Sorry, I can’t let Preston’s claim for best hiking locale go unchallenged :o)
If you have not yet hiked at Bad Branch State Nature Preserve or Blanton Forest
State Nature Preserve (largest old growth forest in KY) on Pine Mountain in SE
KY, please do so before saying the Gorge is the best in the state. I may be
biased towards Pine Mountain, but there are many wonderful places to hike and
bird in that region. The views are pretty spectacular too. Local folks down
there call pileateds “woods hens”.
Joyce Bender, northern Franklin County
Sent from my iPad
On Nov 23, 2018, at 1:05 PM, PRESTON FORSYTHE <pns_for@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
Yesterday we heard Pileated Woodpeckers in our back woods, here between
Browder and Beechmont, Ky. Not unusual for us.
In KY we commonly hear and see the most Pileateds at Mammoth Cave Nat'l Park,
especially between the visitor center and Green River and the trails from
Dixon Cave pass the Historic Entrance. and the trails out to the Old Guides
Cemetery. The park is the largest forest in central and western KY at over
51.000 acres of trees which have not been cut since the 1930's. MACA gets my
vote for the best hiking in Central and Western KY. I say it ties with the
Red River Gorge for best hiking in the state.
But, by far the most Pileateds we have observed, and close up, are at
Congaree Nat'l Park, south of Columbia, South Carolina. This is a little
visited swamp forest of giant virgen trees with some of the largest trees of
many species in the US and world, read record size trees. This location for
Pileateds was mentioned in the new Dec./Jan. 2019 Birds and Bloom. We have
been to the Congaree once and look forward to returning. You walk thru the
swamp-forest on elevatedd boardwalks. Very few human visitors in the winter,
but the Pileateds are there!
Preston Forsythe
Muhlenberg, Co., KY
