I love a breeze in a dense forest. I used to think that northern forests were airless and claustrophobic, with scenery being from the end of your nose to the nearest tree. But it has turned out better than that, this summer. It probably helps to be camped close to a large and abrupt elevation change. But there could be another explanation.
The morphology of Douglas firs is quite noble: in the inland Northwest, Douglas firs "only" grow to about 130 feet tall. In the coastal areas they are said to top 300 feet! They are branchless for the first 40 feet from the ground. And when the branches finally start, they don't extend horizontally more than 15 feet or so.
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| Got to figure out how I can depixelate photos without getting the funny bands in the sky. |
Thus there is a lot more openness than you might think. That might help with the breezes. In summer, nothing is sweeter. I am not ready to renounce ponderosa forests as my favorite. (Aren't they everybody's?) But they have some competition.
My new campsite has more spruce whose branches go all the way to the ground. Yuk! Perhaps this post is just a roundabout way of praising high-canopy forests.
It is good to branch out (so to speak) to other types of forests. But I will always be loyal to Eastern hardwood trees.
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