After last trip (the one with Mike & Bonsai to East Fork) I've been wanting to start a thread about the dreaded Widow Makers (Dead Falls, Hammock killers, etc) & how they affect us.
What got me to thinking of this is a picture I took on that outing where a small tree took out a substantial bridge, just one creek over from where, when I did maintenance on the trail, I used to stop for lunch on a similar bridge. Took OUT the bridge, & to me it looked relatively healthy before it fell & killed the bridge.
(Pic #1)
What made me finally go for it was what happened earlier this week. As posted on another thread, "Why do we hang in the rain (& storms) I was going to hang in my usual spot in the back yard on Monday, but I (thankfully) got called in to work. Pic #2 was supposed to be a pic of my hammock in my usual spot, but I can't open the CD (very old computer) so just imagine.
Any way, in what is now #2: the tree nearest the camera & far right, is where I usually hang the head end of the hammock, the large tree far away & mid frame is the foot end tree. At least that's how I hang about 70% of the time. In picture #3, the head end tree is far right. MY widow maker is laying between the two trees, I figure it was about 50' high, it is now 50' long. This tree was a pretty healthy Locust about 9" diameter.
I'm thinking that I would have been pretty badly hurt had I slept there that night. & like I said, this was a healthy tree as far as I could see.
So, what are your experiences, near misses, etc?
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