Well, still a bit too much snow to get into my favorite area, so went to plan B. This first pic is looking down the road towards the Little Thompson River. It's lower elevation so I figured the access would be good and there's a fair bit of dead standing lodgepole pine in the area. Sure enough. About a mile down the road, found a dead LP just begging to turned into firewood. I obliged (beer can behind the saw...for scale...). Found another couple Lodgies for the woodpile. Decided at this point to take a drive and see if I could get up and out the backside of the mountain (there are old road systems all over the place in this area) but... Got thwarted by snow drifts about three miles from the top. Oh well, turned around and left the way I came in. Found another small Lodgie to throw into the truck on my way out. A bonus of going to this area is that I had the chance to check out the flow level of one of my favorite little trout streams (Mcguinness Creek). Looking good and I suspect I'll be yanking a few brookies out of there in the next few weeks. I tried to get a pic of my goofy dog but she's very uncooperative. I'll do better with that next time. Cheerio!
Nice pictures. Our weather here went from cold to hot in no time. Hate when it does that no time to acclimate.
Thanks folks (oh, and "Hi" to bogeydave). Didn't exactly stuff the truck bed to the gills but this was as much about seeing how the access is as it was about getting firewood. My next trip will be a little more focused on productivity I hope. It was fun though and my dog had a blast. Here's a pic of Baldy Mtn. Its the mountain I was trying to get around before the snow shut me down. Another few days of warm weather should make the road passable. Random pic looking west towards Idaho. Looking across the drainage towards a little patch of burned Lodge Pole. If I can find a road that accesses that area, that would take care of my three year plan in one fell swoop. Mcguinness creek is at the bottom just out of sight.
That looks to be the nice part of Idaho. I lived near Boise for about 4 years. Only trees in that area were ones people planted. Unless you consider sage and tumbleweeds trees!
Yeah, it is definitely handy. It can hold four saws if need be. The slots are also a convenient place to put my screnches and it also makes a good tie down point for just about anything that needs to be tied down.
Ha! Funny......but true. Speaking of wood, I'm splitting up the load of Lodgies that I brought home yesterday. For being sort of a smallish load, the pile of splits is starting to add up pretty good. Might be a half a cord or so when all is said and done. Not bad for not really trying (that was a brag, by the way).
Are some of the trees in the pics larch (tamarack) ? I think lodge pole has more BTU than larch, but still it's a decent wood. Is there a drivable trail to the dead stand of trees ? Looks like you can cut in there for months, fairly close to home ? Any Brown trout or Cut throat in the creek ?
