Trail 2: The Oak Trail

On the Fairview Map, this trail’s color is dark blue; walking distance: .25 miles.
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This trail begins at the Fire Tower sign, and heads up the mountain past the fire tower entrance. Head west back behind the dorms and this trail comes back down to the road just before you approach the large campfire circle.

What is this rock that is all over Fairview Mountain? It is also found at a famous outcrop on the way to Cumberland. 
The rock poking out of the ground is Sandstone. Sandstone is made of eroded particles of other, older rocks. In this case the older rocks are from ancient volcanoes, or igneous rocks. The small particles of sand were pressed together for millions of years to form Sandstone. This sandstone is named the Tuscarora Sandstone and is about 400 million years old.

There are a lot of Oak trees here on Fairview Mountain. There are many types of Oaks and all of them produce acorns. Here’s a math challenge: 

Most of these trees produce 2 kg of acorns each year. That’s 9,000 calories of energy for a squirrel. 

Squirrels are very active and need about 50,005 calories each year.

 How many Oak trees are needed to support one squirrel? Rounding and estimating are allowed. The answer is on the Fairview website.

(5.6 trees per squirrel)

There is a lot of sandstone in layers at Sideling Hill. Check it out the next time you travel west.