Yes, this was deciduous woods. The ground in that area was somewhat sloping. It wasn't a partucularly large tree, not a huge oak or anything, but it seemed about as mature as they get in that particular stand. It was not at the edge of a forest, being at least a dozen ranks back from the stream.<br><br>The more I think about it, the more I realize how silly my assumptions were. I had absently assumed that almost all of the thousands of fallen trees in the valleys fell during windstorms.. but many of those valleys are so sheltered I doubt if they ever get much wind. Obviously, just as many trees fall in the areas with little or no wind as in the areas with high wind.. they just may be dead longer before they do... and in the sheltered areas, it would naturally be less predictable.<br><br>It was very startling. My city-boy reaction was telling- my first assumption was that there had to be people over there that caused the tree to fall, somehow. I think it's because, in the woods, I just associate loud noises with people.<br><br>Something similar happened on a longish backpacking trip to a true wilderness area in the East. I had made it to the banks of a beautiful stream with steep, cut banks, it was the first sunny day after about 5 days of rain, and I set up a bivouac in the sun just back from the creek bank. When setting up for dinner, I heard this huge "KER-PLOOSH!". Again, my city-boy instincts, I froze and assumed that I had failed to hear people, kids... someone come very close (I hadn't seen anyone in at least 5 days), and they were throwing rocks into the creek. I actually crept around for some time trying to spot them before they spotted my camp, so as not to be taken totally off guard. Nothing.<br><br>An hour and several more "KER-PLOOSH"es later, I was introduced to the notion that, well away from people, even pretty small streams can have REALLY BIG trout in them... :-)<br>