Tree falls on women on tent

[Uncle Joe]

A reminder that you should check the trees around you. I saw this on the AT Section Hikers page on FB. Apparently, though, this tree was not an obvious candidate. Not sure if this has already been posted. Thankfully, she survived with just a broken leg.

http://www.blueridgelife.com/2016/04/03/wintergreen-crews-rescue-woman-on-at-after-tree-falls-on-her-while-sleeping/

[nsherry61]

I hope a live a long and joyful life that ends by an "act of God" like this while I'm backpacking.

[StubbleJumper]

I've often worried about this while hiking, but have never personally had a close call. A broken leg is a bit sucky, but it really was a freak accident. Best to look at the tree tops before pitching a tent to make sure that there are no widow-makers, but not much you can do about complete trees coming down.

[Malto]

A tree also fell on Tatoo Joe in the last storm in VA. Sounds like a very close call.

[moldy]

We are just lucky this didn't happen in Maryland because they would have by now closed every campground, shelter, parking lot and picnic area on the AT in the entire state for 2 weeks so they could perform an emergency tree inspection.

[Studlintsean]

Very scary. We experienced winds up to 50-60 miles per hour here in VA this Saturday night/ Sunday morning. If I were out, it might have been one of the frequent night I decide to stay in the shelter (not that trees have not destroyed shelters before). Glad she walked away with only a broken leg.

[turtle fast]

Surprisingly, widow makers are more common than one expects. Thats why it's important to look above you before pitching your shelter. Many times it falling limbs from above and not the whole tree! I've seen a shelter that was crushed in Virginia by a large tree that fell on it. Though I think overall shelters are a tad safer if a limb falls down.

[Trailweaver]

I have twice been awakened in the middle of the night by a falling tree. Both times I was surrounded by other campers, and both times there were no injuries. I can tell you though, it took ten years off my life the first time I heard it!

[shelb]

Surprisingly, widow makers are more common than one expects. ....

When I took my Scout leader camping training, it was stressed that we always have campers look for the "widow makers" prior to setting up camp/tents....

[Pedaling Fool]

I think pine trees, especially white pines, are at very high risk to lose very big limbs during high winds -- I hate pine trees.

[Miel]

I hope a live a long and joyful life that ends by an "act of God" like this while I'm backpacking.

Since death is inevitable, everyone should be able to go out the way they want. My maternal grandfather was a music man; later in life he was a distributor in the business. He had a heart attack in the middle of a Boston street, making vinyl deliveries to radio stations and indie record stories.

I had a great-uncle who loved to read, and was living with his sister who couldn't stand having him around all day. So she sent him to the Copley Square BPL, where he died reading.

Since you're in Norwell, you might remember the recent case of a 65-year-old man who loved to bike. He died on a bike trip. Do you remember that?

[Leo L.]

We had a near-accident when being at a Scout camp in England. There was a heavy storm during the night, and while we at the Boy Scout camp had no problem, on the other side of the road in the Girl Scout quarter a massive branch (big like a full-sized tree) came off an old monster-huge oak tree and smashed down in the middle between the rows of tents. All Girls terrified to death, but unscratched.
The tree had been hollow and mouldy inside, nobody knew before the accident.
It told me to select the campsite pretty carefully, and to not trust the decision of all the hundreds having used a spot before.

[peakbagger]

I remember years ago when sectioning in Mass there was new campsite north of Sages Ravine area. Very well built with extensive paths with scree walls going between dispersed tent pads. Unfortunately it was in a large stand of mature oaks with partially dead crowns from the gypsy moth epidemic. Almost every tent pad had several widow makers waiting to come loose in a wind storm. Luckily it wasn't windy that night but I expect most folks wouldn't even look up and realize the danger.

On the other hand I was whumped pretty hard by a random branch falling from the canopy on calm day while hiking. I expect the only reason I didn't get seriously injured was it hit my pack over my shoulder which distributed some of the shock and deflected it to the side. I guess the observation wrong place/wrong time applied.

[nsherry61]

. . . Since you're in Norwell, you might remember the recent case of a 65-year-old man who loved to bike. He died on a bike trip. Do you remember that?
We just moved here in the last year, so no, I don't recall. But, being an avid cyclist, I am very aware of people being killed by motorists and other cycling accidents and have had two acquaintances killed by cars/trucks. I have also had two friends with permanent brain damage from bicycle accidents - not car related (both are doing very well considering).

In the end, I would rather die at the hands of an idiot (possibly me), or from "an act of God", doing what I love than die slowly with lots of physical and/or mental ailments that provide for a poor existence for me and drawn out stress for my family.

In other words, I accept and embrace the risks of an active and adventurous existence in preference to living a safe and stifled life.

[nsherry61]

Last fall in the Adirondacks with my then 17 yr old son, we were backpacking along during high winds when I saw a tree break and start falling toward him from behind. As I started yelling for him to look out and run forward, he stopped and started walking backwards to avoid the tree he saw falling in front of him. In my 54 years of wondering in the back-country I don't think I'd ever watched a tree fall in a wind storm, then, with my kid in front of me, I watched two trees both fall at almost the same time and place. The trees missed him by about 15 and 50 feet, but holly crap!

[tiptoe]

I think pine trees, especially white pines, are at very high risk to lose very big limbs during high winds -- I hate pine trees.
Pedaling Fool, you are right about the white pines. The ones on my property -- big, ancient ones -- are prone to shearing off in high winds about two-thirds of the way up. This has happened twice in the last three years, fortunately without injury to people or structures. But it's scary to hear the crash.

[earlyriser26]

I am with the ODATC in VA and we have been told that we can only cut downed trees. The Blue ridge parkway is responsible for removal of any dangerous widowmakers near shelters.

[Berserker]

We experienced winds up to 50-60 miles per hour here in VA this Saturday night/ Sunday morning.
Not that this can't happen anytime, but yeah the winds last weekend, especially on Saturday night were well above what we normally get in this area. I was actually wondering how many were out that night and if they were dodging tree limbs. Glad I wasn't out there.

[RangerZ]

I had a tree fall on a trail about 20' behind me, I think it was my seismic events that toppled it.

About it being your time, I almost got killed by a falling Buick. A women drove off the top floor of a parking garage and landed in front of us on the sidewalk. She came out of it with a broken arm, IIRC. We were 25' or so away, the amazing thing was it was that it was lunchtime and the sidewalks were busy but nobody was right there. (I'll be telling my grandchildren that story for years, if I ever have grandchildren. Drove by there just last night and started and my wife just said shut up.)

[wren again]

My husband and I were biking the Virginia Creeper Trail in 2012, while taking a zero day in Damascus. I stopped to read a sign and he biked ahead. A large tree on the side of a steep ravine fell across the bike trail between the two of us. For a short time I didn't see him and the bike on the other side of the branches, but then saw that he was OK. There was no wind, but it had been a rainy stretch and the ground was soggy.

[Leo L.]

Have to tell you a scary story a local guy here, famous for hiking around the world, told:
It had happened on a trail in New Zealand, after more than a year into his walk.
He had pitched his tent in a nice little opening in the woods. Went to bed, but couldn't sleep and kept turning and tossing around because he felt "wrong".
After hours of futil trying to sleep he got up, crept out of the tent into the rainy dark, broke down the tent and moved it some 50m to another place.
Slept well the whole night, got up and looked out into the bright morning - to see a huge tree that had fallen smack over the place he had pitched the tent the first time.

[lonehiker]

I had made camp early one day in the Rawah Wilderness in Colorado. Climbed into my tent for a nap and to avoid an afternoon thunderstorm. Had a tree fall about 30' from my tent. With all the beetle kill trees in many of the western states this is a very timely thread.

[carouselambra]

I was out on the trail last Saturday night. We got to the Partnership shelter at about 3:15pm and decided it was too early to stop. We hiked another couple of miles northbound and tented on a shelf off the ridge. It was a pretty scary and restless night. On Sunday several of the thrus passed us and told us Partnership ended up filling up. I also found out that me and my hiking buddy were "those two guys who walked past the shelter and spent the night in a tent". I can attest that a SoLong 6 will hold up in 50mph+ winds.

[twilight]

I was on the Tuscarora Trail in VA that same weekend. I cut the trip short and came home on Saturday. Sunday morning around 10:30am this happened:34440 Yes, that is my car 3 feet from the tree.

[Pedaling Fool]

That was a bad place to plant such a big tree, between a sidewalk and the street.

[Old Grouse]

Pedaling Fool, you are right about the white pines. The ones on my property -- big, ancient ones -- are prone to shearing off in high winds about two-thirds of the way up. This has happened twice in the last three years, fortunately without injury to people or structures. But it's scary to hear the crash.

I'll add my vote to that! And not just the solitary pines. Pine groves are inviting tenting spots, but they can be treacherous in a wind storm.

[twilight]

The tree came with the house when we bought it six months ago.


Twilight

[Slosteppin]

It is not just pines that fall. Part of the trail maintainence I do on the NCT is cutting trees that fall on the trail. I have cut several big healthy oaks that came down in storms. I know there are at least two oaks waiting to be cut as soon as the snow is gone.

[scrabbler]

I had what I assume to be a very large tree fall in the middle of the night while hammocking on the AT. Wow, sounded like a bomb went off, pretty frightening actually . Took me a good 15 minutes to get back to sleep.

[Tipi Walter]

I was backpacking thru the Shenandoah NP in 1988 with a friend and we set up in a cold March windstorm on Marys Rock and were using a North Face Windy Pass tent which was a VE-24 style tent---

http://image.geartrade.com/userimages/9/2/92401585951abd1583e44b.jpg
This pic from---
http://www.geartrade.com/item/328381/the-north-face-windy-pass-tent

Anyway, as I was setting up camp at night in the wind I looked up with my flashlight and saw a dead snag tree close to camp but was too impatient and tired to have the sight register in my peanut sized brain. After the tent was up I laid stuff inside and went out to do some yoga exercises to stretch and just then the dead tree snag fell right atop the tent and ripped the fly and broke a tent pole. Oops.

Point is, never set up under a visibly dead tree. Had to leave the trail to find a repair shop with a sewing machine.

https://tipiwalter.smugmug.com/Backpack-2016-Trips-171/17-Days-with-the-Cranberries/i-rv58F5L/0/M/TRIP%20173%20409-M.jpg
I was pulling the Nutbuster trail recently (Upper Slickrock Creek #42) and found this brand new blowdown atop a little campsite once used by my backpacking buddy Hootyhoo in a tarp. Oops.

https://tipiwalter.smugmug.com/Backpacking2007/Ken-Jones-and-the-Crosscut/i-Qrk5QzD/0/M/DSC00548-M.jpg
This was taken several years ago on the Benton MacKaye trail (Ike Branch section) in a usually open campsite before this big oak fell in the middle of the spot. My tent would've normally been right under the blowdown. Oops.

https://tipiwalter.smugmug.com/Backpacking2002-2004/The-64-Bag-Nights-of-2004/i-6fXCJDm/0/M/33%20%20Terraplane%20at%20Buckeye%20Camp%20off%20t he%20Nutbuster-M.jpg
Here's another campsite called Buckeye Camp on the Nutbuster trail and taken before the "destruction."

https://tipiwalter.smugmug.com/Backpacking2008/With-Troll-and-Pulling-the/i-WJgsf9x/0/M/TRIP%2080%20033-M.jpg
Here's the same campsite obliterated by a large fresh Locust blowdown falling right at the spot I used to put my tent.

https://tipiwalter.smugmug.com/Backpacking2010/15-Days-with-a-Red-Hilleberg/i-KFJNpB9/0/M/TRIP%20105%20095-M.jpg
Here's a blowdown in Cold Spring Gap on the Benton MacKaye trail and right where we put our tents.


https://tipiwalter.smugmug.com/Backpacking2010/23-Days-with-Hootyhoo-Sgt-Rock/i-CvJkDZP/0/M/TRIP%20115%20188-M.jpg
This was taken on Slickrock Creek near Wildcat Falls and shows an old dead tree snag leaning over my tent. Before setting up camp, I used my bearline and a couple "axe rocks" to sway and topple this snag so it wouldn't fall on me and my tent.

[rockyiss]

I was on the bike trail when a bad storm blew up so I got off my bike and climbed down into a gully . I figured if a tree came down the high banks would protect me. I was also worried about the bad lighting . Storm over I got on my bike and kept going. Found out later a women 25 miles down the trail tried to beat the storm by pedaling faster. A tree came down and trapped her . By the time they got it off her she had died. When I found out her identity I was floored because she was my dental hygienist. You could not have found a nicer person than she was.
There are a lot of widow makers out there from hurricane Sandy that hit the east coast . Knew 2 guys cutting some trees down, they stepped back to let the machine pull them out and didn't look up where they stopped and boom down came a widow maker and broke one guys arm. Thank God it wasn't his head. I hope I always remember to look up !

[Furlough]

Cleared 4 Blow Downs yesterday on AT North of High Top parking. Freshest and largest was this Red Maple.

[Pedaling Fool]

I was camping somewhere north of Pen Mar one night and the biggest tree fall I've ever heard (and I've heard a few) fell just on the other side of the creek; those are the things that make your mind wonder...

I saw this in Maine, in vicinity of the CCC memorial plaque. I had to walk thru it, much like walking under a Saber Arch. I took the picture because it was super windy that day and all the creaking noises made by the trees was extremely disconcerting. The picture doesn't do justice in showing just how many trees I had to walk under.


http://whiteblaze.net/forum/vbg/files/6/9/3/6/09-28-061509_original.jpg

[Tipi Walter]

Cleared 4 Blow Downs yesterday on AT North of High Top parking. Freshest and largest was this Red Maple.

Good job, Furlough. I always carry trail tools on my backpacking trips to help my forward movement.

https://tipiwalter.smugmug.com/Backpack-2015-Trips-161/SNOWBIRD-PRETRIP/i-mGRffz5/0/L/TRIP%20167%20382-L.jpg
This was on the Snowbird Creek trail.

https://tipiwalter.smugmug.com/Backpack-2015-Trips-161/SNOWBIRD-PRETRIP/i-rf4Kp2V/0/L/TRIP%20167%20383-L.jpg
VOILA! Cleared.


https://tipiwalter.smugmug.com/Backpack-2016-Trips-171/21-Days-in-January/i-2WcjQwJ/0/L/TRIP%20171%20157-L.jpg
This mess was on the BMT below Hangover Mt and looked nasty for me and my 80 lb pack.


https://tipiwalter.smugmug.com/Backpack-2016-Trips-171/21-Days-in-January/i-xjFqB8f/0/L/TRIP%20171%20158-L.jpg
30 minutes later: Cleared.

[Furlough]

[QUOTE=Tipi Walter;2058252]Good job, Furlough. I always carry trail tools on my backpacking trips to help my forward movement.

From your photos through the years it looks we carry pretty much the same tools (hand saw and pruners) on backpacking trips, although nowhere near the same tonnage overall.:D This particular day trip was a trail maintenance trip to check the trail after a series of high wind events over the last couple of weeks. So I was toting along a bit bigger hand saw, and loping shears.

Always enjoy your trip reports and photos. Take care.

P.S. - If you run into SGT Rock out there, tell him Furlough said hello.

Furlough

[Tipi Walter]

I don't know if Sgt Rock still backpacks as all the pics I've seen of him recently is on the back of a harley motorcycle.:-?

[Furlough]

Well, I suppose there are worse 2nd hobbies one could take up. Perhaps that Hog is his lightweight transportation alternative to get him to the BMT for trail maintenance and trail guide updates.

[LittleRock]

On one camping trip when I was in boy scouts, a kid hung his hammock up on a tree that was obviously dead. He got in it, swung around for a few minutes, then got up and the tree fell right on top of on his hammock, about one second later.