Trees as Landmarks

I am finding what I enjoy, is watching trees and areas and returning to find them again. I hiked down an old trail I had been down countless times but cut off the trail to follow a gully in the loess soils to where the main gully ran north south. I looked across that gully and saw 2 trees that I wanted to find at a future date.

My plan was to come down the west side of the gully and find those trees and establish where I saw them from. I took a compass reading and described two trees in my notes. Many times the forest does not look the same when you come at it from a different direction. But with enough notes and photos I hope to establish where I had been and be able to find it at a later date.

Why am I doing this? I enjoy it and I like to take photos of the forest from the same location at different times of the year.



The photo above is the view I saw across the steep gully. The arrow on the left is the largest tree down the slope which seems to be a white oak in the 30" dia. range. The arrow on the right is Northeast of the white oak and is located along the opposite edge of the gully that I was looking across. There is a broken top with branches growing off the north side of the stem and continuing to grow up.

My plan is for these 2 trees to point the way to where I am standing when I took the photo.

I will see how well I can remember from my notes the next time I go back into the woods.

With a network of landmark trees, I plan to use them as a reference to explore different parts of the woods.