Fantasic adventure Nate. There are certain people that have impacted the lives of many and Jerry Morris is certainly one of these people. He's lived a life that most can only dream of.

Thank you very much . .

Dax

Fantastic pictures and story. Thanks for sharing. Looks like a blast. Jerry reminds me of my father.

Thanks Nate for these wonderfull photo's and your adventure story!
Jerry is a special person who found a lot of witches'brooms in the past allready.
It was also a great honor for me that I met him in 2004.

Nice pics! And well done Jerry on putting those stone walls up ;-)

Any idea what the sign is on the tree, 3rd-last pic?

Resin

Awesome photos, Nate! I have a Pinus ponderosa seedling that Jerry started several years ago. I bid on the seedling at the Central Region Conifer Society meeting held in Illinois in 2003. The tree grows 3" to 4" a year and is about 2.5' tall.

In looking at the closeups of the needles on the pines, I don't see any resin droplets on the needles. Wouldn't that indicate the pines are Pinus longaeva rather than Pinus aristata? Just wondering...
Thanks,
Mike

Oops, scratch that last comment. I looked at the closeups again and can see some small resin dots on the needles. I guess I needed to clean my glasses!
Thanks,
Mike

I tell ya, sluice, your photo essays of your excursions into the Rockies are always most ineresting. Thanks again.

tj

FANTASTIC, your photos definitely get a feel of the extreme conditions in which those trees survive. How are conditions for people? What elevation are we looking at? Do you need to slow down your work in the thinner air? Adjust your snowmobile engines?

How did you make your third image showing the route you took? I like that rendering.

Nate, it seems that I made the same trip as you did, but mine was in Summer.
I also touched that 2000 year old Pinus in 2004.
A group photo was made there with Jerry Morris, Rich Eyre and the members of the Dutch Conifer Society which took part at this U.S. field trip.
{{gwi:673771}}

Resin, the sign on the tree is some sort of ID tag.

Mike, does your ponderosa seedling have a name?

Naturegirl, the elevation is about 11,200ft, which is similar to some local ski resorts. I was wearing a t-shirt, long sleeve shirt, fleece vest, windbreaker, and down parka. You can see what Jerry was wearing! It was a little slower getting around due to the altitude, and even more so when we had to forge through deep snow drifts to closely observe a few of the brooms. No special settings for the snowmobile. The route image is a screen shot from Google Earth.

Coniferjoy, thanks for posting the Dutch Conifer Society picture. It's interesting, Jerry is making the same hand gesture in the picture I took. He said he reckons that's the location where the seed sprouted, relative to the tree itself, and over time that area became separated from the ground.

Excellent pictures sluice. Ever get any germinations out of those seeds I mailed you?

TFP, not yet. Based on my germination trials last year, I'm going to wait until it warms up just a bit more. I had to move the seedlings from the basement to the garage in late November, and then we had one of the coldest Decembers on record. Wiped out everything, including the flexilis seeds I harvested at 9,000ft. Maybe a timberline arista seedling would have survived... By the way, I read a nice article in the ACS quarterly about C. bakeri.