Roadless Area

A few years ago I went on a hike in the Big Ivy Roadless Area in Pisgah National Forest. Roadless areas are just that...places in the forests that have no currently recognized and maintained roads. Man of them should be protected through Federal wilderness designation, but each time these are proposed there is always a battle against corporate interests who don't appreciate seeing new wilderness.

I posted about this hike before, but I've been recently gathering a lot of the moving pictures that I've shot over the past few years and packaging it all into short videos. Here, then, is one for the hike through Big Ivy in the Pisgah National Forest. It needs to be declared as wilderness and protected. Let's hope that happens.

You want waterfalls? We got waterfalls.

Wandering Around Big Ivy.

Big trees in Big Ivy!

Old Growth Forest Video

I have spent pretty much the entire week being very, very, very sick. I didn't realize how sick I was at first because I thought it was just a bad bout with allergies. It was only after the misery became overwhelming that I discovered that I had a nasty viral infection in addition to the allergic reactions through which I was suffering.

Live and learn. Barely.

Well, here is a recent video log I concocted from an old bushwhacking trip into the Pisgah National Forest to see some old growth forests that live on the slopes of Mackey Mountain. Enjoy.

An old forest, showing off.

The slopes are like some gigantic sponge radiating moisture.

And big trees all around.

Water, rich earth, and amazing green forests.

Get Busy.

This was The Senator. It was the largest tree in eastern North America. Located in Big Tree Park near Orlando, I would often implore friends and acquaintances to visit it if they were anywhere near that part of Florida. Every time I was in that part of the state I would go to see it. Unfortunately, it's dead now. A couple of meth freaks climbed over the fence, crawled inside a hollow in the tree, intentionally started a fire inside of it and burned it down. What little that remains of our world that has not been utterly wrecked by humans is quickly fading. If there's any of it that you want to see, I strongly suggest that you get busy seeing it.

A stitched panorama I made of The Senator the last time I saw it.

 

Old Growth Forests.

When I can't get into the forests and mountains, or out to a river, I have to dwell there in memories. Here, then, are some images from a bushwhack Andy Kunkle and I made into the Pisgah National Forest in 2011 to locate a grove of old growth hardwoods. (There were once grand old hemlocks there, but those are all dead now from infestation of the Asian pest, Hemlock wooly adelgid.)

The diversity of the hardwood trees is phenomenal. However, all of the hemlocks are dead and only their standing corpses remain.

A typical large Tulip poplar in the forest.

This area was the first National Forest in the USA. It was the initial tract of land that became what we know now as the Pisgah National Forest.

Old Growth Memories

I'm reminiscing now about hikes, since I'm holed up here at home for the holidays. I really am going to take some time off in January and/or February to go hiking.

The following photos were all taken on a bushwhack hike I made with my pal Andy Kunkle in late May of this year. We drove over to the Pisgah National Forest near Old Fort, North Carolina. This particular section of forest was the very first plot of land to be declared National Forest property. Hiking in, you can tell why it was chosen. For reasons of chance and topography, large patches of forest here were never logged, or only selectively logged. Much of Mackey Mountain and the surrounding ridges and coves are home to old growth forests. These days, the forests are mainly hardwoods, but up until very recently there were also big expanses of grand old hemlock trees here, also.

And the biggest of the trees remaining are poplars, also known as the tulip tree (for its springtime blossoms). In fact, the Yellow poplar/Tulip poplar is not a true poplar at all, but is instead closely related to the magnolia family. Tulip poplars grow pretty fast for a hardwood, they grow straight and tall, and they reach impressive size for an eastern tree. While they're no match for the truly huge monster trees of the west such as Jeffrey pines, Redwoods, Sequoias, cedars, and such, they are among the largest species here in our half of the continent. Only cottonwoods and sycamores and and buckeyes and (formerly) hemlocks rivaled or exceeded them in volume.

Today, if you're out in a southeastern forest and you encounter a grove of very large trees, more than likely that grove is of Tulip (or yellow) poplars.

It was in search of just such groves that Andy and I headed up into the watersheds at the foot of Mackey Mountain/Green Knob in the Pisgah National Forest. We hiked up the steep slopes and indeed we located the big trees that we were told were there. I love walking around in classic southern Appalachian cove hardwood forests. While there, you are surrounded by life, by green, by fresh air and rich soil and clean water. If you're lucky, you'll spy some wildlife in these forests, but even if you find yourself alone there, you'll be richly rewarded for the exertion.

Big tree Bob at the base of a huge poplar near Old Fort NC.

Andy Kunkle dwarfed by a monster poplar.

A towering hardwood along the watershed.

The forest floor is alive with all sorts of flora and fauna.

The earth, like a leaking sponge, gives up the fresh water it has filtered.

One tiny human amidst Nature.

Sensoria

I'll be appearing in March at CPCC's Sensoria 2012.
They asked me for a brief bio to post here and there in some of their publications. So this is what I sent them:

Bio

James Robert Smith was born in Georgia in 1957. Currently he lives in North Carolina with his wife and son and three cats. He works full time in his day job as a laborer and in the evenings as a published author. He has sold more than sixty short stories to a host of magazines and anthologies. Smith has also written for various comic book publishers, including Marvel Comics. His first novel, THE FLOCK, was published in 2006 by Five Star Books and reprinted in 2010 by Tor/Forge Books. The film option to that book was picked up by Don (TRANSFORMERS) Murphy through Warner Brothers and is making its way to the screen. His second novel, THE LIVING END was published in 2011 by Severed Press. His third novel, THE CLAN (a sequel to THE FLOCK) was also sold to Tor Books and is forthcoming later in 2012.

Upcoming novels and collections include HISSMELINA a Lovecraftian horror novel set in the mountains of North Carolina, FOUR FROM MANGROVE a collection of sword and sorcery tales, A CONFEDERACY OF HORRORS a collection of Smith’s horror stories, and THE LOST CHILD a novel of the supernatural (also set in North Carolina).

His websites can be viewed at www.jamesrobertsmith.net and www.hissmelina.com and http://tilthelasthemlockdies.blogspot.com/.

Taken in the Pisgah National Forest on a hunt for old growth forests. I got hit really hard with poison ivy on this bushwhack. Which is my fault for not wearing the legs on my convertible pants. This was in the very first block of forests ever created for the National Forest system we now know. It protected a large expanse of old growth trees on and around Mackey Mountain. Of course the hemlocks are now all dead due to the invasive hemlock wooly adelgid, but the hardwoods are still there.

Writing: What Next?

One of my favorite modern writers is Walter Mosley. Very effective at what he does, and I enjoy his work. I also enjoy his interviews. One of the best pieces of advice that he gives is to incorporate your life into your fiction as much as possible. Subtly, of course, since most writers of fiction aren't penning autobiographies (Jack Kerouac and Charles Bukowski excepted). One thing he said in an interview was to write every day, even if you're sick. If you're sick, make one of your characters sick. You surely damned well know what you're writing about if you do that.

Lately I've been sick a lot. The old body's wearing down, especially in my line of work as a laborer as I approach my 54th birthday. If I could possibly retire, I would. There's nothing in the world I'd like more than to write full time (and not in a notebook in a cardboard shack in the woods). For now, I have to write when I can rather than when I want to.

The past couple of years have seen me with a lot of health issues: pneumonia, surgery, etc. Now I've torn my knee and will have to have surgery within the week. That's going to put me off my feet for a few weeks of recuperation and rehabilitation. I'm not looking forward to it. However, I will try to make it as fruitful as possible by using the down time to work on my fiction. I have several projects in various stages of completion, and I need to choose one of these to try to finish while I'm not able to deliver the mail.

I'll take Mosley's advice and write while I'm sick.

In a footnote, as if all of the other stuff wasn't bad enough, I was made miserable this past week by discovering that I'm highly allergic to the special detergent that we have to use in the new Maytag washing machine! I was on fire for days with waxing and waning welts. Finally, a trip to my physician solved the mystery (I thought it was related to the recently faded poison ivy I encountered in the old growth woods above Curtis Creek). I got a shot of cortisone that gave me relief and we have to stop using the "he" detergent (high efficiency).


In the Curtis Creek old growth forest, where Andy Kunkle and I discovered giant trees, an unknown waterfall, and poison ivy. (Click to embiggen.)

Videos of Old Growth and a New Waterfall

When my pals and I go hiking, one of the most satisfying things is to discover a waterfall that's not listed in any literature or one that isn't marked on any maps that we use. So it was when Andy Kunkle and I ventured into the unnamed drainage near Curtis Creek Recreation Area in the Pisgah National Forest. We had been told that there was a waterfall, but we didn't know exactly what to expect.

We were both pleased to find a very extensive series of cascades that tumble down the very steep slopes of Laurel Knob. Laurel Knob itself is a moderately high mountain that stands on the verge of the Black Mountains, the highest range in the eastern United States of America. Just north of Laurel Knob one can find some of the finest grandstands here in South. So it shouldn't be a surprise that we stumbled upon a largely unknown waterfall. This area is perfect--geologically and topographically--for such discoveries.

Here then, are a couple of videos (plus some more photos) that I shot while hiking up the unnamed tributary in our search for forest giants, and finding the pleasing sights and sounds of falling water:

This photo illustrates the difficulty of shooting in a forest in summer. You can barely make out what is a pretty impressive cascade sliding over exposed rock. But I'm sure that in the winter, without all of the leaf cover, one could get a very good photo of this waterfall.

Standing on the very steep slopes of the valley, I thought this was a good vantage point above the creek. Again, in late Fall or Winter, this would make a great spot to photograph the cascade.

The frustration of trying to shoot on these extremely steep slopes is illustrated in my attempt to photograph this tree. It's a very impressive Tulip tree right on the verge of the creek. However, there was nowhere to safely anchor my tripod so that I could place myself in the photo with the tree. I like to have a human figure beside a tree to indicate the tree's true dimensions. This one stymied me in that effort.

Curtis Creek-Mackey Mountain Old Growth

This hike started with a search on the Internet. I wasn't hunting specifically for this hike, but for information on old growth trees in western North Carolina. I stumbled upon a report by ENTS member Josh Kelly that was accompanied with photographs of some very impressive trees. Further, the details in the article indicated that this forest was located near some trails I'd hiked before. Mr. Kelly was kind enough to provide me with some good information regarding the exact location of some of these groves, so I sent the details on to my hiking friend Andy Kunkle and we made plans to take a look.

This forest is located in an historically significant spot. The Curtis Creek area of western North Carolina is the very first section of our nation's National Forest system. Today, this particular bit of that system of regulated forest has within its borders about 8,500 acres of contiguous old growth forest. These days, here in the east, that's a very significant amount. Most people visiting this section of the Pisgah National Forest never see these old trees, because access is by foot only and the undisturbed sections are well away from road access. In fact, you won't even find established trails leading into these groves, so bushwhacking is the only way.

Andy and I found the spot near the Curtis Creek Campground where Josh's directions indicated we should begin. In short order we found the drainage of the unnamed tributary and began our hike. We were looking for a waterfall, above which the more significant trees would be located. As bushwhacking goes, this was pretty easy. The slopes are steep, but the forest is largely open, with a high canopy and not a lot of undergrowth to bar the way. The worst of the troubles are the many dead hemlock trees which can be irritating to negotiate.

Quickly, we found that the slopes of the drainage were extremely steep and in many cases our best bet was to use the stream itself as our main access. This was easy enough, but eventually we came to some cliffs and found that we had to enter the forest and climb above these to continue higher up the sides of Laurel Knob. This also was not a huge problem, save for the fact that we began to encounter large patches of stinging nettles and brambles which zapped our calves. In quick order, the thorns had torn at the exposed flesh of my calves and my legs were a bloody mess. Oh, well, just part of off-trail hiking.

We came to some of the cascades that Josh told us to look for, and as we passed by them and moved above the most impressive of these, we began to see the big trees we'd come to find.

I was very impressed with this forest. Most of the big trees here are Yellow (or Tulip) poplars. These are not the biggest poplars I've ever seen--the Great Smoky Mountains and the Joyce Kilmer Memorial Forest hold those positions. However, to have a forest like this so close to home was eye-opening. The higher we climbed up the slopes, the more big trees we found. Every time I figured we'd seen the best that the forest had to offer, the more extensive the grove seemed to be. We ended up spending about six hours exploring this old growth forest, so we'll return at the next opportunity to see more of it. We examined our topo map and figured how best to enter the grove next time so that we'll be able to explore the drainage from higher up the mountain and work our way down.

I am looking forward to that trip.

Andy Kunkle and I pause at a particularly impressive poplar for a self-portrait.

Exfoliation as we move through the drainage.

Sometimes the best option for us was to use the unnamed creek as our principle route.

Andy and Boone rest in the midst of the big trees.

At one point I headed off up the heights while Andy waited behind. I could see big trees above us so I had to check them out. I had to keep stopping to take photographs of these big, old forest giants that seemed to be everywhere I looked.

The depth and richness of the soil impressed me. This is a spot where merely the weight of my foot dug a furrow in the forest floor. The darkness and complexity of the earth forms the basis of this rich ecosystem.

Another tree as I climbed the slope of a ridge. Big trees wherever I cast my gaze.

One of the more photogenic sections of the waterfall, which we decided to name "Stinging Nettle Cascades" in honor of the vicious plant that made the hike a bit more memorable.

Mother Nature reminds us of how puny we are.

I used this downed hemlock as a bridge across the unnamed creek.

Fire pink.

I stopped to photograph this bit of fungi doing its part to break down a long-dead tree trunk.

What a grand forest! Andy dwarfed by huge poplars.

Andy and Boone standing at a huge, partially hollow poplar tree.

While this forest is indeed beautiful, I kept seeing reminders that it's supposed to be a Hemlock-Poplar forest. In this area, all of the mature hemlocks are dead. You see their standing corpses everywhere. So this forest--amazing as it is you have to realize that it's missing a major component.

Old Growth Forest

Andy Kunkle and I went hiking into an old growth forest near Mackey Mountain today. We encountered a vast grove of huge trees. This area has obviously never been logged. The higher we climbed on the mountain, the more big trees we saw. It was amazing to walk into this undisturbed ecosystem. The only obvious flaw in the natural picture is that the hemlocks here have all succumbed to the wooly adelgid infestation. But everything else seems intact.

I'll write more when I have time, and post more photographs.

The higher we went on the mountain, the more large trees we kept discovering. The slopes here are very steep and the going in slow. I was totally amazed at the depth and richness of the soil.

The tributary we followed is not named. In addition, much of its length is one continues series of cascades which also have no name. Because we encountered a vast stretch of angry stinging nettles that lashed our calves as we climbed, I've decided to name this waterfall Stinging Nettle Cascades.