How many miles/day?

[BuckSmasher]

I wanna say like 11 hours. Things were going so well the first bit than we pulled saddles off around noon and had a sit down lunch. And the last stretch was so time consuming that we ended up building electric fences and setting up tents in the dark

On our deeper wilderness rides we are struggling to get more than 10-14 miles/day with all the logs we saw. The little 4 or 5 inchers aren't bad but if we run into even one big two foot thick log its a major ordeal and huge time sink.

 

[wyosteve]

When packing camp, we'd do 25 miles max in order to have time to unload/set up camp etc. Otherwise 25-30 miles was about tops.

 

[BuckSmasher]

When packing camp, we'd do 25 miles max in order to have time to unload/set up camp etc. Otherwise 25-30 miles was about tops.

How long is that taking you?

 

[wyosteve]

About 8 hrs.

 

[khart_6882]

On our deeper wilderness rides we are struggling to get more than 10-14 miles/day with all the logs we saw. The little 4 or 5 inchers aren't bad but if we run into even one big two foot thick log its a major ordeal and huge time sink.

Yeah it’s pretty lame but part of it I reckon. I usually only pack a 24” saw so a big bull pine across the trail on a steep hillside is a lot of work and time.

 

[Pony Soldier]

I hate tto shift this to a saw thread but.. I we are in lodgepole stands that I have cut out that year, I carry a little 12" dewalt. On trails we haven't cut out yet I usually have a pack horse with a small gas saw (stihl 170) on one side and a 311 on the other side. In bigger fir stands I need the bigger saw to get through it. I've got bigger production saws for areas with big trees. I have had some sections that the blowdown was so intense that with three of us working (two cutting and one pitching) it took three days for us to get through 2 miles of trail. Patient horses that just stand and wait are important to get though it.

 

[khart_6882]

I hate tto shift this to a saw thread but.. I we are in lodgepole stands that I have cut out that year, I carry a little 12" dewalt. On trails we haven't cut out yet I usually have a pack horse with a small gas saw (stihl 170) on one side and a 311 on the other side. In bigger fir stands I need the bigger saw to get through it. I've got bigger production saws for areas with big trees. I have had some sections that the blowdown was so intense that with three of us working (two cutting and one pitching) it took three days for us to get through 2 miles of trail. Patient horses that just stand and wait are important to get though it.

I’m with ya there, the battery dewalt saws are super slick for cutting out trail. I hunted the Frank last fall tho and didn’t want to get kicked out of there for using a chainsaw. Not that we saw anyone, but still.

 

[Tobe_B]

I spend the vast majority of my time riding in the wilderness. No battery or gas saws allowed. We get way slower in the spring on those first runs up the mountain.

 

[BuckSmasher]

I’m with ya there, the battery dewalt saws are super slick for cutting out trail. I hunted the Frank last fall tho and didn’t want to get kicked out of there for using a chainsaw. Not that we saw anyone, but still.

The forest supervisors can allow exemptions for power saws due to extreme circumstances. If the lack of trail maintenance and windstorms we have had this winter don't qualify I don't know what would. I guess I need to do some research and see who to contact. Do you know?

 

[khart_6882]

The forest supervisors can allow exemptions for power saws due to extreme circumstances. If the lack of trail maintenance and windstorms we have had this winter don't qualify I don't know what would. I guess I need to do some research and see who to contact. Do you know?

I honestly don’t know man, I’ve never heard of that. I’d bet if you called the nearest forest service office to where you’re going and asked some questions then they could at least get you in touch with the person who can get you definitive answers.
I know last year in the Frank at least, the trail cutting crews were basically skeleton crews due to hiring freezes from DOGE, so it was pretty much all up to the public.

 

[Pony Soldier]

I grew up along the Idaho-Montana border where the CCCs have put in trails on the ridges and the creeks. I worked on trail crews with the FS through college. I watched them replaced them wiith helispots and then abandon everything with the 'let it burn' policy. For.many years the locals maintainned the trails they used.

Of course this is not in wilderness areas. The last time I contacted the FS I was told the trail systems had been abandoned.

Most of the routs I cut out now are old horse logging roads and mine rds from the 1920s-1930s and elk trails. I even have one that was a pack trail for moving booze during the revenuer years.

 

[BuckSmasher]

Forest Service denies pleas to chainsaw logjams in Pasayten Wilderness

Backlogs of maintenance and routes littered with massive numbers of toppled trees have dramatically decreased trails available for exploring the Pasayten Wilderness in Washington.

www.spokesman.com

The winguts and nutjobs aren't getting out and clearing the trails, suing the Forest Service when it tries to let the public, and everyone knows crosscuts aren't going to cut it, pun intended.