pitch Pine, Virginia Pine and some Eastern Hemlock. The White Pine and Tuliptree are the height champions with Shortleaf and Pitch Pines up there too.

Mentioning tree ages here are the finds.

Oak:  53 rings counted 1' 2" diameter. Trunk cut about 12 feet above base of tree.
Oak:  70 rings counted  1' 7" diameter.
Oak:  106 rings counted 1' 8 1/2" diameter about 25 feet above base of tree.
Oak:  54 rings counted and only 7 inches in diameter!

I found several cut pines but the rings were not distinct enough to count clearly.

Joy and Pitch Pine

Joy and White Pine

Spiral Grain

Towards the hikes end at Hendersonville Rd, there is a nice grove of mostly White Pine that I intend to return an examine more closely.

Here are the measurements from the day.

                                CBH            Height
White Oak                7' 7 1/4"       106.5'
White Pine               8' 1/2"          123.6'
Pitch Pine                7' 7"             105.3'
Tuliptree                  8' 1"              119.5'
White Oak               1' 8"              94.5'
White Pine              7' 8 1/4"        119.0'
Pitch Pine               5' 7"              115.5'!
Pitch Pine               5' 7"              115..4!
White Pine              9' 7 1/2"        128.7'   

None of the trees were record-tall but I was impressed by the Pitch Pine. They kept right up with the shortleaf and fell only a little behind the great White Pines.

I also photographed a fallen oak with the bark gone. The trees grain was very spiral in appearance. I have noticed a lot of trees grow this way. We had a discussion on " Spiral Grain " on the opica forum just before we switched to Google. I was going to attach the link but cannot find it on the ENTS website.

James Parton