updated: Tuscarora Mountain

Added album of winter images from Shenandoah-- reminder of when winter used to come here: http://www.summitpost.org/album/263755/Shenandoah-in-Winter.html. Please attach your own photos showig winter in this park.

I added the Adirondack LOJ, High Peaks Information Center and Van Hoevenberg Trail Parking Area

Logistical Center.

I finally found some public access to some peaks I wanted to bag. So I set up a page for Hickory Nut Gorge. I'll post a route later, and add two peaks to summitpost. But for now, here's the gorge:

http://www.summitpost.org/canyon/267264 ... gorge.html

rasgoat wrote:I added the Adirondack LOJ, High Peaks Information Center and Van Hoevenberg Trail Parking Area

Logistical Center.

hey rasgoat, you want to get together and make a garden page?

I just added Shumont Mountain/Eagle Rock:

http://www.summitpost.org/view_object.p ... irm_post=7

What's new in Virginia? Winter! After a two-week cold snap, Shenandoah has turned to ice. I did the Whiteoak-Cedar Run loop this morning, and the falls are frozen over, cliffs are draped with massive icicles and ice sheets, and there is even one large cliff in Whiteoak Canyon that is so extensively covered by thick ice that there were several ice climbers tackling it. If you live near the park, get out there while this lasts. More snow and cold supposedly to come Tuesday and Wednesday.

woohoo!

Just added Cedar Run Canyon to complement the Whiteoak Canyon page for Shenandoah National Park. http://www.summitpost.org/canyon/269472/cedar-run-shenandoah-national-park.html

New route for Whiteoak Canyon page: Negro Run http://www.summitpost.org/route/270178/negro-run.html.

Everyone hiking up Whiteoak Canyon crosses this stream and many of them glimpse some of its falls; few explore. It's worth it.

BSIHLER wrote:New route for Whiteoak Canyon page: Negro Run http://www.summitpost.org/route/270178/negro-run.html.

Everyone hiking up Whiteoak Canyon crosses this stream and many of them glimpse some of its falls; few explore. It's worth it.

Nice post. Tell me...since all of the hemlock trees in Shenandoah are now dead, what tree seems to be dominating in the areas left open by the mass dying off of the old hemlocks?

Bob, where did you hear or read that they were all dead? Not a challenge; just a question. The last I thought, there were still nice hemlocks in the Limberlost area and also along the Jones Run-Doyles River loop, and perhaps other areas I can't name right now. I know they've been dying and that it's probably a losing cause, but I didn't know they were all gone, and I thought there were a few decent stands remaining.

As far as the other question goes, I don't know.

Last time I was there (three years ago), I couldn't find a single living hemlock. Official count is that well over 90% of the hemlocks in Shenandoah are dead, including all of the old growth groves.

I've been curious about what trees are going to move into the areas where hemlocks once stood. Guess it will be some more years before we know that.

BobSmith wrote:.
I've been curious about what trees are going to move into the areas where hemlocks once stood. Guess it will be some more years before we know that.

High elevation hardwoods; beech, yellow birch, ash, and cherry.

I've seen a cycle in the Blacks. Twenty five years ago the Blacks were covered with healthy firs. I have seen these die with the high elevation peaks covered with stands of dead trunks. There has been a cycle back to the mountain covered with young trees and seedlings in the spruce-fir zone. The question is will these trees live to maturity?

The die-offs of the high elevation balsam forests was due to the twin effects of acid rain and the balsam wooly adelgid. Since the balsam wooly adelgid attacks through the bark of more mature trees, younger trees were spared. We're now waiting to see if these younger trees have developed a resistance to the adelgids, or if the adelgids have largely died off when they basically destroyed their food source in that first cycle.

Hold your breath.