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