Information and Links
Join the fray by commenting, tracking what others have to say, or linking to it from your blog.
The Carmanah Spruce - Really Big Trees!
The drive from Port Alberni takes almost three hours. So we left around 7:30 AM to make the most of the day. I was surprised that one couple drove from Ucluelet to be there on time. That meant that they were on the road an hour-and-a-half before then.
The road is pretty good (for a dirt logging road) for most of the way. But after Nitnat Lake it got a good deal bumpier.
We stopped twice along the way. Once for a bathroom break and also at the Looper Creek bridge. Although it looks like a small bridge, the creek is about 20 meters down a very narrow slot canyon.
When we got there, we found ourselves to be the only ones there. Great, we had the entire park to ourselves! One of the guests was a retired forester from Scotland, Jim Pratt. He had spent his entire career growing Sitka Spruce there (Scotland doesn’t have much in the way of forests). He wanted to see old growth Sitka Spruce. He had just arrived from a root rot conference in California, so he knows quite a bit about fungi.
When Jim started hiking down the trail into the valley he was stopping every few meters just to look at the old forest. He admonished me for going so quickly without respecting the magnificent forest. I thought hat was pretty cool. I am so used to seeing old growth that I don’t see it the way he does. I did say that by the end of our time here he would be walking by a lot of the trees also.
When we got to the first big spruce Jim was over whelmed. He didn’t want to hug the tree. But he did want to just stay there for a few minutes in its presence.
The big spruce trees lie in the valley bottom. On the valley slopes the old growth forest consists of Western Red Cedar, Western Hemlock and Amabilis Fir. They are big tree too. Especially come of the cedar. But the Spruce is in a class by themselves.
The trail is in pretty good shape overall, considering that the vicious storms from last winter have left their mark. There are a number of trees down, but those across the trail have been cleared off. And there are a few places where the boardwalk has been damaged and is lying at awkward angles. It hasn’t been repaired yet. In another place the swollen river had carved into the bank and is in danger of washing the trail away.
But this is one way the Sitka Spruce renews itself. They germinate on gravel bars of the river. These gravel bars are formed on the inside of a river bend. As time goes on the silt is deposited and course of the river changes allowing the spruce to grow and prosper. Spruce like to have wet feet, but the water has to be moving, not stagnant, and well aerated.
There are many interesting things to see on this trail. Among them is a hemlock whose roots are wrapped around a Sitka Spruce keeping it from falling over. A brilliant orange fungus called Chicken-of-the-Woods, or Brown Cubical Rot (Laetiporus sulphureus). An enormous log jam on the river. Tons of moss everywhere, burls, ferns growing on trees, etc. It’s truly an incredible place! I think I’ll add this excursion to the list of my trips.