[at-l] If a tree falls in the forest...

[David Hicks" <daveh@usit.net (David Hicks)]

> In a message dated 1/22/01 9:08:17 PM Eastern Standard Time,
> knowhal@netreach.net writes:
>
> << Is this a stupid question? Go ahead, tell the truth, I can take it...
:)
> >>
>

One fall, or early winter, few years back (96-98??), I was bushwhacking in
the Big Schloss area.  I was doing some preliminary scouting for the relo of
the Big Schloss Cut-off trail.  That night I camped near where the relo of
the lower 1/3 is now located.

That night wind came up that set new records up and down the east coast.  I
was in a dbl wall.  The cold wind started creating Elmo's fire between the
fly and tent proper.  If I moved my hand around my sleeping pad, it was
outlined w/ static light -- not just a flash, a fully maintained outline.

The area was full of Gypsy Moth created snags.  They began to fall all
around me.  I was sure that I had not pitched directly under one; but I was
not so sure that a tall one might not reach me, were it to fall in my
direction.  There was also a fair amount of lightning.

I remembered a rock pile and rock cliff face a bit above where I was camped.
I remember thinking that you should stay out of shallow caves and rock
crevices during a thunderstorm.  However, the lightning strikes seemed to be
further up the ridge and tress were falling a whole lot closer.  So, I took
my sleeping bag and light and moved uphill, to spend a sleepless night
between two car size rocks with a partial rock roof.

Morning found me very tired, but safe.  As, incidentally, were my tent and
the space where it had been – although it had moved a good ways down the
hill.  I never did find my cook pot, the windscreen for my stove, and a few
other items.  Also, morning also found the whole area crisscrossed with
newly fallen trees.  There were two big ones within twenty feet of where I
had pitched my tent.  I never regretted moving.

However, remember that (statistically and in reality) I had been in much
more danger driving to the trail than I had ever been on it -- albeit I
still check for widow-makers, and recommend that others check, before
pitching a tent.

Chainsaw