Kenny’s Loggin’ – My Thirteenth Summer: Lessons In Logging

May 26, 2022 - 3 years ago

School was out for the summer and I wasn’t doing much, Mother had asked me to do a chore, which I wasn’t too interested in doing, so I told her to do it herself.

Kenny's Loggin - My Thirteenth Summer: Lessons In Logging

Next thing I know she’s standing there with a wooden spoon in her hand. “Don’t talk back to your Mother,” she said as she tried to spank me. I grabbed the spoon and threw it on the floor. She paused and then headed up stairs. I’m thinking this was a “wait until your father gets home” moment. It was pretty quiet at the supper table that night. Nothing was said, but the next morning at six, Dad said to me, “Get up, you’re coming with me.” Dad was foreman for Norie Bros. Logging at Elk Bay.

Went upstairs had some breakfast, Mother had a lunch made for me. We got in the work truck (Ford F-250), drove up the road a bit, and picked up the truck driver Gordie. Out to the highway by the Duncan Bay Store and headed north past the pulp mill. Farther up the highway past Menzies Bay we turned off at the Browns’ Bay Road. A couple of miles in, there was a road going up to the left. We stopped there to turn the hubs in on the four wheel drive. Up and down several hills about eight miles from the highway we arrived at Elk Bay where Nories had a camp.

On Saturdays, I’d been helping Dad pick up the parts and things, from the supply stores in Campbell River like the Ford dealer and C.R.E.S. (CRES was a general store for automotive and logging equipment.) He said, “Get in the back of the truck and hand those parts out.” Every Monday after that it was my job to put the parts away.
I was pretty excited about going to work with my Dad. I guess it was a summer school where I learned about what goes on in logging.

One day Dad said, “You go with Henry, he needs a hand.” Henry was the owner. Up the hill we went, stopped at the bottom of a hill. He got out and said, “Drive up to the top of the hill and pick the big rocks of the road that cut the logging truck tires.”

“I don’t know how to drive,” I said.

“It’s easy, get behind the wheel, push in the clutch, push the gas a bit, let the clutch out good bye,” Henry said. After that, I practiced my driving every chance I got.

I wasn’t getting paid, but I never even thought about getting paid this was too much fun, just like the team sports I’d been involved in. Some of the things I got assigned were fill up the truck with gas, put the parts away, pass wrenches to the mechanics, I also had to paint the fire equipment and check it whenever we were close to it. I learned many valuable lessons about good work ethics.

One day Dad and I were up in the woods, over the two-way radio we heard, “Number one.” My Dad answered, “Go ahead Harvey.”

My Thirteenth Summer: Lessons In Logging
“How do you read this radio,” he asked.

“Loud and clear,” said Dad.

“I’m upside down, just about at the beach,” called Harvey.

“Are you trapped?” asked Dad.

“No, just wanted to let you know. I’m getting out now.”

We were there in a few minutes. Harvey was standing there. Dad took some pictures, we got in the pickup and went about a quarter mile to the shop, got the D-8 cat went and uprighted the truck. It took about an hour to do that. The mechanics straightened the mirror, let it sit overnight, added some more oil in the morning and fired it up. Never missed a load.

My Thirteenth Summer: Lessons In Logging
I didn’t talk to my neighbour and some of my friends in the neighbourhood all summer. I found out that a couple of them had been out with their dad in the summer. Steve drove around with his Dad (Sammy) and Graham worked with his dad helping load logs out of Buttle Lake. Boy did we have a lot of notes to compare.

I hated going back to school!

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.