JARS v61n2 - Gregory Bald

Gregory Bald
From Species Study Group to Annual Treks, Azalea Photos, Aerial Photo, and a Mower
Sandra McDonald
Hampton, Virginia

Jim Brant
Gloucester, Virginia

At one of our Middle Atlantic Chapter (MAC) meetings in 1989 the late Terry Sheuchenko mentioned she and several others of us were interested in studying the species of rhododendrons, and that we should form a MAC species study group. Our chapter liked the idea, and we had the first meeting of our MAC Species Study Group on January 20, 1990, after a MAC board meeting in Charlottesville, Virginia.

George McLellan became chairman of the MAC Species Study Group. He obtained some material for botanical study of rhododendrons that also included 8 units of slides (600 slides) from the Rhododendron Species Foundation for study over an approximately two-year period. We also put together material of our own for the study of plant taxonomy, biosystematics, distributional history, propagation, and other topics related to the botany of rhododendrons. We usually had eight to twelve people attending our meetings which also included luncheons. At the first meetings we went through the classroom material, and then at later meetings we went through the batches of slide trays and found that the trays did not contain much on East Coast native azaleas, and those particular slides were not up to our expectations. We decided to explore for ourselves the species throughout the East Coast and photograph and make slides of the natives for a slide presentation that could be given to our chapter and other ARS meetings.

One of our early study group meetings was at David and Debby Sauer's home in Chester, Virginia, and afterwards George McLellan and Ken and Sandra McDonald visited stands of Rhododendron atlanticum in southeastern Virginia on the way home. We visited a few other local sites to see and photograph local native azaleas before starting our longer annual treks to the mountains.

Some of the mountains and scenic places we visited during our many annual treks include Mount Mitchell, Andrews Bald, Yellow Mountain, Pilot Mountain, Hooper Bald, Wayah Bald, Wine Springs Bald and Copper Bald in North Carolina; Black Mountain on the Virginia/Kentucky line; Brasstown Bald, Slaughter Mountain, Tray Mountain, Providence Canyon, and Blood Mountain in Georgia; the Blue Ridge Parkway in Virginia and North Carolina; the Mountain to Sea Trail in North Carolina; Cherohala Parkway in North Carolina and Tennessee; part of Mount LeConte in Tennessee; Gregory Bald, Parson's Bald, and the Highlands of Roan (Roan Mountain, Jane Bald, Round Bald and Grassy Ridge) on the Tennessee/North Carolina border; Dolly Sods in West Virginia; and Mount Rogers and Grayson Highlands in Virginia.

Sandra and Ken McDonald had first taken a trip to Gregory Bald on June 23, 1979, with Joan Winter, a member of the now disbanded Tidewater Chapter ARS and after that the Middle Atlantic Chapter. In talking to our Species Study Group, Sandra mentioned that she would like to visit Gregory Bald again before she died since it was such a beautiful place. Our group then planned to make a trip to Townsend, Tennessee, and the Great Smoky Mountain National Park and to hike up to Gregory Bald. Townsend is the usual base camp for non-locals when making this long hike. After spending the night in Townsend, it doesn't take long to drive to Cades Cove in the park which is the starting point. Cades Cove, an 11-mile one-way loop road in the park is closed to motor traffic until 10:00 a.m. two mornings per week, Wednesday and Saturday mornings, to allow bicyclists and hikers to enjoy the road from May to September. It opens for motor vehicles at 10 a.m. on those days and at sunup on other mornings.

We made our first Species Study Group trip to the mountains of North Carolina and Tennessee the week of June 17th, 1995, and hiked Gregory Bald on June 21, 1995. Present on this first trip were David and Debby Sauer, Bill Bedwell, George McLellan, Don Hyatt and Ken and Sandra McDonald. We made the mistake of not learning about bicycle access only and arrived early on a Wednesday morning and had to start our hike late.

Gregory Bald is a 4,949-foot bald mountain with a wonderful natural stand or swarm of native azaleas hybrids on it. The hike is 5.5 miles to the top on the trail most in use now for a round-trip total of 11 miles. Our first trip was even longer because we had to walk a couple miles on the road instead of driving because of problems with the bridge.

Our group changed over the years with various members and visitors joining us in some years and dropping out in others. Some of the participants over the years include a German film crew headed by Dr. Hartwig Schepker of "Botanika," a biodiversity project in the Botanic Garden and Rhododendron Park Bremen, Germany, along with a couple of porters to carry the heavy camera equipment (June 20, 2002); Anita and Doug Burke of Canada who are associate members of MAC (several trips); Tijs Huisman from the Netherlands (June 2006); Buddy Lee from Louisiana, Karel Bernady from Pennsylvania, Tom Nuccio from California, Brent Heath and Mike Andruczyk from Virginia, and Neil Jorgensen from Maine.