CRRRRRRRRRRRASHHHHHH!

Let's talk about trees. We love trees. We go to the woods for...the trees. Trees anchor nearly every form of forest life. Trees are great.

And then like an errant in-law, trees can turn on us. Just. Like. That.



The snag closest to the tent fell with an unbelievable racket at 3:30 in the morning on our second night at this camp (a primitive camp we picked from the clutter). When we picked our site I noted with my out-loud voice, "With all these widowmakers I wouldn't stay here in a storm." But the weather was mountain-perfect: not hot, not cold, sunny, not a breath of wind.

Why this tree on this night among the tens of thousands circling the lake? Who can possibly say? Why not one of the dead snags leaning at daring angles instead of one perfectly upright and not getting any attention? An even better question. Will I ever be sanguine about camping near dead snags again? Not a chance.

For the record, the thing hit five feet from my feet. The campsite was at the aptly-named Widow Lake. It was THIS close to a two-fer.

No actual moral to the story. Just watch your topknot.

I've come close with branches in storms, but that will certainly make me think more than twice about site selection. I've had some unnerving nights with very low temps making trees crack and groan, but out of the blue like that is very, very scary.

Yikes!!!

Thrilled to see you could post this after the fact, but it sure scares the hell out of me.

Just a couple of weeks ago I was in my tent at night in a remote car campground. At roughly 10 pm I heard a loud prolonged rending, cracking noise, followed by a very heavy thump of a small tree or large branch hitting the ground. It was quite gut-wrenching as it was happening. Woke me up but good.

The air was quite still, not even a breeze, the temps were in high 40s, so there was no apparent reason for whatever fell to fall. I was unharmed. A search of the immediate vicinity in the morning didn't reveal what it was I heard. But it stuck with me when I was choosing campsites during the weeklong backpack I began the next day.

Stay safe out there.