ENTS,

Mount Logan Natural Area

Mount Logan is a state forest Natural Area located in central Pennsylvania just east of the town of Lock Haven.  The location is described on the PADCNR website as:  "A 512-acre tract features an old growth eastern hemlock stand and an outcrop of Tuscarora sandstone, both near the summit."  I had read descriptions of the site by Charles Fergus in "Natural Pennsylvania - Exploring the State Forest Natural Areas."  Chuck Fergus is a well know Pennsylvania outdoor writer who has authored many field guides for the state and had a long time column in the Pennsylvania Game News.  I also had read an account of the area by Marcia Bonta - also a PA outdoor write with a current column in the PA Game News. http://marciabonta.wordpress.com/category/old-growth-forests/  Other accounts on the web were by hikers who had visited the area.  Whether old-growth forest was present or not depended which account was read.  Charles Fergus gave specific directions to what he described as a stunted old-growth stand of hemlocks on the north side of the ridge.  Conversations with Ernie Ostuno also peaked my interest in the area.

There was only one thing to do, check it out for myself.  Rob Frank and myself (Ed Frank) visited the site on Wednesday October 03, 2007.  It is a fantastic place to visit.  The weather was great. The temperature was in the low 70's with a light cloud cover for much of the day.  Using a combination of a Pennsylvania Atlas and Gazetteer and the directions in Charles Fergus's book we were able to find this out of the way natural area with little trouble.  I had been concerned because the last 2.4 miles of the dirt road leading back into the trailhead was described as being in poor condition and rutted.  I had my van and some concern about being stuck.  Contrary to the description the last 2.4 miles were along a road that seemed to be primarily made of rocks.  There were not low places for mud puddles, and no ruts, just lots of rocks.  I parked in a nice open grass area and we headed out the last 1/4 mile to the intersection with the Winchester Trail.  The Winchester Trail is a blue blazed trail that leads up the mountain on the western edge of the natural area. 

The trail up the mountain gains  about 500 feet.  It starts out as a shallow rise through second growth oaks and maples.  Soon it becomes much steeper with talus scree covering the slopes.  The nature of the forest changes as well. The trees are growing among the rocks with very little soil.  Most notable are the chestnut oaks.  They are the dominant canopy species along with red oaks.  These tree have very deeply furrowed bark and are bent and twisted.  As in another description their tops at times looks like broccoli.  Growing on a talus slope, as the talus slides down the hill the trees are tilted,  as they continue to grow the new growth grows straight up forming a kink in the tree.  This area was logged at around the turn of the century - circa 1900.  There is no doubt in my mind that these chestnut oaks are more than 100 years old, and likely approaching 150 to 200 years.  Only a core sample would tell for sure.  But they have all of the structural and bark characteristics of old-growth trees  in spite of their short stature and relatively small girth.  These same features are apparent in the red oaks as well, but to a lesser extent.  Other trees present included numerous yellow birch forming a sub-canopy layer with an occasional white pine and red maple.  The shrub layer consisted of mountain laurel and striped maple.  Mosses and hay-scented ferns were the most prominent ground covers where the surface was not covered with bare rocks.  I photographed a number of trees and made measurements.  (Unfortunately I was using a smaller inexpensive back-up camera while my other is in for repairs, and later in the day the camera was lost in the brush at the top of the hill.) 

There are short statured white pines and yellow birches growing on these slopes, again with indications of significant age.  I also found a striped maple perhaps 35 feet tall that was the oldest looking striped maple I have seen.  I plan to go back in the next couple weeks for more photos.  I would like to have people more experienced in estimating ages along to confirm my opinions, but to my mind these trees are definitely old, primary growth forest features.   We continued up the steep slope to the top of the hill.  Here a ridge 20 to 25 feet high of Tuscarora quartzite forms a spine running east-west down the length of the mountain.  It is beige to bright white in color.  Small white pines, oaks, laurel, and birches grow atop the rock with scattered examples of other species. 

Up to this point we had not encountered any hemlocks aside from a few seedlings near the very top of the ridge.  The north side of the rock ridge looked entirely different.  Instead of the open rock scree slope of the south side, this area was covered with brush.  Following the directions in the Fergus article we proceeded a few hundred yards down the length of the ridge and then cut into the brush on the north side.  There are numerous younger trees and shrubs making a thick barrier to movement. (This is where  lost the camera.)  There were hemlocks, but they were just young plants.  After forcing our way through this brush we started to encounter some thicker, but still short hemlocks with thick bark indicative of older trees.  A former forester had reported in the Fergus article that hemlocks in this are had been cored to over 200 years.   These may have been the upper limits of the older growth hemlocks. We paused for awhile to listen to a very vocal Blue Jay and watch a few hawks fly over the mountain top.  This area was described as one with numerous Timber rattlesnakes (Crotalus horridus) Rob and I had hoped to see one sunning itself among the rock, but alas we saw none of the "horribles" on the trip.  At this point we paused to search for my camera, and after a futile hunt, we headed back down the mountain,  It had been a beautiful trip,  just wish I had the photos  took.  Is anyone up for a return trip in the next couple weeks?