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So you think Beckey's old?


klenke

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Yeah -- I went to college near there. We used to go up and wander around in the B'cones and try to figure out which one was the oldest tree.

Apparently, there was an older one in W Nevada that got destroyed some years back by dendrochronologists. They got their coring tool stuck in a tree and decided to cut it out with a chain saw. This ended up killing the tree. When they did a ring analysis, they found out the tree was over 5k yrs old! Oops.

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quote:

Originally posted by bobinc:
Yeah -- I went to college near there. We used to go up and wander around in the B'cones and try to figure out which one was the oldest tree.

Apparently, there was an older one in W Nevada that got destroyed some years back by dendrochronologists. They got their coring tool stuck in a tree and decided to cut it out with a chain saw. This ended up killing the tree. When they did a ring analysis, they found out the tree was over 5k yrs old! Oops.

I've got a Far-Side in the office in which a senior woodsman and his cross-cutting protege are studying the rings on a specimen they just topple. The old guy says something like, "Look. See here? That ring shows another time the big guy survived a forest fire."

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What you are saying about creosote bushes has to be considered with further information. As a creasote bush ages the inside portion will die and the life continues from growth via the roots toward the outside. NO PART of the creosote bush is 10,000+ years old. The genetic material is the exact same as the original plant however.

The oldest bristlecone pine was not cut down by dendrologists but by a geologist who wanted to determine the age of a moraine which he was studying. He used crude dendrological methods for his work (i.e. cut down the tree).

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quote:

Originally posted by Mike Collins:
The oldest bristlecone pine was not cut down by dendrologists but by a geologist who wanted to determine the age of a moraine which he was studying. He used crude dendrological methods for his work (i.e. cut down the tree).

According to Galen Rowell in Mountain Light (p. 20, I'm home with a sick kid today) "The Forest Service had granted geographer Donald Currey permission to cut down a tree in order to date Little Ice Age events." This was in the Wheeler Peak area. He tried using a corer first, and it broke and rather than wait months for a replacement tool, he had it cut into sections and determined that the tree, named for posterity "WPN-114" (who says scientists aren't poetic?) was over 4000 years old, and older than any other trees in the area by 1200 years.The tree known as Methuselah is 4600 years old, and is someplace called Westguard Pass (p.12).

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Beckey is 81, according to the usual sources, but depending on your point of view, he is either much older (because of accelerated wear) or younger (because of so many outstanding, "timeless" life experiences) than the chronological age suggests.

Marton Litton, the founder of Grand Canyon Dories, and the man David Brower credited for keeping the Bridge Creek and Marble Canyon dams from being built in Grand Canyon, is pushing 85, rowed a dory all the way through at age 80, and has rowed large stretches since then.

Westgard Pass (elev ~7200 ft, I think) is on the divide between Owens Valley and Deep Springs Valley. The road up to the Bristlecones and White Mtn Peak takes off from CA Hwy 168 right at the Pass.

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For Alpine Tom... Very Ivestigator of you to pull that one out of the book...

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

But no matter where the trees stand the is shure to be a view, and where there is a view there is something to climb. Those trees have been lookin' down on us since the beging of time... Or at least the starting of the vegitation period.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Lost and found in the light of my eye,

Greater than me,

Mi is nas cearta an damhan-allaidh air am balla!!!

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  • 3 weeks later...

quote:

Originally posted by klenke:
I'd like to add a Farside I remember from a while back:Two loggers are sitting on a tree they've just felled eating their lunches. Behind them stretching into the distance are lots of other recently felled trees (just their trunks) and their stumps.One logger says to the other (paraphrased), "Yeah, I know what you mean Vern, the outdoors just calls to me."

There was another Far Side where a man and his young son had just cut down a large tree and were inspecting the plane of the cut. The father says to his son, "See here, son? Right there is where this big feller survived a forest fire."

Where's the Irony Police? rolleyes.gif" border="0

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