ENTS,

Today Monica and I explored the first 0.65 miles of the Jones Creek Trail in the La Plata subrange of the San Juans. The trail starts out at the same spot with the Hermosa Creek Trail, but then heads sharply up the ridge instead of maintaining only a slight altitude gain. All in all, the part of Jones Creek Trail we saw doesn't match the Hermosa Creek Trail for big and/or tall timber, but there are spots and there are trees that inspire. Most of the timber is younger. A past fire had greater impact at the higher on the ridge and everywhere there a signs of the fire. But Monica and I did see a few superb old ponderosa pines and Doug firs. Most of the taller trees were between 115 and 130 feet. I did document two that reached 140 or more.

We also saw lots of wild flowers to include red columbine. Out here I usually expect to see the blue variety. Native Rocky Mountain rose, wild geranium, and lupine were abundant, Monica heard a number of familiar bird songs and spotted several colorful western tanagers. Magpies were common. But the most remarkable sights were the scattered old ponderosas and Doug firs. One pine stood out and I measured it and then took its coordinates. Thinking about who would fully especially appreciate it, the names of several Ents stood out. However, for this tree I settled on Don Bertolette. I thereby declared it to be the Don Bertolette Pine. Statistics follow and then a not too great image of the pine. Sorry Don.

The Don Bertolette Pine

Latitude: 37.462705 N
Longitude: 107.854041 W
Altitude: 7,910 feet

Height: 140.0 feet
Girth:       10.6 feet
Age:      over 200 years (probably over 250)

Image of Bertolette Pine

Rhe Forest Service contacts I'm making here are great. Monica and I will be having dinner with an official who is trying to get me information on the whereabouts of big and/or tall trees and will extract data from their datbase for me. Tomorrow Monica and I will go over toward Pogosa Springs. Big pine, fir, and spruce all over there, plus the state champion ponderosa confirmed by none other than BVP. I think Bob's record blue spruce is over there. However, the one I measured on Hermosa Creek is only 0.5 feet under Bob's and I have not exhausted the possibilities in the Hermosa Creek drainage basin - a huge area.       Don, I still can't get over the possibilities out here. I'm so accustomed to the postage stamp-sized old growth areas in the Northeast, with the exception of the Adirondack of course. In the past, when I visited the San Juans, I didn't have much time and I was interested in the high altitude areas. This time I have time and the where-with-all to hunt and measure. BTW, what's the tallest tree you've measured above 10,000 feet? The Englemann spruce that is 127 feet tall at Coal Bank Pass is my record. Who has beaten that? Below is another image from today showing Monica against another beaut. A beauty next to a beauty.
Bob