BigTreeWalker Posted May 2, 2015 Posted May 2, 2015 (edited) Thanks ShadowBorn. Thanks Dave, I've been on top of most of the hills in the area but not the mountain. Bet the view is fantastic from up there. I see Mt Adams in the distance behind you. Edited May 2, 2015 by BigTreeWalker
Guest Posted May 2, 2015 Posted May 2, 2015 Just wanted to say this thread rocks! Love the pictures and the field trip notes, especially by BC Witness. Very cool to hear what you and your group are up to. I'm heading out this next weekend so I'll post some pics to share as well.
BC witness Posted May 4, 2015 Author Posted May 4, 2015 Thanks for the compliments, and especially for the contributions, as I certainly like to hear of other's efforts to get out there to search, and to enjoy the wonders of nature. I couldn't get any of my usual buds together to get away today, so I was going to chill for the day, but by 2PM, after a nice lunch out with my wife, I was gettin' the urge to get out on a trail somewhere, so I dropped her off at home, and headed out to Harrison Lake, BC, about an hour's drive from home, and surrounded by several hundreds of km of logging roads and fire trails.I chose the East FSR to start from, as I know a great lookout point that gives a splendid view of the lake, the surrounding mountains, and Long Island in the middle of the lake. The main FSR in is an easy drive, though a little potholed and washboarded, so caution is needed in the corners to avoid being bounced sideways off the road, but the 6 km up to the lookout is a bit more challenging, with lots of cross ditching to prevent washouts, a few small mudholes, some rocky sections, and is narrow and closely lined with alders to pinstripe your paint, in some areas. The 2.5" lift, installed a few weeks ago, handled everything on the trail with ease, and the Z71 rear springs are just right on my long wheelbase "weiner" truck, giving extra firmness, without being too harsh. I am very pleased with the improved trail ablities so far, and consider it money well spent. The only excitement on the trail was sighting a bobcat trotting down the narrow path in front of the truck as I rounded a curve. It stopped and turned sideways to look back at me, then continued for another 100 yds in front of me, before jumping to the left into the brush. It was great to get such a rare glimpse of the elusive feline. While stopped at the lookout area, there was almost constant whooping of grouse in the trees on the hillside above me, but the attempt to capture the sound on my celphone video function was a flop. There were several whooping from different locations, but no drumming from them today. Being a solo run, there are no action shots, but here's a few scenic pics from the trip:
BigTreeWalker Posted May 4, 2015 Posted May 4, 2015 Thanks for the update BC. Looks like it was a beautiful afternoon for a drive. Glad to hear the upgrades on your ride are serving you well. It's also great to see wildlife that are rarely seen. It reminded me of an almost identical sighting I had of a lynx a few years ago, something we're not supposed to have around here.
daveedoe Posted May 4, 2015 Posted May 4, 2015 I love this thread you started BC, what a nice day to be out. That road looks like it doesn't get much traffic. I've only seen one Bobcat in the wild, and it was very close in near new construction homes. I had the feeling the poor old cats neighborhood was being invaded by humans.
Guest Posted May 9, 2015 Posted May 9, 2015 BC, What great stuff. I'm a little ashamed now to admit that I don't take full advantage of the Fraser Valley ecosystem. This summer I will be spending a lot more time outdoors. Harrison, here I come.
BigTreeWalker Posted May 16, 2015 Posted May 16, 2015 Finally! The gates are finally open east of Mt St Helens. Made it out on 5-14-15. Our plan for the day was to find a good campsite, for later on, near our research area. We were the first ones into the side road we use for access. Had to remove three good sized logs and a few large rocks. A couple of the logs required pulling them out of the way with the Durango. By the time we got in there it was raining pretty good. On the way up I got this picture of the mountain. After it started raining we went for a short hike out to the end of a ridge. This picture is looking into the head of the valley toward road 99 to Windy Ridge. This is the area where BFRO report 4779 took place. If you zoom in you can see the buildings mentioned in the report left of center, just below the Ridge. There's a little plateau area about halfway up from the bottom of the valley where the bigfoot was seen walking. This is a very wild valley with little to no access on the edge of the blowdown zone. http://www.bfro.net/GDB/show_report.asp?id=4779 We found something along one of the roads I had never seen before. There were three trees next to each other with their tops all laying on the ground next to the road. It appears something bit partway through the trees then the wind finished the job. I posted a couple of pictures of the bite marks in the trees. The last picture is your normal porcupine chewed tree I have seen many times. But, as seen in the last photo it's only the bark. The wood itself is usually not touched. Just never seen that before. 1
BC witness Posted May 16, 2015 Author Posted May 16, 2015 Glad you got out there, BTW, and thanks for the photos and report.
daveedoe Posted May 16, 2015 Posted May 16, 2015 Nice pictures BTW! is it possible the bite marks were caused by lightning? It amazes me how much tree damage there is and no explanation for the cause.of the damage. Would love to see a study on the types and cause of tree damages in the national forests.
SWWASAS Posted May 16, 2015 BFF Patron Posted May 16, 2015 Does look like a lighting strike to me. I had a tree hit in my back yard and it made a hole like that and a sort of a rip running down the tree under the bark towards the ground. The tree is still alive.
BigTreeWalker Posted May 17, 2015 Posted May 17, 2015 I've seen a lot of lighting struck trees. Either they look like a bomb went off or they have that spiral stripe down the trunk. I was thinking it was a porcupine as I said, but that really didn't fit what we saw either. Then I thought Pileated Woodpecker. There are a lot around here. The holes in the trunks were deep and ragged,not smooth like you would see with rodent incisors. I think the woodpecker drilled some holes in the trees and the wind took care of the rest. I was going to post a picture of one I got on one of my game cams but I can't locate it now.
bipedalist Posted May 17, 2015 BFF Patron Posted May 17, 2015 (edited) I had an old growth red oak killed by lightning, wasn't immediate, the tree healed over the vertical stripe or break in the bark, it did not spiral. I have seen a tulip poplar exploded by lightning and another red oak with the lower half of most of the bark (also old growth) blown off such that the tree was girdled (it then jumped over to a sister old growth red oak but did not fatally injure that one), it was an ant hollowed tree to begin with but a beaute, but was killed instantly as was the poplar (also an old growth) which was nothing but vertical split-halfed and exploded kindling trunk that blew out sideways littered a parking lot and probably cars with it's detritus. My personal tree red oak had to be felled and it was too close to the house anyway so it was a job I could finish once a pro dropped it and it had to be done eventually anyway as dead limbs were taking out my gutters. Heated the house for a year and a half with that sucker. Black bear will peel limbs and damage trees especially if a food source, normally they scar up bark, I don't think a black bear would consistently fell the tops of adjoining trees such that they lined up however. Perhaps they were ice damaged and then dragged out of the road by a good samaritan or ranger that beat you to the first road passage? Edited May 17, 2015 by bipedalist
BigTreeWalker Posted May 17, 2015 Posted May 17, 2015 We really didn't have any snowfall to speak of this year until April so I'm thinking heavy wet snow and wind finished what was a previous damaged tree. The pitch at the damaged areas is older than the breaks which were fresh. Still thinking Pileated Woodpecker here. If you read the post of my trip, we were the first ones into the area. Bipedalist, the lightning damage you mentioned brings to mind a thunderstorm that occurred last year at our elk camp. All night long the storms kept starting up near Craggy Peak just to the north of us and steaming off to the south right over our camp. It lasted all night long and we heard several trees get blasted by the storm within a quarter mile of our camp. It made for a very long night wondering if one of the trees next to our camp would be next!
SWWASAS Posted May 17, 2015 BFF Patron Posted May 17, 2015 We have lots of discussion about missing people in the woods being taken by BF but with around 25 people a year killed by lightning in the country, I think that is more dangerous than BF. Of course a lot of those people are on golf courses. Greens fees sort of make people want to stay even when they know they should take shelter.
SWWASAS Posted May 17, 2015 BFF Patron Posted May 17, 2015 I just went out to take a picture of my tree hit by lighting and can barely see the scar. The picture does not really show much so I won't post it. It has healed over very well. It pretty much went straight down the tree from the strike location. The tree is about 60 feet tall now so I cannot see where the strike hit any more. Up near the top someplace. That happened 20 years ago now.
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