Wednesday, September 18, 2013

Weekend Road Trip from Hell!



I realize this may not be an exciting picture.  For context, have a look at Sasquatch Love.

Last Saturday, my brother and I took a road trip to visit Sasquatch Love. We had to hike in from the locked gate- maybe a mile or so.  There were bow hunters on mountain bikes, as well as a couple of horseback riders.  I'd never been there on a weekend before, so I was surprised that there were actually people up that far.  It only took three shots to get the piece that you see in the pic above.  I grafted up a dozen or so, and then saved the cones, which were full of seeds.  We'll see what the progeny look like.

We also headed to another weeping spruce and collected scions from it.  I got what I needed on the first shot on that one.

On the trip, we found a grove of old growth Thuja plicata, Tsuga heterophylla, and Pinus monticola.  You don't see a lot of large Pinus monticola trees, since most of them were killed by White Pine Blister Rust in the 40s.  This tree was four feet in diameter at breast height.

The entire grove was truly an awe-inspiring place.  I had discovered it last summer when I got lost, looking for a bog.I always tell myself that no time in the woods is wasted.  You never know what you are going to find out there...  and just being out among the trees is calming.. Walking into a grove of ancient trees after a frustrating, bumbling search in the woods was truly a treat :)


1 comment:

  1. Well, I planted the seeds. I didn't count them, but I know that there were several hundred. If even a fraction of them germinate, I'm going to have an interesting time evaluating them. They are going to have to grow up several years before I can see whether or not they have interesting forms- and that is going to take a lot of space. I guess I'll figure that out when they get too big for pots.

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