We ran many roads from the same spot, started out with the longest road that pretty much cornered out in somewhat of a bowl. This is coming in the truck road with the cutback on the left. It could've been way easier & we could've had much narrower roads, but we didn't. Anyhow the face off of the landing was right steep down into that bowl. Probably well over 100' of deflection. So we pulled out wide as we could. I don't remember how many roads came up that same spot but we did wear a good skid trail up towards the landing. Same skid trail we used to get in & out, steep enough for hand usage for a hundred or so feet. The next parking spot was on down the road. The mountain leveled out a good bit there. It was also where the uneaten chestnut oak & poplar was which was a prescribed cut. We ended up taking the skiddede down to the bottom & staging what we didn't want to pull the GD skyline out to.
Had there been some talent in charge, we really could've made things look pretty, easy. I mean, the alternative was 3 skid trails across the hill at the least. Like you said, narrow roads can make a big difference. Had we had more than 2 of the 5 drums in operation, & some rigging, things would've been a lot of fun. I was green to cable logging, but surely understood the principles. Only time I've ever felt a heat stroke is from pulling that skyline inches at a time... I was real proud to work hard back then.. Guy that owned it who my boss worked for off & on sold it after that I think.. But IMO, there are plenty of ridges & draws & slopes long enough that someone could get plenty of use out of such a machine out east. I thinknthey're all just scared of no more rainy days off....
You watch the madill promotional video & then see how they were tiptoeing the thing around & it's clear that nobody who was allowed to run it, knew how to. The owner had his old time help running things until my boss took over. Old Bud SWORE that the logs needed to stay on the ground. Jerry got in there & tightened the skyline up & started shotgunning the carriage down at a productive speed & giving it some throttle on the return trip, logs in the air. I was still a little shy of taking control of situations that I could fix, so I just went with the flow of "gotta do it this way" instead of asking WHY?