Western White Pine / Pinus monticola

[@peteandresenfamilyadventur8742]

Nicely done!

[@prayfornathannatureshow]

Beautiful tree!

[@CR-di1lg]

Beautiful tree. Love pine trees and this one you find is majestic. Thank you for sharing.

[@650tonyd]

I found a whole bunch growing at the White cloud campground off highway 20. You can literally just drive right up to em

[@noahbrown367]

friggin love your videos! thank you so much for being on youtube!

[@noahbrown367]

my girlfriend loves you too!

[@ApeMan]

Thank you for watching. I'm glad you like them - especially the tree ones which are my favorite to make.

[@brianpowell5082]

I have been blessed to see them on the Kern Plateau. The Sherman Peak Trail off Sherman Pass Rd. features some very tall monticolas!! There are many also with humongous trunks, always a treat to see when I get enough time off from work (rare!) to travel from Orange County to hike in the Sierras!

[@swithinbarclay4797]

Yet in Idaho, Montana, this tree has a radically different temperament. It starts to grow at lower elevations, and doesn't care quite as much for the subalpine climes. It's highly gregarious with its own kind. Vast unbroken tracts. It grows relatively slender, free of knot-inflicting branches for much of its height. All of this, makes it a "King Timber" tree, as favored as the Sugar Pine in the Sierra is for producing long, clean, and flexible lumber--good tensile properties--or--like its extremely similar cousin, the Eastern White Pine, that grew from the Lake States, down below somewhat of the Ohio Valley, and up through New York and New England. Ship masts, and some strakes, were made of this. During the Colonial Days some stretches of the Eastern White Forests, were forbidden areas of entry and passage, for the average person, on pain of death, by Order of The King, except for His Majesty's militaries, and authorised Timber Agents/Merchants. This ban extended to the Indians as well. For His Majesty's new Warships were to be built of this stuff, as well as grand homes and furniture, for some of the more favoured aristocrats in the Home Country. However, the Eastern White was driven to near-extinction in the Lake States, by monster conflagrations such as Peshtigo and Hinckley, and, as it was, for the Western White, a little later, in the great Big Burn of 1910, in Eastern Washington, most of the Idaho Panhandle, and Western Montana. Some of these Commenters here, talk of the Sierran Race, as if it's a bit of a rarity--not at all--I'd seen loads of 'em, whilst skiing Squaw, Alpine, Heavenly, and Kirkwood. Also, there's a fair amount, in upper Little Yosemite Valley, right alongside of Sugars, with which it hybridizes!

[@ApeMan]

Swithin Barclay Fascinating! I have to ask where your tree knowledge and history comes from.

[@swithinbarclay4797]

@@ApeMan My GOLD STANDARDS (As I imagine they must be for you.) are ANY works by John Muir. There have been some great histories of wildfire conflagrations, starting with the works of Stewart Holbrook, written almost 90 years ago, through Donald C. Peattie (These works of Peattie's are actually COMPREHENSIVE Guides to ALL American Trees {Layman's Dendrology}--both North and South America--with FAT, almost 1,000 page guides, for each individual countries' individual regions! You'd love those!), Daniel Joseph Brown, Timothy Egan, and, Denise Gess/William Lutz. George Rippey Stewart wrote a grand novel about a fictional forest fire, in "Fire", written about 70 years ago. I'd also read a biography or two about Gifford Pinchot, America's First Forest Service Chief--later Governor of Pennsylvania during the Hoover and FD Roosevelt Administrations. Pinchot was a bosom buddy of Theodore Roosevelt's. Get yourself a Blu-Ray/DVD copy of Ken Burns' National Parks history. I am also a student (Scholar??), on anything associated with the Donner-Reed Party Tragedy (by default, anything dealing with the Great Overland Emigrations, by wagon train). There's other books and shows, that have fired my imagination through the years, though I can't necessarily recall all of them. Along with my personal travels, I believe that I may possess a good imagination, along with fine memories of my travels. As with you, "Ape", I'd like to consider myself, something of a "Junior" Johnnie Muir!

[@CPOL888]

Videos focusing on the plants and wildlife of the Sierra’s is a great idea. So many hiker videos where all you hear is “ that’s a cool looking tree” sort of comments with no clue what they are looking at.

[@ApeMan]

I was watching a JMT video and some east coaster was referring to the large Fred Firs near Shadow Lake as California Redwoods so I figured it was time to do some tree videos for those interested in what they are looking at. Those cool snags in all the videos you always see in the southern Sierra are almost always Foxtail Pines.

[@Caspurrr]

Great edutation channel right here folks. For gooder schoolin. 🤭🤭🤭 Seriously though. I really like this channel.

[@trailkrum]

I love your tree videos! Especially the high elevation ones for which you have to do a bit of work :)

[@ApeMan]

Thanks. I hope to do one in a couple weeks on the ultimate hard to get to high elevation tree - the Foxtail Pine.

[@trailkrum]

Awesome! That's my favorite tree.

[@ApeMan]

Just got back from a visit to the Foxtail Pines around Kearsarge Pass. I will have a video up in a few days. It was beautiful up there.

[@trailkrum]

Awesome!

[@kevinpfeiffer8034]

Hiking the jmt nobo this August. Mostly interested in trees and shrubs. Have any recommendations for a identification pamphlet or book? Trying to stay light weight.

[@kevinpfeiffer8034]

Could do a kindle book too I suppose on my phone.

[@ApeMan]

I like the Laws Field Guide to the Sierra Nevada. Too heavy for the trail though. Most ranger stations carry the lightweight plastic field guides. Audobon Society might be a good place to look also.

[@CPOL888]

I read your comment about the north lake / south lake loop being crowded in July. I am planning to hike it with my son the week of July 23. Do you know how difficult it is to get walk up permits in Bishop? We’re driving out from Austin so maybe we need a back up plan? Any suggestions or tips would be appreciated. Thanks!

[@ApeMan]

Show up at 7am at the Ranger station and you will get walkup permits to leave the next day. Hang out until 11 and you may score cancellations to leave the same day. By crowded I mean when you hit the JMT you will see a lot of people. It's a great loop so go for it! Good backups would be trips originating from Horseshoe Meadows or Kearsarge Pass which have large walkup quotas. I think you will be fine though.

[@CPOL888]

Ape Man . Thanks for the suggestion. I’ll be at the station early!

[@mobiltec]

I wonder how long their tap roots are. I would think a tree like that takes a heck of a lot of water.

[@ApeMan]

They do most of their growing in the spring when water is available and really bulk up to withstand the harsh conditions. I don't see them falling down in storms like a lot of pines so I imagine they have substantial roots.

[@JNeff99]

Another great vid. Thanks. I have done JMT from VVR to Whitney and compilating doing Happy Isles to VVR in July. But I realize it will be a crowded then. Do you have a better/best place I could do? Sorry I could not figure how to private message you.

[@ApeMan]

The PCT from Sonora Pass to Tuolumne Meadows is a great 70 mile stretch going southbound due to the easier permit availability from that end. Last year I did part of it and only saw 2 people that were not PCT hikers.The Benson Lake Loop is also a great 50 mile loop. Permits are very easy to get from the Bridgeport Ranger station. North Lake to South lake loop is pretty epic but much more crowded. For a much less crowded hike is from North Lake to Pine Creek. It's pretty awesome and offers great fishing through Humphries Basin, around Pine Creek Pass and Granite Park.

[@JNeff99]

Ape Man Thank u for the reply and expertise. I sure I will enjoy 1 of them this summer. Tree info is great.

[@dnablood2]

Looks like you may be favoring the knee? How is your recovery going?

[@ApeMan]

Knee is doing great! I did a 6.5 mile hike part way up Kearsarge Pass a couple days ago in 3-4 hours with 0 pain. I actually kept pace with some PCTers the last 2 miles down the hill. Of course they had done 20 miles already. Still it made me feel good about my knee. I don't even think about it anymore. My feet are pretty bad so maybe that's why I was walking funny.

[@aarondumont3610]

which trees are the ones you find up at 10,000ft and have those really tough pine needles??

[@ApeMan]

You are probably thinking of the Foxtail Pines. They only grow in the southern Sierra along with some Limber Pine further north. I hope to have a Foxtail video in a couple weeks as I will be visiting some this Thursday. They are a close relative of the ancient Bristlecones. The highest elevations in central and northern Sierra is dominated by the white bark pines and mountain hemlock.

[@kingjayprod]

PINGUS