Hartwick Pines–among the tall trees

Monday June 2, 2014
Hartwick Pines State Park
Grayling, Michigan

 

 

We make another early departure.

 

 

This is becoming a great habit.  It enables us to zip our way up M-23 and I-75 for 233 miles.  This is amazing for folks who normally do 90 or 150 miles a move.  200 miles at the very most.

No one is around is on the interstate which is probably why the road is mostly in such good shape as we drive further north into green tree country.  Trees, trees, nothing but trees.  OH MY!!

I 75 brings us right to the doorway of Hartwick Pines State Park.  No washboard back entrance here.

 

The park feels like I think Michigan should feel, dark and heavily treed. 

 

TALL trees here.  No one is at the ranger booth but our name is on a paper taped to the window as due to arrive today.  So we drive into the campground, find our site and back in.  Like all the sites, it is really lovely. nicely separated on both sides from the adjacent sites.  No one behind us.  In front of us is a pull through site with no one in it when we arrive.  There are less than half a dozen other campers in this 100 site campground.   We took on water before we came to the site as the park has individual electric, no individual water and a dump station.   Here again we have award winning bathrooms and showers.

 

 

The weather is perfect - breezy, warm. 

We get set up, have a bite of lunch and head out for the visitor’s center where we get a map, find several trails we’d like to hike  and discover there is a Kirtland’s warbler walk tomorrow at 7am.

 

We’ve come here to visit the old growth White Pine, Red Pine and Jack Pine forests.  These are all that remains in lower Michigan of the vast forest that once covered all of Michigan until it was logged to extinction in the 1800’s and early 1900’s.   In 1927 the current logging company withdrew some sections of this area from logging due to a drop in the price for timber.  One of the heirs of the owners donated that land and 8000 acres in cut over land to the State of Michigan as a memorial to the logging industry.   In 1934-35 the CCC built a logging museum here  It is located in two replica logging camp buildings and contains outdoor exhibits of logging equipment including a steam powered sawmill operated during the summer for special events.

I am definitely not here to see the museum although I am sure we will.  Logging is not high on my list of approved careers.  I am here to see the trees. Really TALL trees, to hike the trails among them.  To look up and up and up to see their tops.   I am also here to hopefully see the Kirtland’s warbler one of the most endangered of birds.

 

 This afternoon we hike the white pine trail just behind the visitor center.

 

 

Just stepping onto this trail through the dark silent woods has a calming effect.  I want to walk slowly and reverently.  Unfortunately the mosquitoes find dining on me much easier when I’m gong at that pace.  So I have to hike this trail much faster than I would like.  And I won’t be able to do one of my very favorite things, lie down on the ground and just stare up at the tops of these tall trees to the sky.

Note to self: ask the ranger for the approximate dates of mosquito season here for possible return.

Like the rest of the park, some of this trail goes through “young” mixed forest approximately 120 years old dating from the end of the logging here. 

 

 

 

 

 

The trail is just over a mile long and is mostly paved so that the handicapped too can experience this wonder.  It also protects the forest floor from compaction which is deadly to the shallow roots of these tall trees.

 

 

We move into the old growth area on the trail.

 

 

Further along the trail we come to the old growth area where the trees are 300-400 years old.  They are majestic.  White pines, red pines and eastern hemlock.  The understory is totally shady.  There are large logs on the forest floor.  None of these are removed but are left to decay in the natural way of nature’s cycle.   The height, the size and the spaces between the trees tells us this is an old growth forest. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 I step back to try to give a feeling for the height of this tree.

Only the bottom 1/3 of the trunk is visible in this picture..  It reaches up into the sky. I can hardly tilt my head back far enough to see it.

 

There is really nothing like walking here. Neither of us says a word unless to marvel at this beauty. And at the loss.

Imagine the size of this giant at the time of its loss.  What would it look like today..

 

 

 

The trail takes us by the most famous tree at Hartwick pines, the Monarch.

 

 

 

This tree was the largest and oldest of the pines.  Generations of Michigan families have had their pictures taken here.  But in 1992 a wind storm took out the Monarch’s crown.  It died 4 years later.  A snag is all that remains of this former giant once 155 feet tall with a circumference of 12 feet.  it was about 325 years old when it died.   Not being from Michigan, I was never fortunate enough to make its acquaintance during life.  But I honor it and all the trees surrounding it saved from the logging era so that I can marvel at their age and beauty.

 

 

 

 

 

 

We have had quite enough of the mosquitoes.

 

It is now early evening, THE worst time for mosquitoes, when they chase us out of the Old Growth area and on down the trail.  As we near the finish, we take shelter in the Chapel, a beautiful log building for contemplation and meditation among these wonderful trees.  The glass window is open to the forest beyond.  We stay a while in the chapel, away from our energetic pursuers.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Once outside again, we hurry past the Logging Museum and on to the car.

Too many mosquitoes to stop today.  David wants to return another day.  I suppose I will although a monument to this deforestation is really a bit much for me.  How can we be proud of such a thing?