WhiteBlaze Pages 2024
A Complete Appalachian Trail Guidebook.
AVAILABLE NOW. $4 for interactive PDF(smartphone version)
Read more here WhiteBlaze Pages Store

Page 1 of 3 1 2 3 LastLast
Results 1 to 20 of 42

Thread: widowmakers!

  1. #1

    Default widowmakers!

    I hiked from Thornton Gap north to Elkwallow Wayside in the dark and windy night on Wednesday. I thought I had finally found what the wild and lonely Skakagrall sounded like... alas it was just tree parts rubbing together. Spooked me to pieces. But got me thinking have you all seen widowmakers that made you hike faster?

  2. #2
    Registered User
    Join Date
    11-01-2014
    Location
    Anchorage, AK
    Age
    62
    Posts
    2,500

    Default

    Quote Originally Posted by chknfngrs View Post
    . . .But got me thinking have you all seen widowmakers that made you hike faster?
    In the Adirondacks a couple years ago with my son, hiking around the Cranberry Lake 50, we were walking through a pretty significant wind storm and I was about 20 yards behind him when I saw a tree start to fall right for him. As I was screaming for him to run (he had no idea why) he stopped. The tree I was screaming about landed about 20 ft behind him and the tree he was stopping for landed about 20 ft in front of him. So, the answer to your question is yeah, sort of.

    This last month when we had the first of our 3 noreaster storms in one week (just south of Boston) I headed out into the woods behind our house to take the dogs for a walk before the storm got blowing to badly. It was blowing pretty hard, but, was early in the storm and it hadn't picked up too much yet. My wife asked me not to go out into the woods. I figured early on in the lighter winds (only 40 mph or so) it should be fine. As the tree fell across my path, I turned around and heeded my wife's request. Below is a picture I just took out our back window showing the area of the path I was walking on.

    backyard trees down.jpg

    The trail enters the the woods at the left edge of the picture and crosses the rock wall right at the base of the 2 ft diameter tree that fell across it and slightly to the left of the leaning tree. Of course, this image doesn't come close to showing all the tree limbs down all around that made other parts of the trail nearly impassable until I cleared them.

    Yep, trees fall. And, they do so most often in storms whether we're there to hear them or not. This one was really loud and awesome.
    I'm not lost. I'm exploring.

  3. #3
    Registered User
    Join Date
    02-05-2009
    Location
    Delray Beach, Florids
    Age
    73
    Posts
    1,359

    Default

    When singing songs of scariness,. Of bloodiness and hairyness,. I feel obligated at this moment to remind you. Of the most ferocious beast of all: Three thousand pounds and nine feet tall ---. The Glurpy Slurpy Skakagrall. Who's standing right behind you. -
    The other creature to live in this area. Wild Tree Squeaks. They hide way in the tops of trees and on windy nights they get lonely and call to each other with those squeaks.

  4. #4
    Registered User
    Join Date
    09-08-2006
    Location
    Wilton CT
    Age
    77
    Posts
    1,097

    Default

    I've seen trees fall even in clear, calm weather. Like Johnny Cash said, "I keep my eyes wide open all the time."
    "It goes to show you never can tell." - Charles Edward Anderson Berry

  5. #5
    Garlic
    Join Date
    10-15-2008
    Location
    Golden CO
    Age
    66
    Posts
    5,615
    Images
    2

    Default

    Sometimes the thought of hiking faster comes way too late. Like the time I was chatting with friends during a break on the trail in Yellowstone NP, and out of the clear blue on a calm day, a large tree came down a few feet from our group of four. No warning, no time to even think about moving. Over ten years later, we still talk about that often.
    "Throw a loaf of bread and a pound of tea in an old sack and jump over the back fence." John Muir on expedition planning

  6. #6

    Join Date
    05-05-2011
    Location
    state of confusion
    Posts
    9,866
    Journal Entries
    1

    Default

    See the woods?

    Every single tree in it will fall one day, unless picked by a harvester

    Trees fall. One by one.

    Or in the case of beetle killed forest in CO, that is uncut, the whole thing is rotten standing widow makers. I pushed over a 10" dia standing tree by leaning on it there.
    Last edited by MuddyWaters; 04-20-2018 at 09:06.

  7. #7

    Default

    The biggest problem here in the Southeast where I backpack are the millions of completely dead towering hemlocks which are breaking apart and dropping either limbs or their tops or the entire tree. Think "torture device with spikes". These babies must be avoided if possible when camping, i.e. don't set up underneath.

    But beyond this, as Muddy Waters says, all trees will eventually fall and I've seen completely "healthy" trees with green leaves fall for whatever reasons. And big healthy oaks can randomly drop a thousand lb limb with no warning. Let's do a photo essay---

    33 Terraplane at Buckeye Camp off the Nutbuster-XL.jpg
    Here's a favorite campsite on the Nutbuster trail (Upper Slickrock #42) where I always put my tent.

    TRIP 145 077-XL.jpg
    Here's the same place a few years later after a locust blowdown cut the campsite in half. Lucky I wasn't squatting there when it happened.

    TRIP 80 033-L.jpg
    Here's the blowdown just after it happened.

    DSC00548-L.jpg
    There's also a favorite camp on the Benton MacKaye trail near Yellowhammer Gap that got obliterated by this giant oak falling where I usually put my tent. Lucky me I wasn't camping here when it fell.

    Trip 175 064-XL.jpg
    And then there's this phenom---a tree dropping a limb as a spear and stabbing into the earth---or whatever else is below. I see these things all the time. There's no way to avoid this---except by camping out of all trees on a bald or in a stand of small saplings.

    Trip 175 065-XL.jpg
    Here's the hole this little limb made---it's deep.

    Trip 183 (24)-XL.jpg
    And then there's the aforementioned hemlock spike blowdowns . . . .

  8. #8

    Default

    I think it was 2 or 3 years ago someone was wild by a tree that fell on him at a around a shelter...don’t recall where.

  9. #9

    Default

    Killed...ugh!

  10. #10

    Default

    Quote Originally Posted by rocketsocks View Post
    I think it was 2 or 3 years ago someone was wild by a tree that fell on him at a around a shelter...don’t recall where.
    I think a father was killed and his son seriously injured by a falling tree in the Boundary Waters a few years ago.

  11. #11

    Join Date
    05-05-2011
    Location
    state of confusion
    Posts
    9,866
    Journal Entries
    1

    Default

    Quote Originally Posted by Tipi Walter View Post
    And big healthy oaks can randomly drop a thousand lb limb with no warning.

    Yep. Sudden summer limb drop has killed people camping, picknicking or even just taking photos under healthy trees . I recall some people sued Yosemite a couple years back when it it happened. Seems they think National Park should have done something to prevent it.

  12. #12

    Default

    Quote Originally Posted by rocketsocks View Post
    I think it was 2 or 3 years ago someone was wild by a tree that fell on him at a around a shelter...don’t recall where.
    Ed Garvey shelter methinks

  13. #13

    Default

    Quote Originally Posted by FrogLevel View Post
    I think a father was killed and his son seriously injured by a falling tree in the Boundary Waters a few years ago.
    Quote Originally Posted by chknfngrs View Post
    Ed Garvey shelter methinks
    sounds right

  14. #14
    Registered User
    Join Date
    11-01-2014
    Location
    Anchorage, AK
    Age
    62
    Posts
    2,500

    Default

    Yet another reason all backpacking, hiking, and camping should be banned. . . it's just too dangerous.
    I'm not lost. I'm exploring.

  15. #15

    Default

    Quote Originally Posted by nsherry61 View Post
    Yet another reason all backpacking, hiking, and camping should be banned. . . it's just too dangerous.
    Miss Nature's in charge. She'll either kill us with a tree or a tumor or a virus or a heart infarction. Maybe couch potato-itis should also be banned.

  16. #16
    Journeyman Journeyer
    Join Date
    08-09-2016
    Location
    Central Kentucky
    Age
    64
    Posts
    180
    Images
    6

    Default

    A 11 year old boy scout was killed in the Red River Gorge in KY in 2016 when a tree fell on his tent. Tragic.

  17. #17

    Default



    Not the biggest tree to fall near me, but man we got lucky.


    Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk Pro

  18. #18

    Default

    Quote Originally Posted by Hatchet_1697 View Post


    Not the biggest tree to fall near me, but man we got lucky.


    Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk Pro
    this happen to me once in PA as well, dropped my pack and leaned up against what looked like an ok tree...whole damn thing fell over on and all around me, luckily it was only about three inches spongey wood.

  19. #19
    Registered User
    Join Date
    12-09-2016
    Location
    Sanford, NC
    Age
    45
    Posts
    564

    Default widowmakers!

    I've finally convinced my wife that I most likely won't die from bears, hillbillies, lightning, or ticks. Please don't let her find this thread.
    You can walk in another person's shoes, but only with your feet

  20. #20

    Default

    Hatchet---Perfect example of how a living green tree can fall and there's nothing you can do about it or know beforehand.

Page 1 of 3 1 2 3 LastLast
++ New Posts ++

Posting Permissions

  • You may not post new threads
  • You may not post replies
  • You may not post attachments
  • You may not edit your posts
  •