Actually it was an off ramp. Thanks to Eric Schamell for the lead on this score. An area he has scrounged from many times. State cutting back from road. Wood cut maybe last Winter. Scouted it a couple weeks ago and had to look at a job ten minutes from there so hit it today. Over half hour from home. Black and yellow birch. There was some aspen which i left. Most of the birch was propped off ground and had almost no rot. Bark was tight. Cut and flopped/carried sections out of ditch to staging area then bucked for loading. 3/4 PU full of rounds. Was ready to leave and checked other side of road...bingo more wood. Sassafras and birch down an embankment. Didnt bother bucking. Still some sassy there which i may grab when i go back to do the job next week. Plus more on another ramp. Normally dont go far for a score, but birch is a rare scrounge for me. Staged logs prior to bucking.
Looks like a quiet section of road, as off-ramps go. You just had to flop it to the end of the guardrail? Worth it for good wood like that.
Good deal Brad! It's amazing what gets left behind or chipped! The state did some work on the Parkway this summer; northbound side in Meriden; kinda near the DOT facility. Lots of Oak! And last fall..or maybe spring (I can't remember exactly...when things were 'normal' and I was actually going in to work vs working from home) they cut a lot down in the center medial between Cromwell and Rocky Hill. A lot of it got chipped. They had one of those massive tow behind chippers that had a grapple and an operators cab. They were chipping whole trees.
The ramp had very little traffic. Maybe ten cars in hour and a half. I think its more of a direct access to the big company near there. 50' flop to the end of the rail. Had to mark and buck a few. Shouldered some. Google Image Result for https://i.pinimg.com/originals/b9/f9/d8/b9f9d837b0571c2935f7e8ceb401706f.jpg How often do you get birch Molly?
I drive that section on a regular basis and saw the wood. Ive scrounged route 15 many times...Wallingford, North Haven, Hamden. There's some downed locust near there i may hit in the future.
I drive by that every day on my way to work. They clear cut everything large and small, only leaving a few scattered cedar trees and some pin oaks. I remember driving by on my way home, watching these guys work and pulling my hair out
They did this on Rt 8 a few years ago as well. Clear cut the median and chipped everything. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
It's amazing how much the ground cover hides during the summer. Weeds and small pioneering trees popping up everywhere. When I was working this ramp back in June/July, I was doing it mostly at night when I got out of work and it wasn't a bazillion degrees out. The black/yellow birch was definitely the best stuff to be had there. I ended up with a heaping load of Hemlock from that spot, and about 4-5 mixed loads of tulip poplar, aspen and some red maple thrown in. As you can see in Brad's pictures, there's enough logs there to keep an adventurous and determined hoarder busy for a long time.
I drive past a juvenile detention center almost daily that has a big ash and cherry cut up in the yard and think about how you would go after it.
That was one plus...the weeds had died off. Still prickers to contend with. That embankment is a lot steeper than it looks. I ventured a little farther up and it was mostly smaller red maple logs. I noticed more in the median as i came North to exit that ramp.
And to think... if they just sent an open invitation to all the FHC hoarders located in the northeast they could've gotten the medians cleared for a LOT less than 30 some odd million dollars. ‘We can’t cut them fast enough’: State to spend millions to cut down 60,000 potentially dangerous trees along Connecticut highways
I’m burning some Black Birch right now as I type. The heat it throws is incredible, and it really warms the old bones after a day in the freezing cold. It’s a beautiful thing
The bulk of what I've got on hand is slated for next year but I have been burning some sporadically. I have a decent pile of skinny smaller sized splits of it that have become my go-to for restarts. Throw a few pieces on a bed of coals first thing in the morning and they're roaring away before my coffee is even done brewing