Christmas Tree Cutting with CLC

[subzali]

I missed this last year, but I wanted to get people thinking about it! There are two weekend, the 6/7 of Dec. and the 14/15 of Dec. Post up if you're interested and I would like to try to get a group together to hook up with them and go down there! It sounds like a blast!

 

[Man Jerk]

Hopefully we get some snow this year

 

[PhatFJ]

The weekend of the 6th./7th. would work great for my wife and I, Love to go!!!

PhatFJ

 

[RockRunner]

Where are they going again? I thought it was SW of C springs. LMK we may do it.

 

[MDH33]

Do we need to procure permits to cut a tree if we go with their group?

 

[subzali]

The event is to team up with the Forest Service to patrol the Christmas Tree Cutting areas for a day - they give you magnetic signs for your truck and radios - you help people who get stuck in the snow and help make sure people are cutting down the right trees. I'd have to let the other guys talk about some of the other details...

here is their thread...

I would post up over there to let them know you're coming and for more details

And yes it's West of the Springs, up by Divide/Woodland Park.

 

[Man Jerk]

All of this happens off of rampart range road, just outside of woodland park.

You will have to purchase a permit if you want a tree. I think they are $10-$15 bucks.

 

[Man Jerk]

We are going to need peoples names and the dates they are planning on being there. We have to give the Forest service a list of names and dates.

 

[isotel]

Pray for some snow. Just let us know if you plan on going and when, its not a commitment or anything, it sounded like we have a good group from our club on every day but Sunday the 15th.. if you end up needing to change dates its no big deal.. this can be a fun event, if we don't have any rigs to extract, we can still play on the forest service roads, or just enjoy the outdoors with some cruiser heads!

Trevor

 

[JadeRunner]

I will be up there this Sunday the 7th with my family and several friends and family's from the Springs. We will be doing a cookout and such with the kids. So with with all that going on I probably won't officially hook up with CLC. I will monitor the radio for fun though.

Hopefully there will be some snow this year. Last year there were just dusty roads. I didn't really see any legal side roads to 4wheel either.

 

[Nay]

We got a foot and a half just down the hill in Monument this weekend. I am not sure how the Ramparts did, but my guess is there is a lot of snow up there, especially on the northeastern end of the cutting area.

I will also be up there for a family day to cut down our trees, this should be a fun year . I'd go this weekend if you really want to have fun with the snow aspect.

 

[JadeRunner]

Excellent. It should be fun then. Are you going sat. or Sunday?

This weekend will be perfect for a Yankee Hill snow run also.

 

[Man Jerk]

I will be there on Sunday. I'll be in this

 

[Nay]

Excellent. It should be fun then. Are you going sat. or Sunday?

This weekend will be perfect for a Yankee Hill snow run also.

I am thinking Saturday. The best trees (and some wheeling that if the snow is deep would only be suitable for a capable group) are down the valley on FS351 as you head out to FS348 and the Rainbow Falls entrance.

This gets very little tree cutting traffic and is a lot of fun , but again in any deeper snow would be a fairly serious commitment to head in by yourself. They say this requires chains, but nobody questions a built rig on MT's, even fools who take their entire family by themselves like me

I've never tried FS327, that one also looks like fun.

So there are really two possible activities here: one is the support of the FS as a "rescue" team, the other is a group family cutting run. Scott, do you want to try to meet up? I don't know my schedule yet, but if the snow is what it could be, this could be a really fun group day for families with built rigs hunting for the perfect tree. Not trying to crash your party , just throwing it out there since it sounds like a bunch of us may be up there.

 

[Man Jerk]

The area marked "this area added in 2007" has some fun trails.

Edit:

Look for 300U and 300V

 

[Nay]

Cool, hadn't even looked at it based on no FS roads shown on the map. Another place that with snow especially will have no Subaru or highway biased SUV traffic.

will still be much happier in a group

 

[JadeRunner]

I went in from rainbow falls last year. It seemed like a tame dirt road to me. I suppose there were some slight of camber sections that could be tricky if icy. Let me know how it went Sat. pm please.

The road Mark talks about looks fun.

 

[Nay]

I went in from rainbow falls last year. It seemed like a tame dirt road to me. I suppose there were some slight of camber sections that could be tricky if icy. Let me know how it went Sat. pm please.

The road Mark talks about looks fun.

It's a tame dirt road to us wheelers, but you are right that there are some narrow exposure points if you had a lot of snow that would be iffy to run alone. I've done it with some ice and snow a number of times, but would be hesitant to go in alone with enough snow to consider it snow wheeling vs. driving on a snowy FS road (>12-15").

I point this out purely to be conservative in making recommendations, as it is a fun area with good trees, but with kids could make it unfun in a hurry if it starts looking risky

I did google the snow amounts in that area and only found reports of about 4-5 inches from last weekend. It appears the heavy totals really were localized on the higher elevations of the Palmer Divide and not in Teller County.

It's supposed to snow a few inches by tomorrow evening up there, maybe 3-4", so on top of last weekend there will definitely be snow, but doesn't sound like you could get into any "drift busting" issues even if you wander as far out as possible.

That new area looks like fun. I'll report back if we end up heading up there on Saturday. Breaking some new ground without getting remote is something will usually buy into when we go out alone, and we know that if a Sube can get there you simply cannot find a suitable tree

 

[PhatFJ]

Here is a copy of the Pikes Peak Ranger District Permit info...
Permit Sales: The Pikes Peak Ranger District will be offering Christmas tree permits from December 1, through December 17 at the District Office from 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Monday through Friday. Permits will be available on site at the Woodland Park Middle School parking lot on Dec. 6 and 7, as well as Dec. 13, and 14 from 8:00 am to 2:30 pm. No mail orders will be accepted.

So it looks like we have to go into Woodland Park to get the permit, do we want to meet in Woodland Park??
Should be a GREAT day!!!

 

[Nay]

It was just like last year, except kind of muddy unless you are in the shade on the North end of the area. Warm enough today to really be melting what snow is up there.

The "non chains required" roads were plowed, although still snowy in the shady areas. We went up FS323 to 324 and got two awesome trees at about the bottom of the one-way area on 323. This was snowy enough to be fun tramping around the forest. We came back down Mt. Herman Road into Monument, which was mostly packed/icy snow until near the bottom.

For a tiny bit of wheeling adventure, i.e., unplowed snow (and still the best trees I tell you), coming in Rainbow Falls or down F351 from Rampart Range if you come in via Mt. Herman or Woodland Park will be best.

Great family day, lots of seat of the pants sledding (intended) for the under 10 crowd, and some seat of the pants sledding (unintended) for the over 30 crowd

Edit: the one way area is at the bottom of FS323