Kenny's Loggin' – Quitting School – Part 2

Nov 17, 2022 - 2 years ago

My fellow loggers were an interesting bunch. Lurch was the name of the spar operator — he was related to the McClarty’s of wrestling fame at the PNE Forum.

The other guys were Phil, the hook-tender (boss); Pookie, the rigging slinger; me (the choker man), Chris, who operated the TL15; Chuck drove #9, and Doug was the dump man. The settings were on the northwest side of Sonora Island and we could look right into Chameleon Harbour. Often there were sailboats in this harbour that had to wait until high tide to get out.

Bill and his wife had one of the houses at camp. Mabel the cook and Fred the bullcook stayed in the back of the cookhouse, and the rest of us were in the bunkhouse. In the wash house the next morning, Phil was trying to rinse out his thermos, the water was spraying out sideways from the tap, and finally a “slug” popped out and landed in the sink. The water system was just a 2 inch plastic pipe shoved into the creek, we got Bill to put a screen on it after that.

Since it rained just about every day in June that year, we had to put our boots and rain gear on in the bunkhouse.
After supper we would usually play poker for quarters. Pookie was not that good at cards and asked to borrow my trout rod with 8 lb. test, down to the wharf were he caught a 22 lb. salmon. The whole camp got salmon steaks, and even salmon sandwiches!

One night, Pookie and I went and picked huckleberries. We took a 2 gallon bucket and a blanket. The huge bushes were as big as one’s wrist, we just bent the bush over and shook it on the blanket. We grabbed the blanket on the 4 corners, lifted it and poured the berries into the bucket. Didn’t take too long to fill the bucket as the berries were as big as marbles. Mabel even made us a few pies.

Chris had his speed boat in camp. After supper, we would cruise around the area checking out the old camps, one was on West Thurlow Island which still had some old equipment scattered about. Another time, we went to the south of Sonora Island. We walked about half a mile up an old skid road to a small lake just loaded with trout. We didn’t stay too long here as the mosquitoes were so thick you could hardly see.

One night, Mabel packed us a picnic supper and we went up to Philips Arm, where Lurch caught a 17 in. cutthroat trout. After that, we visited Eric Fletcher who homesteaded there. He told us about how they logged up in Philips Lake. They would drag a line up to the trees on the side hill, and just pull them over into the lake, then buck the roots off and then down the river to the booming grounds. One fall after a lot of heavy rain, the dam of roots and branches gave way flooding the river just as the steelhead run was coming up river.

Pookie and I would walk out to the point where the seiners were tying their nets to the shore, fishing for salmon. I knew one of these guys from school, we had a great chat.

Ken Wilson worked in the logging industry in B.C. for over 50 years. Ken is a regular contributor to Supply Post newspaper with his column “Kenny’s Loggin’”, and resides on Vancouver Island, B.C.