Black Bear Trail & Forest Cathedral    Dale J. Luthringer    Aug 18, 2004 17:41 PDT  Bob, Ed, I had a 'big tree search' program today starting from the Black Bear Trail near the Sawmill Center heading southeast into the Forest Cathedral. I've never been in this section of woods before, and didn't think I'd find anything in here except a few decent sized hemlock. I haven't seen the whole lot yet, but we did find a few decent trees today. Had a black bear walk up to about 50yards from the group before it turned 90degrees and slowly sauntered away from us. What a day. The day's tally follows: Species            CBH     Height   Comments Am. beech        8.2        91.1 Black cherry      9.5        114+     loggers would be droolin' over this one, gorgeous straight trunk Black cherry      8.5        120.6+ another dandy Black gum         5.7        98.2+    new park girth record, chunky alligator bark specimen Cucumbertree    9          112.4    nice column tree, ~175+ years E. white pine     11.9      135.8+ almost 12x100 class, gorgeous, ~175 years N. red oak         10.3      113.7+ N. red oak         11.5      119.7   gorgeous single stem N. red oak         11.7      111.1+ another bute' White oak         11.4      102.8    old tree, ~250 years We passed up numerous 10-11ft CBH x 110-120ft hemlocks, 10ft CBH x 110ft N. reds, 9ft CBH x 100ft white oaks, and 8-9.5ft CBH x 105ft Am. beech. Gorgeous black cherry and Am. beech in here. Beech bark disease is just starting to make its mark though. The white pine was a real surprise. Thought I'd make 140, but couldn't see the whole crown. The tall N. red might make it to just over 120ft with persistence to see the top branch. I only have a handful or N. reds over 120ft. Dale   Home