Mount Logan Natural Area   Ernie Ostuno   Jul 20, 2004  Dale, I finally got up to one of the more inaccessible areas of old growth in Pennsylvania. On July 6th I visited the Mount Logan Natural Area. What makes this one of the hardest to get to? First of all, you have to drive several miles on an unmaintained mountain road, that will punish the sturdiest of 4 wheel drive vehicles. Then you have to hike up one of the steepest mountain trails in Pennsylvania. Only the Dutlinger Natural Area comes close to being as hard to get to as this place, but at least there you are rewarded with a large area of old growth. Not so up on this mountain, the old growth is a hard to find, small stand. Once you have sweated and huffed and puffed your way up to near the summit, you have to climb a rockpile of "Tuscarora sandstone" to get to the ridge top. Here the trail ends and you have to partially teeter on the edge of the rocks and partially "rhododendron surf" your way about a quarter mile east along the ridge past many stunted second growth hemlock and white pine. The saving grace on this day were the cooling breezes on the ridge and the spectacular views from there. I also was lucky enough to see two big turkey vultures take off from their roost on the boulders below as I approached. The first signpost of the old growth is a beautiful hemlock right near the ridge that stands about 60 feet tall, nearly 3 feet dbh and has boughs right down the the ground as it gets a good sunny southern exposure from the open ridge. Here's my notes: The old growth is only about two or three acres in extent and consists of about 15 hemlocks and a few maple and yellow birch. The old growth is located near the top of the western slope of the headwaters of a stream valley, and less than 100 yards northeast of the ridge where an outcrop of "tuscarora sandstone" occurs. Some of the hemlocks are rooted among the boulders, similar to Sweet Root Natural Area. Unlike Sweet Root, I noticed no evidence of the hemlock woolly adelgid in this area and the trees looked healthy. There were a few old rotting logs and at least one "standing snag" among the old growth. One thing I want to note: these trees are not stunted as indicated in the description in "Old Growth in the East: A Survey". The largest ones were close to or over 100 feet tall, and I estimated the dbh of several trees to be greater than 3 feet. In fact, these trees appeared larger than those at other ridgetop sites I have visited. The only trees I saw that were stunted were back on the exposed ridge top and appeared to be second growth. There was a white pine on the ridge that had "limbs longer than the boles" as described in the book, but no hemlocks matched this description. There is also a 2-3 acre patch of old growth along Spruce Run (about halfway between Mount Logan Natural Area and Mount Riansares). I found this area three years ago and I haven't seen it mentioned as old growth anywhere. I am going to contact the Bald Eagle State Forest about this area, which is surrounded by a much larger area (at least 100 acres) of dense second growth hemlock and pine along with the occasional big hemlock here and there. There is supposed to be a few acres of old growth hemlocks on Mount Riansares, but I will have to wait until next year to attempt to find it. Ernie   Home