OVBJP

One Very Big Jeffrey pine! (Note my wife at the base for scale--also check the inset for an enlarged version.) One the old-timers missed when they were logging things off; the terrain was just too rugged and remote to bother with at that time. Near Lake Margaret in the Sierra Nevada, California, a couple miles off the Carson Pass highway (SR 88). Yes, we checked that this is a Jeffrey pine (Pinus jeffreyi); the barbs at the ends of the segments making up the cones point inward, so you can pick the cones up without sticking yourself. The foresters' mnemonic for distinguishing these trees from the very similar and closely related ponderosa pine is: "You can play catch with Jeff!"