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This week on The Land Show:
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Excerpt
Jonathan
Hey everybody. Good morning. Welcome to the land show. Appreciate you tuning in with us this fine Saturday morning. If you’re in a truck or on a tractor if you’re on the farm or in the forest, this is the show for you. So we appreciate you tuning in. Got my good friend Skipper here with us. Our producer Skipper? How are you this morning, man
Skipper
Just fine as frogs hair and ready to do it.
Jonathan
Yeah, man. Well, it’s good to be back with you. I appreciate you and all of our listeners letting me take last week off, I got to spend a little time with my son, John David. He heads off to college. We’re moving him in tomorrow. So big day for us. I’ve already already shed a few tears over that, I’m not ashamed to say, I’m still manly. But last week we did something that I’ve wanted to do since I was a little boy, I’ve always heard about the big tree in the Sipsey wilderness area in North Alabama. You ever heard of the big tree?
Skipper
I’ve heard of it. I’ve never seen it. I’m a little jealous you ended up there.
Jonathan
Yeah, we did. So we I’ll just tell you real quick. We took a hike up there. And before we went, I mean, if you’ve never been to the Bankhead wilderness, or Bankhead forest or the Sipsey wilderness area it is it’s a very remote part of the state. It’s beautiful. It’s the land That Time Forgot. And so anyway, I’ve always wanted to go see this large yellow poplar, which is some of our listeners might think that’s crazy. But anyway, so I map out the the route and all that and get on some of the apps on the internet before we go and get our plan. Because this is a wilderness area, there are no signs out there. So they have a few trail markers and stuff. But anyway, so we walk and what I read before we went out there was you take these trails, when you get to the top of the waterfall, go 300 yards, scramble down some rocks, and the big tree is there. And you’ll know it when you see it.
Skipper
So that’s one of the reasons I haven’t been the scrambling down the rocks part. Yeah.
Jonathan
So we, so we did that. Yeah, and it’s a four and a half mile, about a four and a half mile hike in from where we parked and went in. So it took us a couple hours to walk in there. And we get to the top of the waterfall. And I’m excited. I mean, I literally have heard about this tree since I was a boy, I’ve been looking forward to doing it. And I really talked it up to John David. And so we get there, we get to the top of the waterfall and I said we need to go 300 yards. And then we’ll scramble down some rocks. And we’ll see the tree will we follow the trail on around, we find a place to scramble down some rocks, and we get there. And I’m like, where’s the big tree? And we’re looking and I see a tree and we look at each other and we say is that it? And and and y’all this huge wave of disappointment comes over me. And I’m like I just I have made this up to be such a big deal in my mind. And and I look around and I’m like that can’t be it. Is that it? And so then we look for another one and John David and I just got back from seeing the sequoias this summer. So I’m thinking man, I’m a tree snob. And you know, our trees are small. So anyway, there’s a rock right there at the base of this big tree. And we sit down and I try to kind of hide my disappointment because I didn’t want him to think I was so bummed because I was really enjoying the hike with him. And we have our picture made with this tree, take his picture, and we spend 20 minutes drinking our water and eating a snack. And I look at the bark. And I’m like, I don’t think this is a yellow poplar tree. And John David says, have you ever seen a yellow poplar tree this big? And I said I haven’t. That’s a fair point. And I said, Well, I guess this is it. So we we posed and took pictures with this tree. And I was so dejected. I said, but we got to see this waterfall, because it’s about 100 feet high. And it’s a 300 foot long horseshoe waterfall. So it’s a beautiful sight down there. So we walk back toward the fall. And I mean, I’m just as I’m as bummed out as I can be me and my son in the middle wilderness, and we walk over these rocks. And all of a sudden, there’s the big tree. And it’s like the Hallelujah Chorus opens up and you see this big yellow poplar and it’s 175 feet tall and 26 feet around. And it’s I mean, it’s it’s a massive tree. And it was everything that we had hoped it would be when we went out there. But it was so funny. Our attitudes completely changed from being utterly disappointed to extremely enthused to see it. And, and then you know, we felt really, really good because the tree that we had just posed with and taking pictures, you could fit three of those in the big tree. So anyway, it was beautiful. But I will tell you this, if you ever get a chance to hike out there, it took us about five hours we spent an hour down in the bottom, which is where this big tree is, which is why I’m assuming the big tree is still there because no logger could get it out of its current location but you’re down in there that big poplars there, the waterfall when the waters running and I imagine is really, really beautiful. And, and it’s just there, all these Canadian hemlocks down in there, the temperature is probably 15 or 20 degrees cooler down in the little canyon. And anyway, it was an awesome hike!
About the Land Show
Host, Dave Milton, has worked hard for land owners and investors for over 25 years and he is passionate about properly educating people on sound land investing. “Land is a key economic driver in the South, especially in my home state of Alabama where Timber Production is the primary industry. What happens with land legislation, values and taxation effects all of us.” – Dave Milton
