Navarro Redwood Again

[gf beranek]

That's in Little River. It's a blow-hole behind the cemetery there. Been to it a few times and could write a story about the nature of it in rough seas. Awesome!

 

[gf beranek]

Jay, most of the old timers I met when I move here in the 70's are dead now but the memory of the stories they told sticks strong in my mind. If you got hurt in the woods it was only when the train came into camp and got loaded that you went to town to get real medical attention. Tough times.

 

[flushcut]

Good thread! I would have loved to hear the "old timers" spin a yarn.

 

[Tucker943]

Ive only met a few old time woodsmen and its limited to the east coast. I was hunting out of a guide camp in the Allagash in maine, and I sat and had dinner with a very old guide that worked as a "chopper" his whole career in the woods. Now he comes out during moose season to call bulls for hunters. He had a lot of neat stories about ingenuity, and also a lot of sad stories about crosses in the woods. The industry wasn't mechanized in his time, and the trees were bigger early in his career. If anyone thinks residential tree work is a hornets nest of danger, they ought to go work a season in the woods hand cutting with a saw. I went to work as a logger thinking it was childs play. I got a real wake up in a hurry. Lunch break on a stump when a hard gust of wind comes through rains a lot of stuff down out of the recently disturbed tree tops. Its like death raining down everywhere you could possibly run.

 

[BOTS]

That's in Little River. It's a blow-hole behind the cemetery there. Been to it a few times and could write a story about the nature of it in rough seas. Awesome!

Yep, thats it!...it was a treat to see....so much cool stuff there, I guess I need to retire to see it all?

 

[gf beranek]

Oh, they told some good ones.

When the first chainsaws came on the scene many old timers continued to use the cross cut and axe in spite. Only because the early power saws were too heavy to pack on the slopes. The electric saws were another thing altogether because you had to move a generator and weave hundreds of feet of electrical cable to every tree. Oh, and damp mornings and in the rain getting shocked to shit was par for the course.

 

[flushcut]

LOL!
All of my close calls happened in the woods.

 

[gf beranek]

You must live in the woods.

 

[flushcut]

No, sadly, I wish.

 

[gf beranek]

Fall is in the air here, and walking through the groves of Navarro redwood leaves are dropping like flurries of snow, and so are their dead limbs. I been thinking seriously about wearing my hardhat on these jaunts. Might appear silly to some passers by it would be a wise decision I think. When the wind is blowing in the woods I always feel naked without my hardhat.

 

[CurSedVoyce]

To that I can relate

Love your pics Jerry. Really takes you there.

 

[flushcut]

Fall is in the air here, and walking through the groves of Navarro redwood leaves are dropping like flurries of snow, and so are their dead limbs. I been thinking seriously about wearing my hardhat on these jaunts. Might appear silly to some passers by it would be a wise decision I think. When the wind is blowing in the woods I always feel naked without my hardhat.

Right!

 

[MasterBlaster]

They'll just think you work there, Jer!

 

[Mrs.B]

Better to look dorky wearing a hard hard had than get hit by falling stuff. Last Sunday we heard and saw a branch come crashing down not far from us. It got our attention real quick!
Like Jerry said, we've been walking Navarro Woods and cataloging trees for a few years now, and truth is we've never encountered another person. Lots and lots of toilet paper behind the trees closest to the highway, but people don't generally go further into the woods than that. There are no designated trails. And I've never known Jerry to care about "looks" in the woods. Safety first!

 

[Bermy]

I hear you with the hard hat! We've been walking in some ex forestry areas, and when a wind gust comes through...the branches and skinny trunks clicking and clacking...makes my shourders hump up and my head go down, kinda like a turtle...hard hat is NOT a bad idea!

 

[Burnham]

I vote for wearing one, too.

 

[flushcut]

I think rockman makes a baseball cap hardhat maybe a less obvious option.

 

[Mrs.B]

I'll be looking for a new one at TCIA in November. There's lots of great stuff to be had at TCIA.

 

[Burnham]

Never overlook the cowboy hat version .

 

[gf beranek]

Hard hats are a beacon to a park ranger.

 

[Bermy]

Hard hats are a beacon to a park ranger.

Got a point there! Get one of those bump caps...looks like a baseball cap, put some 'I love trees' patches on it...

 

[MasterBlaster]

Paint that sucker camo!

 

[gf beranek]

Best idea I heard yet. It's fashionable, practical and makes a statement all at the same time.

Talking about hard-hats, a couple years ago in Jedidiah Smith Redwoods a gust of wind came whirling through the trees and snapped more than a few limbs. Raining terror. Oh, it scared Terri a little bit, and scared the F out of me.

A spec hard-hat can adequately deflect most limbs that fall from the second growth canopy, and you can feel fairly safe with a spec hard-t. But in the old-growth habit most the limbs that fall out of the trees there will drive you and your hard-hat into the ground. Spec or not. I had my bell rung so bad one time I couldn't stand up for over a minute. Actually bent the hat and sprung two rivets. I'm sure if I wasn't wearing that hard-hat then I'd be a cripple, or a memory today.

 

[MasterBlaster]

You might want to add football shoulder pads to your PPE!

 

[gf beranek]

I knew a choker setter that wore shin guards to boot. He run through the woods. Ronny Lewis. Young likeable fellow with damn good work ethic. I liked Ronny.