Another awesome trip report Peek!  I love the abundance of photo's you share.  Man that must have been scary hearing that tree snap and fall eh?  Had something similar happen to us last fall on Basin Lake...super windy night and several trees crashing down in the bush around us all throughout the night.  Totally terrifying eh?  Glad you made it out ok.  That's actually a trip I thought of doing last summer with my son but ended up going to Chibiabos instead.  Gonna have to get out to Moccasin/Bandit sometime soon...I even like the idea of Casey's lake for a few nights....

Once again, thanks for sharing!

Good stuff! I had a tree fall on a campsite on Merchant two summers ago. Not terribly close to my tent, but it could easily have killed my friend if it had fallen in a different direction.

But any tree falling you can walk away from is a good tree falling!

Nice trip report. Glad you weren't hurt. Of all the potential dangers of back country camping it's honestly wind that scares me the most. Luckily I've never had a tree fall on me (..or that close to me) but there have been times when I've pitched and set up my tent only to look up and notice it was in the path of a huge widow maker. Crap!

 

Last edited by RCSpartan (3/17/2021 9:08 am)

Back in 2006, we were camped on an island on Islet Lake. The big wind (tornado) that nailed Combermere's trailerpark that year, started over us. It was ripping wind, pounding rain and dark as night.

Fortunately we had set-up our tents downwind of the mid-island rise. At one point, we heard what sounded like a plane restart its engine directly right over us, followed later by cracking branches. The storm carried on through the night.

The next morning we found a small live tree down right across our canoe. Thankfully it wasn't a large tree and had come down on the canoe's re-enforced bow, and had probably been slowed-down by its own branches.

But the experience brought to mind the image of having to cut-up the downed tree to make a raft to ferry over to the hiking trail. And, one of the larger trees could have just as easily come down on one of our tents!

Scary stuff Peek!

I was on Maple during the 2018 Ottawa tornado's.  We left Biggar lake around 9am and although the wind was strong, it was a sunny, warm day and we thought nothing of it.  By the time we got into Rat Trap we were cruising through 2 foot swells and starting to realize something wasn't right.  We b-lined it across maple to the closest site on an island (should have just hung it up on Rat Trap) and got there just in time.  Canoes were tossed through the air, trees coming down between our tents, water spouts coming across the lake flinging rocks and gravel into the site.  The wind picked up as the evening went on and I've never been more paranoid to sleep in a tent.  Woke up the next morning to a cool and calm autumn day.  We didn't know Ottawa had been hit by two tornado's until 3 days later when we were back in South River. 

"Beware", said the trees. There are no "accidents".  The killings will continue until the logging stops.

Hiking on a trail one time on a day that was windy enough I knew better than to hike but did it anyway. When I heard a little "tick" sound right over my head and well off the ground.  I took off. Never heard that sound before but knew exactly what it was. 

Dead branch hit the ground where I had been.  It wasn't big. Not even as wide as my wrist but it came from a pretty good height and fell cleanly.  It woulda de Ted my head for sure.