Christmas Tree Cutting Patrol Day 2 Nov. 30 2025

[LCPilot]

Meet at the Divide Philips 66 at 7:45 am. Leave at 8:15 and go to the Rule Ridge parking lot at 8:30. That is where we air down and get a briefing on the latest conditions, areas to patrol, maps etc.

Remember to bring a GMRS radio (we use channel 15-0), recovery gear, winter clothes, tire chains, coffee and lunch.

We do a debrief at 3:00 pm back at Rule Ridge, air up and go home.

If you volunteer the FS Rangers will allow you to cut a tree without buying a permit.

Please reply to this thread if you plan on going on this day.

Attached is a PDF of the Tree cutting area and the FS roads that we patrol.

 

[Goslow]

I plan to be there.

 

[LCPilot]

I'll be there.

 

[SAS]

I'll be there.

 

[Goslow]

Three of us were able to come to today’s patrol. We had a 60, an 80, and a 100 present. We broke up into two groups and covered a large part of the cutting area.
Down in the FS364 bottom, I plowed through ice in the deep puddles near the creek bottom. After lunch, LCPilot decided to cross Phantom Creek, where we’ve extracted many stuck UTVs and trucks in the past, and right before he got there a four seat razor plowed through it, scattering ice all over. We didn’t think he would make it and we thought we would be rescuing them, but he did manage to make it through. LCPilot then crossed it in both directions with ice chunks deposited on his bumper and lodged in various places in the undercarriage.
We picked up a lot of trash over these two days along all of the roads we traveled.

 

[Goslow]

More pics…

 

[SAS]