Defining Deadfall
Contributors to this thread:Elk
From: cnelk
26-Sep-22
I took this pic of Midwest (Nick) last week when we were climbing out of a deadfall hell-hole.
I think his expression of deadfall is spot on.
From: t-roy
26-Sep-22
I’m still betting Nick had his “Embrace the Suck” tee shirt on underneath his Kuiu!
From: MA-PAdeerslayer
26-Sep-22
Haha I was gonna say T-Roy after reading about all the runs etc I bet he was subconsciously thinking how good a work out he was getting in but didn’t want everyone to flip him off for Saying it lol!
From: Bake
26-Sep-22
Hah!!! Been there!
From: Treeline
26-Sep-22
Have spent way too much time in deadfall and oak brush hell this year…
From: midwest
26-Sep-22
It's especially fun when it's on a verticle slope as well! May have been a few f-bombs dropped.
From: cnelk
26-Sep-22
According to OnX, It took us 1hr and 22mins to go 1.1 miles on that hike lol
From: Ucsdryder
26-Sep-22
I’ll take deadfall over oak brush any day of the week. Not the oak brush that turns into trees. That nasty crap that’s 2” in diameter and looks like prison bars! That nasty dust starts coming off it and pretty soon you’re sweating and coughing…
From: Glunt@work
26-Sep-22
From: Glunt@work
26-Sep-22
I'm planning next elk season around an area that wasn't hit by beetles. I've had my fill of high stepping and balance beaming for a bit.
From: brettpsu
27-Sep-22
The permanent scars on my shins are are daily reminders of how bad deadfall sucks.
From: midwest
27-Sep-22
I seem to remember Brad saying, "This is mostly spruce...shouldn't be too bad." LOL!
All part of the fun!
From: DanaC
27-Sep-22
One of my old favorite spots was hit buy a tornado some years ago and to his day there are spots I can't/won't even try to get back into. It's weird driving up a 'familiar' road and not recognizing landmarks.
Another good spot got hit with a 'micro burst' that knocked all the big old oaks down. No acorns, no deer...
From: elkmtngear
27-Sep-22
The elk always know the best way to get through the bulls***t. Finding the good trails in those mazes, is the hard part !
Love watching the pine squirrels navigate their way around, they run those logs like highways!
From: Patdel
27-Sep-22
That stuff really sucks the life out of me. Some of my favorite spots are now just unhuntable.
From: Scrappy
27-Sep-22
The only thing worse is when your upside down in that crap with a hindquarter in your pack at 2 in the morning. I officially retired from elk hunting at that moment. I finally came to my census about 6:30 that morning when I had the last load out. Yes I was in a very dark place at that time.
From: Jaquomo
27-Sep-22
After this season I'm ready to hunting some of those "plains elk". The big winter wind storms are taking a terrible toll, and completely changing the elk movements.
From: BULELK1
30-Sep-22
'Patten Pending' for midwest
Good luck, Robb
From: Bowfreak
30-Sep-22
I hate the stuff too. Sadly, the deck will be reset eventually with some catastrophic fire.
From: DanaC
30-Sep-22
Jacquomo, how easy - or difficult - is it for companies to salvage that downed timber?
From: cnelk
30-Sep-22
^^ There are logging operations that currently harvest beetle killed trees. They make fence posts, T&G plank and other items.
The biggest hurdle is the USFS giving out logging permits - not unlike getting oil drilling permits.
But - with the recently wildfires throughout the West, the US Govt is opening up their purse strings and funding fire mitigations
Time will tell
From: darktimber
30-Sep-22
Hell on earth! I ran into loggers clear-cutting in southern WY. They were taking everything. Said the mill was getting usable lumber out of the deadfall crap. Biggest problem is FS won’t open it up for harvest.
From: WV Mountaineer
30-Sep-22
^^^Bingo^^^. As with all things government, it’s over analyzed by a few, preventing foresters from fixing the problem. That and the cost to simply salvage timber often wouldn’t pay for that timber removal.
Cut the BS out, price it to make if feasible, and private industry would fix it within a matter of a year or two.
That’d Tick off the Canadian government and many members of U.S. house off. But, that’d be ok to do if we finally put American interests first.
From: Bowaddict
30-Sep-22
North park is bad, but if you think a fire will fix it you need to walk in the recent burn areas with a lot of beetle kill. All you get is logs with bark Burned off and thankfully the limbs burned away. But your still going up and over, around and climbing on logs to get through. If it rains the logs are slick as hell cause they have no bark! Something needed to be done when it was still standing after it all started! Or maybe some thinning before, the forest service dropped the ball big time on this!
From: Bowaddict
30-Sep-22
Where they dropped the ball was before the infestation when they were making it hard to obtain logging permits for years, which created the mess we have now. It created in-healthy forests. They were cleaning it out in parts of north park and Wyoming and along I70, but the damage was already done.
From: Bowaddict
30-Sep-22
Where they dropped the ball was before the infestation when they were making it hard to obtain logging permits for years, which created the mess we have now. It created in-healthy forests. They were cleaning it out in parts of north park and Wyoming and along I70, but the damage was already done.
