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2015 Christmas Tree Cutting Patrol
- Thread starter CO_Hunter
- Start date
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- Thread starter
- #62
Thanks for the pics David, nice meeting you and your son.
There was more action on the north end. But at the end of the day, I got the big Kahuna of recoveries. Are you ready for it...not only was it a Jeep,... it was a Rubicon
and on flat ground in about 6 inches of snow 
In all fairness he said his tires were pretty worn, I didn't look.
Here is the shot of the day, my better half
chaining up the Cruiser. Sam was kind enough to lend her his old set of coveralls for the task, thanks buddy!
There was more action on the north end. But at the end of the day, I got the big Kahuna of recoveries. Are you ready for it...not only was it a Jeep,... it was a Rubicon
and on flat ground in about 6 inches of snow In all fairness he said his tires were pretty worn, I didn't look.Here is the shot of the day, my better half
chaining up the Cruiser. Sam was kind enough to lend her his old set of coveralls for the task, thanks buddy!
I missed putting these up earlier.
Also saw you pulling out the Rubicon on our way out. Definitely the catch of the day.
Also saw you pulling out the Rubicon on our way out. Definitely the catch of the day.
You didn't get a picture of Grandpa (the stubborn old cuss) you did get a picture of me holding his crappy old chains that we held together with a coat hanger. This guy was determined not to get pulled out and he could do it himself. 3/4 ton chevy diesel 4X4 and he was determined to put the chains on the light back end. He did succeed. All I did was dig 4 holes to china when I tried to pull his back around.
David H. went up a hill on 324A chained up, I tried and backed out and only made it after chaining up, Greg just blasts on up without chains. Last guy out was a guy that had a new axe for his birthday, He was determined to cut down a tree with his new axe. Its 5:30 (dark) snowing, getting cold, and he is looking around for a tree to cut down with his new axe. He gets a 20 foot tree cut down and pulled up the hill. He decided it is too tall and cuts some off, now we are putting a 17 foot tree on a Grand Cherokee. He is unlacing a 550 cord bracelet to have rope to tie on the tree. We finally get the tree on the roof and tied down. His wife comments, "I didn't realize that it gets so dark so fast up here.
It was a good day with not much traffic. Rampart was mostly dirt, 1-3 inches of fresh snow today. The S turn on the black top road may be interesting tomorrow. Very little side road traffic.
David M.
David H. went up a hill on 324A chained up, I tried and backed out and only made it after chaining up, Greg just blasts on up without chains. Last guy out was a guy that had a new axe for his birthday, He was determined to cut down a tree with his new axe. Its 5:30 (dark) snowing, getting cold, and he is looking around for a tree to cut down with his new axe. He gets a 20 foot tree cut down and pulled up the hill. He decided it is too tall and cuts some off, now we are putting a 17 foot tree on a Grand Cherokee. He is unlacing a 550 cord bracelet to have rope to tie on the tree. We finally get the tree on the roof and tied down. His wife comments, "I didn't realize that it gets so dark so fast up here.
It was a good day with not much traffic. Rampart was mostly dirt, 1-3 inches of fresh snow today. The S turn on the black top road may be interesting tomorrow. Very little side road traffic.
David M.
I'm on my way. Just running late. I'll pick up with the group somewhere.
Had an interesting day today. We started with 5 trucks - myself, Ryan, Luke, Stacey and Rodney. Luck & Rodney started on the north end, Ryan, Stacey and I on the south.
We started off following some fresh tracks down 315 - and shortly met the jeeps that made them on their way back out. Kept going anyway, but turned around when we hit deep snow down in the bottom. Didn't really want to do the off-camber section anyway.
Came back out and went up to check out 323 where we found 2 trucks blocking the road while the kids were sledding on a spur. No fresh tracks beyond that point so we headed out and had some lunch.
About this time we heard from one of the Forest service guys that a truck had gone down 351 and the had a guy waiting to see if they made it back out. Luke and Rodney were heading down by that point, so we went up to check it out.
When we got there we found a 1960 Land Rover Series 2 trying to pull a 60 series out of the east side of 351 - they had made it about 50 yards. We helped them air down, and dig for a bit, but it was becoming clear that they needed a pull, or alot more digging. So I pulled out the winch and pulled them both free pretty easily. On the mean time, the original 351 guy they were concerned about - a chained up Land Rover Country - made it out on his own from the West side.
We went up to the gate and turned around to head South, it was about 2:30 I think, so we figured we'd sweep on the way. We followed some travks down 325/325A until we got turned around by a hill and deep snow. Started a check of 324 but quickly met a truck coming out who said there was nobody else down there.
Then it was on to 323. Ryan parted with us here, and Stacy and I went up to take a look where the trail was blocked and the tracks stopped earlier in the day. And we found one new set of tracks. We took a quick look - narrow tires, probably going in, almost certainly just one track - and decided we better have a look. We found the truck probably another half mile in, suck into the side. A woman jumped out of the drivers seat, very happy to see us - two young (3-5 I'd guess) kids in the back seat.
We pulled the winch out again and tugged her out of the ditch. Then we were trying to get her backed up and turned around - maybe 20 yards. But she just couldn't get or maintain any momentum or steering. I was wondering if it was only 2WD. That's when Stacy walked around the front and saw that we had bigger problems - the tire that had been in the ditch had popped its bead.
Thankfully she had a spare - took some digging to get to it, and to get at the front wheel. But we (mostly Stacey) got it swapped. Things worked much better with 4 good tires and with a little more coaching she got turned around under (mostly) her own power - just a bit of manual pushing. We found her around 3:30 and had her back to Rampart Range a bit after 5:00.
The one last bit of drama was a truck parked near 320 FS folks said the came in after dark with a pile of kids, but were nowhere nearby when we came up on them. Heard that that came out while we were airing up down at the work center.
All in all a good day.
We started off following some fresh tracks down 315 - and shortly met the jeeps that made them on their way back out. Kept going anyway, but turned around when we hit deep snow down in the bottom. Didn't really want to do the off-camber section anyway.
Came back out and went up to check out 323 where we found 2 trucks blocking the road while the kids were sledding on a spur. No fresh tracks beyond that point so we headed out and had some lunch.
About this time we heard from one of the Forest service guys that a truck had gone down 351 and the had a guy waiting to see if they made it back out. Luke and Rodney were heading down by that point, so we went up to check it out.
When we got there we found a 1960 Land Rover Series 2 trying to pull a 60 series out of the east side of 351 - they had made it about 50 yards. We helped them air down, and dig for a bit, but it was becoming clear that they needed a pull, or alot more digging. So I pulled out the winch and pulled them both free pretty easily. On the mean time, the original 351 guy they were concerned about - a chained up Land Rover Country - made it out on his own from the West side.
We went up to the gate and turned around to head South, it was about 2:30 I think, so we figured we'd sweep on the way. We followed some travks down 325/325A until we got turned around by a hill and deep snow. Started a check of 324 but quickly met a truck coming out who said there was nobody else down there.
Then it was on to 323. Ryan parted with us here, and Stacy and I went up to take a look where the trail was blocked and the tracks stopped earlier in the day. And we found one new set of tracks. We took a quick look - narrow tires, probably going in, almost certainly just one track - and decided we better have a look. We found the truck probably another half mile in, suck into the side. A woman jumped out of the drivers seat, very happy to see us - two young (3-5 I'd guess) kids in the back seat.
We pulled the winch out again and tugged her out of the ditch. Then we were trying to get her backed up and turned around - maybe 20 yards. But she just couldn't get or maintain any momentum or steering. I was wondering if it was only 2WD. That's when Stacy walked around the front and saw that we had bigger problems - the tire that had been in the ditch had popped its bead.
Thankfully she had a spare - took some digging to get to it, and to get at the front wheel. But we (mostly Stacey) got it swapped. Things worked much better with 4 good tires and with a little more coaching she got turned around under (mostly) her own power - just a bit of manual pushing. We found her around 3:30 and had her back to Rampart Range a bit after 5:00.
The one last bit of drama was a truck parked near 320 FS folks said the came in after dark with a pile of kids, but were nowhere nearby when we came up on them. Heard that that came out while we were airing up down at the work center.
All in all a good day.
- Thread starter
- #68
Rick called about the signs today and a couple other things. He said it gets tricky and they prefer not to have signs with the FS badges out of their possession. There may be a way where we can help pay for a new batch but they need to stay in FS possession. He will bring it up during their tree cutting project review meeting they will conduct in the near future. I told him that wouldn't be a problem. Another idea he had for donation money was buying lunch or renting gas powered cut off saw for the Hackett vehicle recovery. By the way we can look to get that on the schedule some time early next year. Anyhow, stay tuned on these topics...
Is it a problem for the signs to be "out of their possession" for the time it takes to get them printed and then delivered & donated to the forest service? Not sure how it is with the forest service, but in my experience there is typically a lot of bureaucracy, and potentially additional expense, involved with the government spending money.
This is maybe striking me as an "ask for forgiveness rather then permission" type of situation - though I guess we've already asked for permission. AFAIK, anybody can download the logo and have it printed. Nobody asked me any questions when I sent that image up thread around for quotes.
Not a big deal I guess - we've got 11 months to sort it out
- Thread starter
- #73
Eric,
What you describe wouldn't be a problem. Rick did mention that they were loping into getting the smaller signs and stronger magnetic material. Let's wait and see what he comes back with, as you said, plenty of time.
I don't remember my miles, I never claim it. But I had half day first weekend and full day second weekend. Call it 4 and 8 hours respectively. I think the volunteer tracking stats as a club are for hours, not miles unless doing your taxes.
What you describe wouldn't be a problem. Rick did mention that they were loping into getting the smaller signs and stronger magnetic material. Let's wait and see what he comes back with, as you said, plenty of time.
I don't remember my miles, I never claim it. But I had half day first weekend and full day second weekend. Call it 4 and 8 hours respectively. I think the volunteer tracking stats as a club are for hours, not miles unless doing your taxes.
