Close calls with dead trees

[gh300]

Just wondering if anyone has any experiences with our dead forests this season. I've had a couple myself. Going in a road that was clear and coming out to a huge tree down across. Never leave the chainsaw at home. lol:wink:

[835]

Never ever leave it at home!
i have a saw, gas , axe and a 50' coil of 3/4"

[Slinky Pickle]

My son and I were hunkered down the other day moose calling when the wind came up and blew a tree over right beside us. We heard it going but by the time we turned around it was down. Luckily it was about 20 yards from us but it still made us pause and give each other a pretty wide eyed look.

There have also been a few times when we drove in somewhere on a clear road and came out on a tree covered one. The Husqy is always in the back... along with gas and oil!!

I also picked up one of these a few years ago. They were cheaper then, but still, $425 delivered to your door isn't too bad! It might not be the best winch in the world but all it has to do is pull me out of a nasty spot once and it will have paid for itself. It's all set up to mount in the hitch reciever and for me that works well. More ofthen that not, when I get stuck, I usually don't want to go any further forward. :mrgreen: :mrgreen: :mrgreen:

http://www.costco.ca/Browse/Product.aspx?Prodid=10325004&search=winch&Mo=4&cm_re=1_en-_-Top_Left_Nav-_-Top_search&lang=en-CA&Nr=P_CatalogName:BCCA&Sp=S&N=0&whse=BCCA&Dx=mode+matchallpartial&Ntk=Text_Search&Dr=P_CatalogName:BCCA&Ne=4000000&D=winch&Ntt=winch&No=3&Ntx=mode+matchallpartial&Nty=1&topnav=&s=1

[CR CRUISER]

Around 1:00 PM on the last day of the season a few years ago, my hunting partner talked me into one last trip out. It was raining and blowing, just miserable weather but what the heck. Grabbed a jacket, hat and thunderstick and we're off.

About 3 miles off the mainline we crossed through a grove of tall pecker poles that were swaying pretty hard. Just as we got into the clear 3 or 4 of them uprooted right across the spur road. Of course neither of us thought to bring the chainsaw or axe. Thinking that we were stuck in there now, might as well hunt the area. He hiked off one direction and I walked out to the end of the road. I spotted a tarp at the timberline and went to check it out. The Hunting Fairy must have been watchijng over us because there, under the tarp were 2 chainsaws and gas that some tree spacers had left there for the weekend.

You should have seen the look on my partner's face when he saw me walking back to the truck with a chainsaw in my hand. I stood watch for more falling trees while he opened up the road. We parked the truck on the other side of the trees and I hoofed it back to return the saw.

Never again have we headed out without the chainsaw, gas, axe, etc.

[835]

Around 1:00 PM on the last day of the season a few years ago, my hunting partner talked me into one last trip out. It was raining and blowing, just miserable weather but what the heck. Grabbed a jacket, hat and thunderstick and we're off.

About 3 miles off the mainline we crossed through a grove of tall pecker poles that were swaying pretty hard. Just as we got into the clear 3 or 4 of them uprooted right across the spur road. Of course neither of us thought to bring the chainsaw or axe. Thinking that we were stuck in there now, might as well hunt the area. He hiked off one direction and I walked out to the end of the road. I spotted a tarp at the timberline and went to check it out. The Hunting Fairy must have been watchijng over us because there, under the tarp were 2 chainsaws and gas that some tree spacers had left there for the weekend.

You should have seen the look on my partner's face when he saw me walking back to the truck with a chainsaw in my hand. I stood watch for more falling trees while he opened up the road. We parked the truck on the other side of the trees and I hoofed it back to return the saw.

Never again have we headed out without the chainsaw, gas, axe, etc.


Did ya throw a 6er under the tarp for the guys!

[CR CRUISER]

Did ya throw a 6er under the tarp for the guys!

Actually, I left a $20 bill stuffed under the handle. I bet he had a tough time figuring out where that came from.

[BromBones]

Been a few times when camped in the timber & had some pretty nasty winds come up. Some trees coming down that were way too close for comfort.

[Yotapup]

This is a bit of a long story, but a good read... and there's pictures. I'll put the gallery in a link so as not to fill the thread with them.

Few years ago a group of us went to go play in the snow up Chehailes area. The road was half ass plowed to a certain point, then we were pushing show on our own. Came to a fork in the road, made the decision and went that direction. After a short period of time we came to a few small trees across the road and we're about to pull them out of the way when a large grader showed up. We let him pass, and he plowed right through them. We figured 'sweet!' we'll just follow this guy till we find a good spot. On the way, we came too a few more trees across the road that he pushed through with no problems, and we didn't think anything of it. Finally found a spot, when my brother and I parked, I was pushing snow with the door of his mildly lifted jeep.

We offloaded the quads, and had our fun. Close to when we were gettin ready to go, a group of trucks drove passed our fun spot. After we pack up and leave, we made it a short way down the road to find that group of vehicles, stopped. We get out to see what the hold up is, and they're out there with the average consumer chainsaw hacking away and some trees that fell while we were up the road. We assisted in getting everything cleared, my brother pulled the last few aside with his jeep. During the work, one of the guys told us how he had to urge to move his 4Runner, so he did... up, just a few feet. No sooner had he moved it, another tree fell right where it had been parked.

Sorry, longish story, but it's right up the ally here...

We get everything cleared and we're on our way again. Make it a quarter mile down and around the corner, and there's about 20+ trees across the road, and a good bunch of them are WAY to big for the chainsaw. Crap... So we stand around, trying to figure something out, all the while more trees are falling everywhere from the weight of the snow. In this time, more people come in behind us, so we're now about a group of about 20 people, and now 2 consumer grade chainsaws. But, they bring news. The grader is on it's way back out, with 6 loggers and 3 chain saws. Hells yeah!

After nearly an hour, the loggers showed up with their chainsaws bearing 6ft bars. Time for business. I swear, the sound of those trees cracking may as well have been a whip at our backs, cause no one was standing around. The group effort to get this cleared was amazing.

We came to about 6 more of these stops before I finally hopped on a quad and got the hell out of dodge. By the time myself and 2 others got back too the trailers on the quads, we sat and waited, and waited... and waited... for about 45 mins. Finally another quader shows up yelling "holy shit man! I almost died. A tree started to come down on top of me, I just hammered on the throttle and went right under it, your brother had to slam on his brakes."

They had a couple more encounters after I shot a head. Another 10-15 went by before the rest of the motorcade made it out.

Luckily, no body got hurt. Too bad we didn't get to say thanks properly too the loggers that helped us out. Guess they didn't want to stick around in these woods anymore then we did haha.

Here's the link for the pictures. I stopped taking pictures after I the 3rd or so group. I just wanted to get the hell outta there.
http://img41.imageshack.us/g/dscf1631a.jpg/

[gh300]

Around 1:00 PM on the last day of the season a few years ago, my hunting partner talked me into one last trip out. It was raining and blowing, just miserable weather but what the heck. Grabbed a jacket, hat and thunderstick and we're off.

About 3 miles off the mainline we crossed through a grove of tall pecker poles that were swaying pretty hard. Just as we got into the clear 3 or 4 of them uprooted right across the spur road. Of course neither of us thought to bring the chainsaw or axe. Thinking that we were stuck in there now, might as well hunt the area. He hiked off one direction and I walked out to the end of the road. I spotted a tarp at the timberline and went to check it out. The Hunting Fairy must have been watchijng over us because there, under the tarp were 2 chainsaws and gas that some tree spacers had left there for the weekend.

You should have seen the look on my partner's face when he saw me walking back to the truck with a chainsaw in my hand. I stood watch for more falling trees while he opened up the road. We parked the truck on the other side of the trees and I hoofed it back to return the saw.

Never again have we headed out without the chainsaw, gas, axe, etc.
That's just awesome. Thanks for the story.

[dabat]

Twice now, I have had trees come down within 100yds of me. Not real close, but close enough to get you thinking.

[Good2bCanadian]

2 tree stories.

1st, 10 yrs ago camping at Alcee (?) Prov park near Alberta border. Major wind storm came thru just as we were going to sleep in the tent, it picked up major as well massive thunder. We were freaked out camping under all these giant trees, so we hopped into the toyota and drove to the meadow and waited out the storm. After it past, returned to site to find a giant tree had squashed our picnic table. Yikes!

2nd story, dirtbiking near Duffy lake, riding thru a forested area, we stopped to help the girls thru a rough section. Wind picked up big time and a huge CRACK was heard, my wife literely jumped off her bike towards me as a tree came down missing us by feet.

Carefull out there boys, pancakes are for eating, not for becoming one.

I carry a Fiskars cutting blade in my backpack at all times. Can cut thru a 2x4 in 15 second. Only around 8" long folded down, and weighs nothing.

[jml11]

Was out during some good winds and had to clear the road of a few trees one morning as we were the first ones down the mainline...had to wait for someone to help with a larger spruce as I did not bring a saw...it was also within 50 yards of a camp... I hoped people have considered this when setting up camp in these dead forests. I know I have been taking a good look around before parking the truck for the day.

[srupp]

maybe 15 years ago a freak windstorm came up and blew down the valley by Maeford lake...when we went to go out a few days later the road was blocked by 7-9 KILOMETERS of blown down trees that had toppled accross the rd..(we didnt know it was THAT BIG )..we went back and came out through Barkerville..a long way but doable..it took 2 weeks of continusous cutting by a group of loggers to open the rd up..

the second is a friend of mine who was hunting with his father-in-law..Tony left his father-in law ata junction of 2 forest service spur rds..and went to check out a cut block for moose while the father-in -law stayed on his atv and smoked a cigarette..

a hour later when Tony came out he at first thought his father in law had went somewhere however he saw part of the atv sticking out from under a massive blow down tree...while sitting on his quad engine running the tree toppled over..wind?? rot?? bad luck?? the tree fell on the Gentleman and completely pancacked the quad and the father-in-law killing him instantly and without warning....


Steven

[Good2bCanadian]

Funny tree story.
Neighbours house had a tree fall on the roof last year, crushing in a portion.
The next day, what appeared to be the neighbourhood handy man and kid were up there to remove it. Appeared they called a budy with a hiab to come and lift it off as they chainsawed it.
Here comes the part about the laws of physics and stupid people.
Handy man and kid slinged the tip of the tree and started cutting.
They cut through it but didn't think the tree was going to become a couple thousand pounds of pendelum in the air. They sliced thru and the tree started swinging. I watched as the handy duo hit the deck as the tree swung by. Smashing into and damaging another part of the roof. Luckily they never got hit.
Top it off the hiab sunk in the front lawn and had to get towed out. Leaving massive ruts.
Know when to call the professionals people.

[ufishifish2]

Last year during a very windy day, I pulled up to a fallen tree to buck it off the road so that I could get to one of my favorite hunting spots. Good thing I had my chainsaw because no sooner had I stopped the truck near the fallen tree that another tree fell within 1 foot behind my new pickup. I was now completely blocked in by both trees and just lucky nothing landed on my truck.
Chalk up another story for the campfire - Cha-ching!!