They come crashing down!

Ever been in the woods when a large limb or tree comes crashing down close to you?
Happened today on Hancock Notch Trail. Large limb (maybe about 8" x 20 feet, was 25' above me, cracked and as it plummeted, and brought down other limbs nearby with a helluva a lot of noise.

It was a little startling, since I first heard the noise, but saw nothing. Recognizing the sound, I knew I needed to get out of the way of something, but before I could react it plummeted to the ground about 10 feet from me. I've heard trees crashing now and then, but never anything that close to me.

Now there's one reason not to hike alone, I suppose. Then again, what's the probability of having something crash down on me? Pretty small I suppose. OTOH, My encounter with a bear and her cubs (a few years back) was vastly more exciting!

I got hit once by a limb that fell down from the canopy. It was a clear calm day. Luckily I had a backpack on and the limb hit above my shoulder and wasn't a direct hit on my head. I got thrown to the side by the impact. The backpack suspension spread the impact onto my hips but I was still a bit dazed for a few minutes. I also have had several white birches decide to shed rotten branches from their crown as I walked by. I find that mature white birches tend to die and rot standing and will shed branches year round.

It's hard to react fast enough to avoid those. You have to be listening all the time, especially on windy days, and be ready to look up right away when you hear the first cracking sound, and then spring in the right direction. It'd be great to be a cat instead of a human when this happens!

A few years ago we were walking the trail on a calm day on little Baxter Mountain here in the Adirondacks with friends and their two small children (about ages 4 and 7). Right in front of us, not 50 feet ahead, a large (7" X 25') dead tree trunk fell over, and landed right on the trail lengthwise. I have always been glad we did not get to that spot five seconds earlier.

Its a risk but compared to driving to and from the trailhead or back and forth from northern NH to Mass for work on occasion I expect the risk is minimal

This happened to me for the first time this summer, below "Monkey Cliffs" near Kinsman Notch. It was a sustained very loud crashing that sounded like a landslide or one tree taking down several others. It wasn't close enough to scare me...but was an experience nevertheless. I though about going in the direction of the noise to see the damage, but I was too occupied with another agenda.

I had 2 trees 'almost' hit me a while back on the same hike, and they were the only 2 of 1400+ peaks!

Doing Cascade in the Winter, a tree fell off in the woods, maybe 100 feet away.

Porter, maybe an hour later, a tree fell just after I passed it. A few minutes later, on the way back, it blocked the trail. The winds were strong that day!