SummitPost.org

mrchad9 wrote:If you think 'it's all good' then you obviously have never lived in Houston.

It's a hackneyed phrase, but beauty really is in the eye of the beholder. A good artist or photographer could draw/photograph a run-down shack in the Detroit projects and think it's beautiful

I have had just as much fun with good friends hiking in the east as I have in the west. Wanna talk technical differences, fine but for me its about getting out in that mountain air and having a good time.

Of course everyone may have thier preferences but don't shit on sombody's good times because you have a bigger mountain.

welle wrote:The thing with Eastern Mountains, especially Northeastern ones, the trails were put up in 19th and early 20th century by Calvinists, who found pleasure in torturing themselves. Most trails shoot up straight the incline without any bends that Westerners are spoiled by. I must agree though - summits with dense trees on them suck!

Out west if there is a nice trail it is probably just an approach to a scramble or climb. Ask a North Cascades hiker if the trails spoil them more than a hike in the Adirondacks. Pick up a Selkirks guidebook you will see there is almost no hiking peak in the range. This for an example is a hike in the Akolkolex area and I did not feel spoiled at any time.



I left the day wet, dirty, tired and scratched up from the brush higher up. Living in the only old growth inland rainforest on earth I can tell you the going is not easier.

Everyone knows the 2 exceptions Kathadin and the Presidential range but really Mount Washington is just a rocky hill and like most mountains it has a steep and exposed side. The eastern mountains are hills compared to others, this is not to say I don't love the east it is my home. I can't help if some people get sensitive about a place I have had amazing times out in the mountains, what I am saying is true.

If you arrange your life so you can get away from citified areas quickly, you will often find happiness. When I lived in upstate NY, I took great joy in X-C skiing out the back door, or canoeing down a river right outside my college campus. As a kid, I could snowshoe 200 yds into woods, and not see another person for hours (until I came home). In the spring, the woods, even the swamps near home were filled with flowers, wild animals and I was filled with awe.

James_W wrote:I can't help if some people get sensitive about a place I have had amazing times out in the mountains, what I am saying is true.

You find your digs to be amazing. That's your truth.

The OP finds Mt. Davis to be amazing. That's his truth.

Why argue?

mrchad9 wrote:If you think 'it's all good' then you obviously have never lived in Houston.

Damn, I just mapquested Big Bend from your location, 9 1/2 hours is alot.

rasgoat wrote:

mrchad9 wrote:If you think 'it's all good' then you obviously have never lived in Houston.

Damn, I just mapquested Big Bend from your location, 9 1/2 hours is alot.

LOL!!!

But not my location! I lived there from 1998-2000. That was enough!

James_W wrote: ... the only old growth inland rainforest on earth ...

Say what? I can think of a few others. Heck, there's even a little one in the East, isn't there--uncut parts of the west slope of GSMNP? And then we could assemble quite a list in central Africa ... and there's that river basin in South America, starts with an A I think ...

JamesW, Your area looks amazing, I hope one day to be able to live so close to such coolness & have good friends to be there with but, I need to know, do you work for the Canadian tourism council or something?

chugach mtn boy wrote:

James_W wrote: ... the only old growth inland rainforest on earth ...

Say what? I can think of a few others. Heck, there's even a little one in the East, isn't there--uncut parts of the west slope of GSMNP? And then we could assemble quite a list in central Africa ... and there's that river basin in South America, starts with an A I think ...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mount_Reve ... ional_Park

The park contains part of the world's only temperate inland rain forest. Steep, rugged mountains can be found in a warm, moist climate. A variety of plant and animal life is typical with stands of old-growth Western Redcedar and Western Hemlock, a forest type which is rapidly declining outside of protected areas. The park's inland rainforest also has an isolated population of banana slugs which marks the eastern boundary of their distribution in North America.

I see it even on the National Parks documents I have here.

rasgoat wrote:JamesW, Your area looks amazing, I hope one day to be able to live so close to such coolness & have good friends to be there with but, I need to know, do you work for the Canadian tourism council or something?

My roommate does but Canada sells itself

James_W wrote:

chugach mtn boy wrote:

James_W wrote: ... the only old growth inland rainforest on earth ...

Say what? I can think of a few others. Heck, there's even a little one in the East, isn't there--uncut parts of the west slope of GSMNP? And then we could assemble quite a list in central Africa ... and there's that river basin in South America, starts with an A I think ...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mount_Reve ... ional_Park

The park contains part of the world's only temperate inland rain forest. Steep, rugged mountains can be found in a warm, moist climate. A variety of plant and animal life is typical with stands of old-growth Western Redcedar and Western Hemlock, a forest type which is rapidly declining outside of protected areas. The park's inland rainforest also has an isolated population of banana slugs which marks the eastern boundary of their distribution in North America.

I see it even on the National Parks documents I have here.

By adding "temperate" I think you get closer to the truth, but I still think it's a slightly extravagant claim. I believe there is inland old growth rain forest around Mt. LeConte and in Cades Cove in the Smokies, and that is temperate. Might find some examples elsewhere, depending on what you count as "inland." None here in Alaska, I'll grant you--ours is all coastal.

As for the East (some, but not all, of which is old growth):
Appalachian temperate rain forests of the eastern USA
Temperate rain forests in the eastern USA are limited to areas in the southern Appalachian Mountains where orographic precipitation causes weather systems coming from the west and from the Gulf of Mexico to drop more precipitation than in surrounding areas. The largest of these forest blocks are located in western North Carolina, northern Georgia, and far eastern Tennessee, largely in the Pisgah, Nantahala, Chattahoochee National Forests and nearby Gorges State Park. In addition, small areas in the highest elevations of the Great Smoky Mountains also receive substantial rainfall, with Clingmans Dome, for example, collecting about 2000 mm of precipitation per year. Although the highest summits of the Green Mountains of Vermont, the White Mountains of New Hampshire, and Mount Katahdin in Maine receive over 2000 mm of precipitation per year, some of these locations have alpine environments and whether or not temperate rain forests exist in these regions is subject to debate. It is possible for small blocks of temperate rainforest to exist along the slopes of these mountain ranges below the tree line where annual precipitation is sufficient for such forests to thrive.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Temperate_rainforest#Global_distribution

mrchad9 wrote:

rasgoat wrote:

mrchad9 wrote:If you think 'it's all good' then you obviously have never lived in Houston.

Damn, I just mapquested Big Bend from your location, 9 1/2 hours is alot.

LOL!!!

But not my location! I lived there from 1998-2000. That was enough!

Thank goodness!!!

http://www.pc.gc.ca/eng/pn-np/bc/revels ... tcul9.aspx

I doubt Parks Canada would lie about it.