The Oldest Trees in the World

[Laughter] [Music] [Music] so [Music] so this is the old reed mine and it was first established in 1863 and it's one of the earliest mines in the white mountains now they were looking for gold and silver but lead and zinc all was extracted pretty impressive isn't it yeah especially seeing as we're at ten thousand feet hence the puffing and panting now this was abandoned in 1950s and it reverted back to public lands there's a first cabin here just a little ways up as the second one get a closer look at the log cabin style and the massive gaps that have now formed in between the timbers pretty cool and like we said we're we're way up in elevation so air's thin it's hard to do the hike imagine working in these conditions and the frigid temperatures it is uh it is really cold we woke up this morning everything was frozen water us phones the whole nine yards and as you can see we've actually ditched the nikon because it was so bad and we're trying an old ipad so let's see how good this video comes now although these mining cabins are really really impressive this isn't the reason why we've come on this particular hike we've got something even more special so let's take a look and at one point this was the entrance to the mine it went uh over 400 feet into the mountain but it's all uh collapsed in now and i think also the forestry service did this just to keep people out [Music] so this is what we've come to see the ancient bristlecone pine forest these are just absolutely beautiful trees aren't they i like the way it it's got that twisting and this isn't the most twisted gnarled one that we've seen but they're like nothing else uh-huh now there's lots of things that make these trees extra special firstly they only grow between nine thousand and eleven thousand feet above sea level they have a really bizarre root system so although this tree looks dead when the root gets exposed only that part of the tree dies the remainder carries on living and most of these trees are 4 000 years old the oldest they estimate to be 5 000 years old which is the oldest living non-clonal organism on the planet that we know of wow pretty amazing eh it is i mean and they've got just an unbelievable view over the valley and they've been here for 5 thousand years yep five thousand years imagine everything that they've been to in their lifetime the changes the climate everything nature is incredible yep so or if there's any more bigger ones up this way let's take a look all right so these were discovered in 1953 by the researcher edmund schulman and you can see by the trunks they've been shaped by the wind and snow which twists and nulls the trees pretty impressive eh now this wood is really really dense and is really resistant to insects and fungus which helps protect them plus being at this high altitude there's very limited vegetation so there's less chance of forest fires now the bristle cone needles are about one inch long and grow in clusters or pockets of five and when the cones come out they're deep purple in color helping them to absorb the sun's rays and heat and in two years they mature and turn brown now the scales are tipped with claw-like bristles which is how they got their name bristle cones true story [Music] further up the trail we have come across the upper mining camp so there's another cabin here there are a lot of tailing piles up in the distance above and we've just got a quick question for all of you what would you prefer to mine out in the deserts in the middle of nowhere in the heat or up here above 10 000 feet in the frigid cold where there could be up to 10 feet of snow let us know by commenting down below i know my answer i'd prefer to be in the desert i deal with the heat a lot better than i deal with the cold and the altitude and the altitude i have some serious issues with altitude so we're going to continue on that way to see what else this trail holds i wonder how old that heart is [Music] [Music] so [Music] [Music] i have a fun fact about these trees did you know that most of these trees were 3 000 years old already before the english language began to evolve true story okay this is a beautiful beautiful area the trees are incredible and we have been here before a few years ago yeah and it was just as cold and windy so be prepared for that if you guys come up here and we are in may um and we are quite cold yeah and there's a quite a bit of snow on the ground as well still yeah in pockets where the sun hasn't melted yet and you've also got to remember that you know you're between 9 000 and 11 000 feet in elevation so you are going to get winded so if you do decide to do this hike and we do thoroughly recommend it there's three or four different hikes that you can do but i've done two and a half of them now yeah but what you do have to remember is take plenty of water with you take snacks with you but also go slow and rest often because of the altitude and it will affect some people more than others stephen does get affected really badly with altitude um i got affected my knee got affected on this hike so i had to keep stopping to rest my knee so uh but all in all it's amazing definitely worth it we were gonna do this yesterday but the wind was so horrendous uh we thought today would be better the wind is starting to pick up a bit so we might have just done this at perfect timing yeah and on that note get out there go and explore put another pin in the atlas and we will see you on our next adventure or on patreon and remember if you like this video please give it a thumbs up subscribe if you haven't already and remember to ding that notification bill and that way you won't miss any of our adventures bye [Laughter] [Music] [Music] you