death
November 2008 
A tree falls in the forest, and almost on me
Posted on Aug 17th, 2008
by 
Scott
Scott
Yesterday, I went to do some light hiking with a few friends near Mt. Rainier. One of them used to have a cabin in this area, so she knew some cool spots to check out off the beaten path.
I'm from New Jersey, and the untouched forests in the parts of the country I'm familiar with are pine forests. They're not large trees, not very tall, but it sure does smell nice. and when I think of "the woods," that's what comes to mind.
So yesterday was my first experience with tall trees and mountain streams and the kind of thick stillness that Pacific Northwest forests are expected to have. We walked past groups of mountain cabins that I would love to have one of... give me a small one room, running water, electricity and an Internet connection and I could spend weeks there at a time. The winters up there must be absolutely incredible.
We went up one trail along a large stream coming down from the top of the mountain to a waterfall... absolutely beautiful. The waterfall sat in a crevass that, on a hot day, threw off cool air from the water and from the breeze coming down the mountain. As I stood in front of it, I could feel alternating currents of warm and cool air.
We walked back down, drove a little bit to another spot, and began walking up another trail along another stream to where we might have a picnic. As we walked, I just started feeling uncomfortable... I can't tell you why, but it just didn't feel lilke somewhere that I wanted to be. I had a strange sense of just wanting to go home. Of course, I'm with three friends, and we're all adults, so I just assume that I have a lot on my mind and I'm not going to say anything... I'll just try to relax and enjoy the food and the company.
Two of my friends walk ahead across a long log that I didn't feel like trying to cross, and two of us stay there. We start setting up blankets and taking out food, and we wait for the other two to return for a few minutes. I decide to take out a can of smoked almonds and a bottle of Gatorade to snack a little, and I'm about to sit on a fallen log, and then I decided that I'll sit maybe six feet up the log, a little closer to my friend so we can hear each other a little better over the sound of the stream next to us.
A few minutes later, as the other two rejoin us, I start to hear the sound of something falling through the trees. In a forest like this, sometimes branches pop off, and at first it sounds like that, something light. One second later, one of my friends screams, and I realize that something very large is falling behind me. I figure that, based on the much louder sound I'm now hearing, that I don't have time to get up, decide what's happening, and adjust to it, so I just sat there and figured I'd either die or not.
A 60 foot long section of tree landed about six feet from us, right on the spot that I almost decided to sit on a few minutes earlier. The tree was about two feet in diameter, and fortunately any branches it would have had on it were sheared off during its fall, so none of us got caught with any collateral damage.
So, yeah, we were a few feet from being killed by a very large falling tree. Later, one of my friends went up there and found that there was about 50 feet left of that tree still standing, so it split in the middle, on a day with not much wind, and just fell.
What blew my mind, however, is that my friends didn't take this as a hint that we should maybe not be sitting there, so we shook off the blankets, and proceeded to have a picnic, with the fallen tree sitting right next to us. I feel weird again right now just writing about it. If I had the feeling earlier that I didn't quite want to be there... I sure as hell didn't want to be there anymore.
So we sat for a little over an hour, and finally, finally, got the hell out of there. It took me hours to feel better.
Some of you know that I was among the people who was at The Station nightclub fire in Rhode Island where 100 people died... my friend and I walked out completely unhurt. After that, I was pretty freaked out for a few days. This time, it's not quite like that, but, you know, it's not every day that a tree falls on the spot I almost sat on a few minutes earlier. It's just weird.
I don't have any big life lessons off of it that you're not all aware of already. But it was a very strange day, and I'm glad to be alive and unhurt today.
I'm from New Jersey, and the untouched forests in the parts of the country I'm familiar with are pine forests. They're not large trees, not very tall, but it sure does smell nice. and when I think of "the woods," that's what comes to mind.
So yesterday was my first experience with tall trees and mountain streams and the kind of thick stillness that Pacific Northwest forests are expected to have. We walked past groups of mountain cabins that I would love to have one of... give me a small one room, running water, electricity and an Internet connection and I could spend weeks there at a time. The winters up there must be absolutely incredible.
We went up one trail along a large stream coming down from the top of the mountain to a waterfall... absolutely beautiful. The waterfall sat in a crevass that, on a hot day, threw off cool air from the water and from the breeze coming down the mountain. As I stood in front of it, I could feel alternating currents of warm and cool air.
We walked back down, drove a little bit to another spot, and began walking up another trail along another stream to where we might have a picnic. As we walked, I just started feeling uncomfortable... I can't tell you why, but it just didn't feel lilke somewhere that I wanted to be. I had a strange sense of just wanting to go home. Of course, I'm with three friends, and we're all adults, so I just assume that I have a lot on my mind and I'm not going to say anything... I'll just try to relax and enjoy the food and the company.
Two of my friends walk ahead across a long log that I didn't feel like trying to cross, and two of us stay there. We start setting up blankets and taking out food, and we wait for the other two to return for a few minutes. I decide to take out a can of smoked almonds and a bottle of Gatorade to snack a little, and I'm about to sit on a fallen log, and then I decided that I'll sit maybe six feet up the log, a little closer to my friend so we can hear each other a little better over the sound of the stream next to us.
A few minutes later, as the other two rejoin us, I start to hear the sound of something falling through the trees. In a forest like this, sometimes branches pop off, and at first it sounds like that, something light. One second later, one of my friends screams, and I realize that something very large is falling behind me. I figure that, based on the much louder sound I'm now hearing, that I don't have time to get up, decide what's happening, and adjust to it, so I just sat there and figured I'd either die or not.
A 60 foot long section of tree landed about six feet from us, right on the spot that I almost decided to sit on a few minutes earlier. The tree was about two feet in diameter, and fortunately any branches it would have had on it were sheared off during its fall, so none of us got caught with any collateral damage.
So, yeah, we were a few feet from being killed by a very large falling tree. Later, one of my friends went up there and found that there was about 50 feet left of that tree still standing, so it split in the middle, on a day with not much wind, and just fell.
What blew my mind, however, is that my friends didn't take this as a hint that we should maybe not be sitting there, so we shook off the blankets, and proceeded to have a picnic, with the fallen tree sitting right next to us. I feel weird again right now just writing about it. If I had the feeling earlier that I didn't quite want to be there... I sure as hell didn't want to be there anymore.
So we sat for a little over an hour, and finally, finally, got the hell out of there. It took me hours to feel better.
Some of you know that I was among the people who was at The Station nightclub fire in Rhode Island where 100 people died... my friend and I walked out completely unhurt. After that, I was pretty freaked out for a few days. This time, it's not quite like that, but, you know, it's not every day that a tree falls on the spot I almost sat on a few minutes earlier. It's just weird.
I don't have any big life lessons off of it that you're not all aware of already. But it was a very strange day, and I'm glad to be alive and unhurt today.
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