What Happened Here ?!

Campout experiences Part Two

Bro. Dave Tusler and I decided to take a short hike Saturday morning, while the scouts were busy collecting something I'll blog about in Part Four.  We saw a few interesting things, but the MOST interesting (and disturbing to be perfectly honest) was what is pictured below.  I've included an explanation at the end of this blog post in case you don't figure it out yourself from the pictures.

This tree once stood over 60 feet tall.
Can you guess how it was felled?

Here's a hint: Look in the bottom left corner for a clue.
Also, note the striated patterns through the tree.
This was NOT chopped down, nor hit by lightning.

What do these bullets have to do with the tree?

If you haven't already guessed it, this tree was felled by bullets.

Who was / were the shooter(s)?

As Dave so appropriately put it "Crazy hillbillies!"

It was disappointing to see such a huge (not to mention beautiful) tree "cut" down in the prime of its life because some punks wanted a bigger target than their beer bottles or chewing tobacco tins (both of which we found littered among the whole campsite and hiking trail areas).

I am very grateful that the Boy Scouts of America program teaches and stresses the principles of Leave No Trace camping.  The boys picked up tons of trash (it may have been enough to count as a service project) from the campsite, left from prior campers whose only purpose appeared to be drinking and shooting things.  To our credit, the campsite looked better after we left than when we got there.  Good job young men!

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