Trapped by a fallen tree

[The Rinzler]

Wife and I headed up a new trail today.
The winds were about 15MPH on the way up and made us nervous about fallen trees.

Sure enough on the way back we had run into a fallen tree blocking the trail.
We were trapped on the trail..

Talk about timing..
Good thing I had just asked my wife for a chainsaw for Christmas.

A little water crossing from the trail..

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[Ksnau]

Nice. Yeah I have a foldable hand saw that I always carry and it's not too bad. But yeah the 5 minutes it would have taken you would have been like 30 for me if not longer. I've been thinking about buying one of them cheap electric chainsaws on Amazon since we have a 110 outlet in our cars or at least some do, for just that reason as well as just when camping.

 

[The Rinzler]

Nice. Yeah I have a foldable hand saw that I always carry and it's not too bad. But yeah the 5 minutes it would have taken you would have been like 30 for me if not longer. I've been thinking about buying one of them cheap electric chainsaws on Amazon since we have a 110 outlet in our cars or at least some do, for just that reason as well as just when camping.

For sure!
Well 30 minutes is better than a possible 24 hours or more
I'm not sure what we would have done without one..

 

[Ksnau]

Can always try and tow it but these things are so light. I tried towing with my 14 AWD 2.0 Ford escape and it was garbage. I couldn't even pull a little Audi out of the mud in Flagstaff a few years back.

 

[The Rinzler]

Can always try and tow it but these things are so light. I tried towing with my 14 AWD 2.0 Ford escape and it was garbage. I couldn't even pull a little Audi out of the mud in Flagstaff a few years back.

Yeah we probably would have tried to pull it.
But like you said, we might have had to put a couple boulders in the trunk

 

[cprcubed]

For camping, I have a Ryobi 40V 14" chaisaw which works surprisingly well. The only issue I have with it is it leaks bar oil which is a PITA. I wish they had a hard case to go with it. I have a "Box" case for my larger 2-stroke Husqvarna, but that case is a bit bulky. Cheers!

 

[Robink]

Nice. Yeah I have a foldable hand saw that I always carry and it's not too bad. But yeah the 5 minutes it would have taken you would have been like 30 for me if not longer. I've been thinking about buying one of them cheap electric chainsaws on Amazon since we have a 110 outlet in our cars or at least some do, for just that reason as well as just when camping.

I carry a folding saw also. I've put it to good use!

 

[sajohnson]

Nice. Yeah I have a foldable hand saw that I always carry and it's not too bad. But yeah the 5 minutes it would have taken you would have been like 30 for me if not longer. I've been thinking about buying one of them cheap electric chainsaws on Amazon since we have a 110 outlet in our cars or at least some do, for just that reason as well as just when camping.

Just FYI -- we live in the forest and heat with wood. I've had an EGO 14" cordless chain saw for several years now and it has held up very well.

I've had a small 16" Stihl 2-stroke saw since 1985(!) but never use it anymore.

IMO, the EGO would be an ideal saw to carry.

It comes with the lowest capacity battery (2 or 2.5 Ah) but that's enough for dozens of small cuts, and maybe 6-7 cuts through a ~10" solid tree.

 

[NMhunter]

I bought a 4' two man hand saw at an estate sale and picked it up for just that scenario. I've used it to cut through a 2" diameter tree (just for fun).

After a fire, trees fall down routinely. We went out on a job where they had cleared the road the day before, and the road was blocked by a tree that fell overnight. Fortunately, it blocked us out, not in.

Backpacking in the Gila Wilderness we saw trees in the canyon bottoms swaying 30' at the top. Every once in a while, the top 20' of a live tree would come crashing down. We were very careful about where we camped.

My dad was hunting in the Pecos Wilderness and came back to camp to find a tree had fallen across his tent. He was always careful about where he camped.

 

[Escape2Bronco]

The other option is to carry a kinetic rope. That helps with some of the lightness of the vehicle and gives you a bump in pulling power.

It has an added benefit if a vehicle gets stuck in front of you as they don’t take kindly to chain saws!

 

[sajohnson]

I bought a 4' two man hand saw at an estate sale and picked it up for just that scenario. I've used it to cut through a 2" diameter tree (just for fun).

After a fire, trees fall down routinely. We went out on a job where they had cleared the road the day before, and the road was blocked by a tree that fell overnight. Fortunately, it blocked us out, not in.

Backpacking in the Gila Wilderness we saw trees in the canyon bottoms swaying 30' at the top. Every once in a while, the top 20' of a live tree would come crashing down. We were very careful about where we camped.

My dad was hunting in the Pecos Wilderness and came back to camp to find a tree had fallen across his tent. He was always careful about where he camped.

Good point about keeping a close eye on trees -- especially dead ones.

Unfortunately, all of the ash trees in this part of the country have been killed by emerald ash borers. The state forester told us that about 1/3 of our trees are ash. Spring thru fall, it's obvious which ones they are.

A large one just fell in the back yard. The top branches came within a few feet of our house. Before it fell, we were considering cutting it. It ended up falling where we thought it would. So no damage done with that one but another ash fell during the same storm and a branch hit the hood of our '97 RAV4 and dented it. For many 27 year old cars that would be no big deal, but the body of the RAV was almost perfect.

Anyway, definitely something to be aware of in the woods.

BTW -- we love the Gila. In fact, years ago we spent a lot of time there and were considering moving to Silver City -- until the LA Times declared that it was the next "retirement Mecca" and prices shot up to 5 to 10 times what they were.

I any case, it's a beautiful area.

 

[Escape2Bronco]

Good point about keeping a close eye on trees -- especially dead ones.

Unfortunately, all of the ash trees in this part of the country have been killed by emerald ash borers. The state forester told us that about 1/3 of our trees are ash. Spring thru fall, it's obvious which ones they are.

A large one just fell in the back yard. The top branches came within a few feet of our house. Before it fell, we were considering cutting it. It ended up falling where we thought it would. So no damage done with that one but another ash fell during the same storm and a branch hit the hood of our '97 RAV4 and dented it. For many 27 year old cars that would be no big deal, but the body of the RAV was almost perfect.

Anyway, definitely something to be aware of in the woods.

BTW -- we love the Gila. In fact, years ago we spent a lot of time there and were considering moving to Silver City -- until the LA Times declared that it was the next "retirement Mecca" and prices shot up to 5 to 10 times what they were.

I any case, it's a beautiful area.

We cut two 40 year old ash trees down a couple of years ago. It was heartbreaking. They provided a lot of shade for many years. I was able to keep them free of the bugs for about 10 years but they were so big it became impossible without spending boat loads of money.

 

[sajohnson]

We cut two 40 year old ash trees down a couple of years ago. It was heartbreaking. They provided a lot of shade for many years. I was able to keep them free of the bugs for about 10 years but they were so big it became impossible without spending boat loads of money.

A sad but familiar sight.

We're on several acres of woods so we're surrounded by dead ash trees.

Many of them break several feet up from the ground. In some places it looks like a tornado went through. It's pretty ugly.

We've left them all standing because we have limited storage for wood. I figure it will take longer to rot that way.

 

[Escape2Bronco]

A sad but familiar sight.

We're on several acres of woods so we're surrounded by dead ash trees.

Many of them break several feet up from the ground. In some places it looks like a tornado went through. It's pretty ugly.

We've left them all standing because we have limited storage for wood. I figure it will take longer to rot that way.

I planted mine as 10ft bareroot trees 40 years ago. We were selling the house and decided to be proactive. As it turned out, the house sold without an inspection so the probably could have stayed but I wanted to cut them down on my terms and time. Most of the ones planted in the early to mid 80’s are gone.

 

[sajohnson]

I planted mine as 10ft bareroot trees 40 years ago. We were selling the house and decided to be proactive. As it turned out, the house sold without an inspection so the probably could have stayed but I wanted to cut them down on my terms and time. Most of the ones planted in the early to mid 80’s are gone.

That makes it worse when you planted them.

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