This is my third post about our trip to Wayne County. Hopefully you're scrolling down and reading the posts in chronological order, I think they'll make the most sense that way. :-)

So, on the other side of the creek was the second half of the property. Our first stop in this forest was to a huge old sugar maple that Dad and Uncle Ronnie remembered from their childhood. There used to be a whole grove of maples here, apparently they were planted over 100 years ago to start a maple syrup company before the property was in our family, but the company was only in business a few years (dad can tell you the whole story). This old tree is the last one standing...it measures 12.5 feet around! A natural spring runs out of the ground at the base of the tree and runs down the hill to the creek. She's old and hollow now but felt like the mother tree of the forest, definitely the type of tree that would talk to Pocahantas in a Disney movie... :-)

Remember the thick underbrush that covered the first forest? See the difference here?...

So according to Craig, the diversity of this forest was much better. There are a lot of hemlock, but also a good variety of hard woods scattered throughout. The problem here is the density. The canopy here is so thick that it's harder for sunlight to get through and support new growth (hence the lack of underbrush). In areas where there are some openings for the sun to peak through the ground is mostly covered with ferns (underbrush that survives because the deer don't like to eat it!)...

The little orange salamanders liked this side of the creek too!

And one last photo...down by the creek was this chicken coop...it's all that remains of the old homestead where our Great-Great-Aunt Sophie used to live. The stone wall in the front right corner of this photo is the foundation of the old barn.

The first half of the property that we hiked was the half with the flagstone quarry. We didn't actually go all the way to the quarry, we'll have to explore that during another trip. This time we were focusing on the trees, but here's a photo of the path that leads to the quarry.


This half of the property also has the old hunting cabin...our Great-Great-Uncle Warner used to live here.
Craig's main observation about this forest was that it was over-run with Beech trees that are low value, and are also plagued with a disease right now that is incurable. Unfortunately most of the Beech trees on our property seem to have the disease which means they could start dying off in the next 10 years or so. This would be the main problem that we'd have to address in this forest. That being said, the forest was absolutely beautiful and everything seemed extra green today after the early morning rain...

Craig guessed that most of the trees in this forest were ~80 years old, this particular tree appears to be much, much older...oh the stories this tree could probably tell...

We thought this tree was pretty neat, look at the way the trunk is twisted. To the left are three black cherries...great trees, but growing too close together here.

There were lots of these cool little guys all over the forest... aren't they cute?? :-)

One other thing that set this forest apart from the forest across the road was the underbrush...lots of bramble and small saplings...you'll notice the difference between this and the photos in my next post.

Mom, Dad and I travelled up to Wayne County today and met up with Uncle Ronnie, Aunt Bonnie, and Jackie, to hike the hunting grounds with Craig the forester. The property is divided into two parts by a road that runs along the creek. Craig felt that the forests on either side of the road were quite different and would actually require separate development plans to improve the health of each one. So I'll put up separate posts for each forest so that you can see the difference. I'm not sure if I'll get all of this done tonight, so for now, here are a few photos of the stream that runs along the road and divides the two halves of the property...