Christmas Tree Cutting Patrol Day 3 December 6, 2024

[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 3:30 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 with a co-driver.

 

[Goslow]

Two of us came today driving an 80 and a 100. There was 6 inches of snow but we did not need tire chains. The creek crossings on Trail Creek Road were all open, but the Phantom Creek Crossing was iced over. Several rigs came through the bypass. The ice chunks on both crossings looked to be about 4 inches thick, double last week’s thickness.
We drove FS339 and FS342, both of which are along US 67 and are open for Christmas tree cutting. There were lots of people on both roads cutting trees, but no one needed any help.
We passed out a lot of forest service goodies to kids. No one needed any help from us today to get un-stuck or for any other reason.
See pic showing our chief trash picker-upper in action.

 

[LCPilot]

I patrolled mainly on the East side. While we were airing down and getting the morning brief about 8 vehicles drove in. There were a lot of people cutting trees on the South end of FR355. There were a couple of groups along the Southern end of FR357. I only saw 4 UTVs during the day but there were a lot of tracks where the UTVs had been. All roads were passable, the main areas to be careful with were hills that got icy and vehicles were crab sliding down and low area that were drifting in with up to 2 foot deep drifts. After lunch, I went North on FR364 and then turned North on FR366. As you get well into the burn area the road skirts the East side of a hill. The road has 3 deep washouts on the downhill side. The washouts extend into the road about 2 feet and are about 2 feet across and drop off to nothing. They make driving past kind of sketchy. There is only abot 6 feet of stable ground available to drive on. The one on the South is on an inside corner and your back tire is trying to cut the corner and go in the hole. While I was doing the debrief in the Rule Ridge parking lot and transferring the trash to the FS people, I noticed a car being pulled back up into the parking lot where they had nosed down to far over the hill in the north side. I didn't get to pull him out as it was another truck. Darn, I missed the 1 recovery of the day. No, I didn't get a picture of it. I was busy trying to avoid going over the edge.