Devil

Devil's Courthouse, NC (Parkway Excursion)	Oct 22, 2007
	James Parton

Devil's Courthouse, (public domain) Oct21, 2006

ENTS,

Saturday, Joy & I went up on the Blue Ridge Parkway, first to follow
up on an outing I did a couple of weeks back with Mom looking for
viable American Chestnut trees & checking out a chestnut tree reported
by James Smith at Pisgah Inn. Then we went on to Devils Courthouse. I
found numerous chestnuts on a hillside before reaching the inn and on
trails near the inn. They also were found right at the inn itself. I
never knew exactly what tree James found but American Chestnuts are
common here. However most show considerable blight damage but despite
this I found at least 8 trees of considerable size ranging from 10 to
close to 30 feet in height.

American Chestnut

James with chestnut trunk

Many had burrs but I found no viable
chestnuts. All were atrophied. None were fully developed. I really do
not understand this. With this number of trees trying to bear nuts it
would seem that they would cross pollinate & bear healthy nuts. But it
is not the case. Maybe the blight has the trees so weakened that they
have little reserves left for nut production. I dunno. One thing is
for certain, the bright yellow-orange foliage they have is beautiful
at this time of year! Small sprouts are so common that they are a
major component of the understory here. I will send Ed some pics to
post on the website with this as well.

Joy photographing chestnuts

Devil's Courthouse is a 5.700 ft mountain with an ominous rock face
that is located near the Graveyard Fields/Shining Rock Wilderness
Area, accessed from the Parkway via a parking lot on the left after
coming through the Devil's Courthouse tunnel from the direction from
Asheville.

Red Spruce

Tall Red Spruce

There are some nice Red Spruce located here. A laser would
have been nice to have to measure the height of some of these trees.
Some looked to be from between 70 to 100 feet tall. One specimen that
had fell across the paved trail had been cut & cleared away. I counted
96 rings in the cross section in this nearly 2 foot diameter tree.
They are some standing ones that are larger. Some trees here may be
more than 120 years old. The view from the summit was splendid. The
clear fall air showed the surrounding landscape for miles. Including
Big & Little Sam Knob. The colors were beautiful. The yellow-orange of
the Mountain Ash is almost like flame!

Everyone, try to get out before all the colors are gone. It's a treat!

James Parton.

==============================================================================
TOPIC: Parkway Excursion
http://groups.google.com/group/entstrees/browse_thread/thread/1f9561f73f44d048?hl=en
==============================================================================

== 1 of 7 ==
Date: Tues, Oct 23 2007 4:26 am
From: dbhguru

James,

I've stayed at the Pisgah Inn many times and have encountered chestnut sprouts in many places. The story is always the same.

The Devil's Courthouse is awesome. The panorama there is unsurpassed.

Bob

== 2 of 7 ==
Date: Tues, Oct 23 2007 7:45 am
From: James Parton

Bob,

I hope to find a 50 ft tree with viable nuts one day, but I realize
one will be very rare. Another tree I seek is a bearing chinkapin. I
commonly find chinkapins too but I have not seen a bearing one since
my school days. There was one at the bus stop and another near our
driveway where we lived at the time. I would carry a ziploc bag &
carry the little tasty nuts to school for a snack. Dad would also make
a drink that tasted like lemonade from the berries of red
( staghorn? ) sumac that I would carry in a thermos bottle. I worked
in a greenhouse after school in those days & even the guy who owned
the place who had went to school for horticulture/agriculture had not
heard of the drink which he really liked after I let him have some. I
sure would like to have some of those little chinkapins too! Like the
American Chestnut, I think the blight can kill them as well.

I hope you are feeling better.

James P.

== 3 of 7 ==
Date: Tues, Oct 23 2007 9:15 am
From: dbhguru

James,

Yes, I remember the drink you describe. It is called Indian Tea in some regions and uses the red berries of the Staghorn Sumac. I hadn't thought about that in a long time. There are plenty of Staghorns here in southern New England. I think I'll give my old recipe a try if I can remember it.

Bob

== 4 of 7 ==
Date: Tues, Oct 23 2007 9:46 am
From: zacstew@bellsouth.net

ENTS - Bob, James, etc.,

Ain't it amazing that Native Americans found uses for just about EVERY plant species that we know of? I respect Native Americans very much (I also have some Native American ancestry), and I think that they do not get enough credit for finding intelligent uses for all these plants. I think that everyone in this fast-paced, throw-away modern era could learn an important lesson from the First Owners of the Land!
(Eh, perhaps this reply may seem out of place, but sumac berries and 'Indian Tea' reminded me of this subject. Most of my field guides mention Native American uses for trees and plants.)

- Zac

== 5 of 7 ==
Date: Tues, Oct 23 2007 1:42 pm
From: dbhguru

Zac,

My dearly departed past wife Jani was a Native American. In fact, she was the Director of AIM for Massachusetts. She once spoke at the United Nations. As a consequence of her role, I often found myself at the center of Native culture and was never disappointed in the extent of the Native sensitivity to the land - its plants and animals, its weather, its moods, etc. Early, European Americans were so immersed in a self-serving, messianic view of themselves that they often discounted Indian wisdom. I could write a book on the subject.

Bob

== 6 of 7 ==
Date: Tues, Oct 23 2007 8:12 pm
From: JamesRobertSmith

Devil's Courthouse is nice. I used to encounter rock climbers there
using the cliffs, but now those are permanently off limits to protect
rare plants.

If you want to really find some solitude, head into the Middle Prong
Wilderness. I went backpacking there in 2005 and never encountered
another person over two days. I think Will found some large old spruce
trees in there. I recall that someone here at ENTS found some nice old
trees that had been passed over.

The only time I've seen an American chestnut that was bearing nuts was
in Gilmer County near Ellijay GA. On one of the then-new roads leading
to the gorge now filled with Carters Lake (in those days the dam was
unfinished). My dad packaged up most of the chestnuts that we gathered
and he sent them to the University of Georgia. He never recieved any
reply or thanks. We ate some of them. This would have been 1972.
Within a year the tree that was bearing the nuts had died. As I
recall, it was about 30 feet tall or so.

On my last trip into Panthertown Valley, near the summit of Shelton
Pisgah Mountain, I found a bunch of burrs. Since I remain relatively
ignorant when it comes to tree ID, I wasn't sure if they were
chinquapin burrs, or American chestnut, or Chinese chestnut. I had
gathered a few to scan and show here, but I lost them before I could
get back home (I spent four days and three nights in there and dropped
them somewhere along the way). I couldn't see where they had
originated, either. But if any of you are even hiking in Panthertown,
head up on the trail between Devil's Elbow and the summit of Shelton
Pisgah and maybe you'll find some American chestnuts. I was using the
campsite at the A-frame shelter in the Valley as my basecamp, and
doing extensive day-hikes from morning til evening and heading back to
my tent late in the afternoons. One cool thing was that every night at
around 7:15, the coyotes would come right to the edge of the campsite
and sing for about 15 minutes. They would finish up around 7:30 and I
wouldn't hear them again (and they were very, very NOISY). I had all
of my food hanging in a tree about 100 feet from my tent because I'd
heard the bears were thick in Panthertown.

(I think Will Blozan's dad lives near there.)

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