Valley of the Giants

Eastern hemlock (Tsuga canadensis)

We have giants in Georgia? Apparently, we do! I know a lot of people bemoan that time-waster known as Facebook, but it can be used for good; that is how I find out about new (to me) plants, hear about new books and events, and even learn about places. In mid-December, a friend posted about visiting the Valley of the Giants near Suches, GA.

Looking at giant trees is a great winter activity and I was intrigued. In addition, I had some vacation days to spare and December was having some very pleasant weather days. My friend said the 1990 guide from The Georgia Conservancy had a good description of this old-growth forest area. I dug out my copy (with preface by Jimmy Carter!) and looked it up. The description tells of “widely spaced specimens of white and northern red oak and black birch, but the largest trees are giant tulip poplars ….”

My husband readily agreed to a Christmas Eve hike and away we went. I have been up that way many times for trips to Sosebee Cove and Woody Gap; this trip took us past Woody Gap (plenty of people were hiking that day) and along a stretch of Hwy 60 that I haven’t traveled, on past Stonepile Gap (which is being turned into a roundabout). We stopped to admire a wooden eagle and its faux nest, chatting with one of the locals who asked if we were ok.

I had to appreciate this!

Tiarella cordifolia with good color

The trailhead on an old Forest Service road was a little hard to find – we overshot it initially but managed to figure it out despite a lack of cell signal (frankly, it was my husband who saved the day).  The trail was thick with hardwood leaves, but a few bright leaves of foamflower (Tiarella cordifolia) peeked out. American beech (Fagus grandifolia) leaves waved in the breeze, still stuck to branches of saplings along a nearby creek, and large mountain laurel (Kalmia latifolia) added some green.

While there was plenty of Christmas fern (Polystichum acrostichoides) to be seen, I was thrilled to notice the less-common marginal fern (Dryopteris marginalis) as well. This evergreen wood-fern gets its name from the arrangement of the sori on the margins of the pinnae (flip the frond over to see). Understory plants also included silverbell (Halesia), serviceberry (Amelanchier), buckeye (Aesculus), smooth hydrangea (Hydrangea arborescens), and I spied the old bloom stalks of black cohosh (Actaea racemosa).

Marginal fern

Marginal fern sori

After walking a good bit, we finally entered the first area of large trees. The biggest ones were the tulip poplars (Liriodendron tulipifera) and several had damaged tops from storms.  The winter landscape was actually useful in being able to see just how big they were. There were also quite a few very large white pines (Pinus strobus) and Eastern hemlocks (Tsuga canadensis). The path was blocked at one point by a recently fallen hemlock, but we scrambled around it (at several earlier points we’d ducked under much older fallen trees – this was indeed a challenging trail).

Large white pine (Pinus strobus)

Large Liriodendron tulipifera

Interesting finds included an old bald hornet nest on the ground and old logs covered with fingers of moss. Some of the moss on logs was thick enough to grow foamflower (imagine a flowering foamflower on a log in spring!). Unfortunately, some of the smaller hemlocks along the path appeared to have woolly adelgid pests on them. All in all, it was a fun adventure and a beautiful day in nature.

Old hornet nest; they make a new one each year