I went up onto Forest Service land in the Gifford Pinchot National Forest. This is an area that burned in 1918. I have been stumping around these woods since 1974 and things have changed a lot since then. The trees that came in after the big fire are a lot bigger and the old growth snags that were left after the fire are disappearing as they break down.
This snag is about 80 feet tall and is one of the few snags that is over 30 feet in height now. 40 years ago, there were lots of snags that were 60 to 100 feet high. They are slowly falling down and returning to the earth. The burned wood on this snag is an indication of the intensity of the heat during the fire. The thick bark of the live tree would normally protect the underlying wood unless the fire was hot enough to burn through the bark and get down to the cambium layer. If that was the case, I wouldn't have wanted to be standing here during the fire!!
Closer to the roads, there are signs of the work that the Civilian Conservation Corp (CCC) did after the fire. The CCC was a depression era government program that paid men to work in the woods on public works projects. The projects served to get men back to work and did something for the public good. In this case, falling the snags reduced the fire danger by removing snags that would reignite when struck by lightning. Not too far from this location in the 70's, the timber crew I was on found an old CCC camp in the woods. Those guys were camped out in remote areas. Their supplies were delivered by mule. In 1974, I met the mule skinner who worked during that time. Boy did he have stories to tell!
You can see the springboard holes in these fir stumps. Lumberjacks chopped these holes into the base of the tree to insert a springboard upon which they stood while using a hand saw to cut the tree off. There were two men per saw, so there is usually a hole on each side of the stump. These holes were once commonly seen, but most of the outer parts of the old fir stumps have rotted away and the springboard holes are lost to time.
There isn't much left of the springboard hole in this stump. This log is breaking down as time goes on This one is up off the ground and is preserved better than most of the others in the area. These are some of the flora on the forest floor in the northwest. There are mosses, lichens and Oregon grape in this photo.
Oh yeah that's an 1894 Winchester nestled in between the vegetation!
I drove up into the high country to see what I could see and was treated to some fine views of Mt. Adams, Mt. Rainier, and Mt. Hood which is in Oregon. I was within 10 miles of Mt. St. Helens, but it was behind the mountain I was on.Mt. Adams Mt. Hood Mt Rainier peaking out of the clouds
