Christmas Tree Cutting Patrol Day 8, Sunday, December 22nd

[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 5-0), 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.

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

Here is the link for Tree permits. https://www.fs.usda.gov/detail/psicc/news-events/?cid=FSEPRD1215755
Attached is a PDF of the Tree cutting area and the FS roads that we patrol

 

[Goslow]

I’ll be there.

 

[LCPilot]

I'll be there.

 

[LCPilot]

Last day of Patrols. Mostly sign removal and picking up trash.

 

[Mulesknner Jeep]

Surprised by my boss I'll have Sunday off. I'll be able to make it. My son will be riding with me.

 

[Goslow]

Three of us came today and the Rangers divided us up individually to run different roads and help them remove all of the remaining signs related to the Christmas tree cutting area. It saved them a lot of work, especially running the spur trails and the farthest reaches, and they appreciated our club’s help very much.
It was very slow today and we saw perhaps one or two trees being taken from the area.
I drove down road 363 to the phantom Creek icy crossing and waited for David to show up on the other side. I drove the bypass route and had no trouble, but it is starting to get deep and has an ice ledge on the north side. There were quite a few UTVs and quad ATVs running around. Two 4seat razors and Can-Am‘s showed up and one guy dove into the crossing and didn’t make it very far, but he was able to back himself out without our assistance. Then they both took the bypass. Image attached.
I studied the ice ledge on the south side and the hole beneath it is quite deep. Probably 18 to 24 inches deep with a 4 inch thick ice ledge. It’s quite imposing and has been dug out by people spinning their tires trying to get up. We can easily see why people have trouble getting out. It’s kind of hard to get the correct perspective in the image I attached, but you can get the general idea.

 

[Goslow]

Here’s the bypass with me preparing to cross it.

 

[Goslow]

I imagine the members in Canada and Alaska encounter this stuff all the time but for us it’s novel and entertaining.

 

[TK470]