MarkO Posted September 20, 2012 Share Posted September 20, 2012 Are you near Sandwich Notch RD? About a mile away from it, but when I want to go for a ride for elevation purposes, I drive up to Tripoli Rd which I believe is about 500' higher at their highest points. Speaking of which, this is about the time of year I saw some snow mixing in at the top of Tripoli Road two years ago. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CoastalWx Posted September 20, 2012 Share Posted September 20, 2012 About a mile away from it, but when I want to go for a ride for elevation purposes, I drive up to Tripoli Rd which I believe is about 500' higher at their highest points. Speaking of which, this is about the time of year I saw some snow mixing in at the top of Tripoli Road two years ago. I was on that road in late July. Beautiful area. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tamarack Posted September 21, 2012 Share Posted September 21, 2012 Didn't realize the red spruce wasn't considered a boreal species. How about balsam firs? We're kind of near the southern edge of their natural range (along with the red and black spruce). It seems like a lot of the evergreen species (save for white pine and hemlock, which are found pretty much everywhere) are mostly about 1600'-1700' and up. I don't remember seeing much white oak in Maine above the Portland area, so I'm a bit surprised they go all the way up to Waterville. Then again, it's been a while since I've been up that way. White oak is probably my favorite tree. Not sure why, it just is. As such, I like to walk in the woods around here and look for them since they're somewhat elusive. The best time to look for them is in the winter since they retain some of their leaves on lower branches, making them easier to spot from a distance. There's a bunch of them on a SW facing slope in the southern part of Lenox. I have yet to spot them anywhere else north or east of there in the Berkshires. There are more in the SW part of the county (along with blacks and scarlets). Whites are very abundant throughout the rest of SNE and are the state tree of CT. There are some burr oaks in the swampy areas of the southern Berkshires as well. These trees can get very large. Balsam fir is considered a boreal species, though its range doesn't go as far north or west as other boreals like black and white spruce, tamarack, white birch, quaking aspen, and balsam poplar, all of which are truly transcontinental. Northern white cedar and to a lesser extent bigtooth aspen also range into the boreal forest, but neither range far enough north or west to really be boreal species. Neither occur naturally in Newfoundland, either. When I lived in Gardiner, 9 miles south of AUG, one of my spots to walk was on Oaklands, the Gardiner family forest, and that was named for the large and common (though not abundant) white oaks found there. I also found a couple of black gum (tupelo) in Gardiner, though not on Oaklands, as far north as I know them to occur. Tree species can be kind of funny in the eastern U.S. due to clear cutting as late as 120 years ago. It's hard to imagine today but 80-90% of New England was cleared for farming. I'll exclude Maine because I don't know how far up it went there but yes, that includes large portions of MA, VT & NH. By the 1920s and 30s in CT when many state forests were being created the focus was on timber harvests so emphasis was placed on high value timber such as oak. Other species were thined out so the focus would be on hard wood. Clearing in Maine maxed out at 30-35%, but was much higher than that in the south, Penobscot valley, and eastern Aroostook. Nearly half of the state's 900+ townships never organized as towns and have reamined almost completely forest, the remainder water or bog or logging road. Some are "Plantations", with a combination of self rule and state oversight, but most remain unorganized, with "names" like Twp 8 Southern District, Cool Spruce country, or Twp 13 Range 12 WELS (West of the Easterly Line of the State), which includes Round Pond on the Allagash. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MarkO Posted October 4, 2012 Share Posted October 4, 2012 The Kancamangus highest elevation is 2855' I believe. Is this the highest road in New England open year round? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
weatherMA Posted October 5, 2012 Share Posted October 5, 2012 Tripoli road....sounds familiar...what's the road where it turns in to a dirt road as you're driving on it as it gains elevation? Is that it? I think its off of 31 on 93...leads you to the base for a trail up Osceola mountain. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Modfan Posted October 5, 2012 Share Posted October 5, 2012 A whopping 498' for me in South Woodstock. The north west section of town, closer to Union top off at just over 900' Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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