The Last Woodsmen (2024) s01e05 Episode Script
Stranded
1
Welcome to hell, boys.
This is it.
Last week,
Jared finally gained
a vital foothold on the banks
of Grizzly River
Going in the hole.
Another 600,000 to get this camp started.
as fallers played
a deadly game of dominoes
It's going. Get back.
It's going.
to bring down
the operation's
first load of money trees.
Stand back.
At Float Camp,
crews fought to keep a goose
from gutting production.
We're down. What do we do?
We're not allowed to dump
in fear of disturbing
the goose.
I might be having
a panic attack here soon.
But in the end,
they fell short of filling
the log barge.
Still got empty deck space.
by more than $100,000.
That goose.
Now,
Jared's pushing even deeper
into the wild
with one goal in mind
We're looking
for this high-value cedar.
They're few
and far between through here,
though, aren't they?
to turn
uncharted timber
into cold, hard cash.
It's going.
We've got to come up with something.
We've got to come up
with something quick
or I gotta turn it off.
or lose the business
he built from scratch.
I need to get wood
down this road,
into that log dump
and down that river.
- Man, that goose really
- -Yeah.
screwed me over big time.
After taking
a huge loss last week,
all Jared Douglas can do
is keep pushing forward
and stay one step ahead
of his float camp crew
by tracking down their
next stand of money trees.
You know,
you're kind of expecting
that money to come in,
and it's just not coming in,
all over one goose.
Yeah, the goose put a dampener
on things all right.
Having come up
short on his second log
barge in a row,
Jared's window to pay down
his $1.7 million debt
is closing.
And if the next barge
isn't filled with big timber,
they'll be too far behind
to ever catch up
with the payments
or keep his company.
The barge
is in two weeks.
-It's got to be full, Ross.
-Yep.
I have lots of debt.
Like, I have
Up to my ears in debt.
It's stressful. It's tough.
But I came from nothing.
I want my kids to have things
I didn't have.
So there's no giving up.
-So this is where
the next spot is.
-Yes.
This old derelict dock.
- Looks like some nice timber from the beach.
- -Yeah, it does.
A little steep.
For now,
the area Jared's scouting
is only accessible by boat,
but with just a week
or so of blasting,
he could tap into his
established road system
leading back to float camp.
But only if the trees here
are worth the trouble.
Looks like you got some cedar
and some fir
from here already.
I wonder how much
is actually in here.
We're looking
for this high-value cedar.
It's the gold of the forest.
And people pay
a lot of money for it.
But getting to these trees
is difficult.
They're getting hard to find,
so we are in the most
remote places.
I don't like this tree.
Yeah, that's not
a good tree at all.
- This is a bad tree for fallers to deal with.
- -Yeah.
You see the split
going way up,
hard to put an undercut in
when there's nothing
holding on the back end.
That's a dangerous tree.
It's lots of value.
Just, uh, we can't have anyone
get hurt trying to fall
something like this.
Let's keep going.
It's steep, it's ugly.
We're sweating.
It's not easy,
and you've got to think
men are packing power saws
and, uh, blocks up here.
We're packing a can of paint
and we're winded.
That's the bear done.
Hopefully, Yogi's not in here.
-Anyone home?
-Is he in there?
I don't know.
We don't normally harvest
anywhere near bear den.
Hopefully, there's not
a bear up there
that's going to slow us down
any more.
Just go in there
and check out.
Ooh.
Always hard to run from a bear
when you're winded.
Like goose nests,
active bear dens
are protected.
So before any logging
can happen here,
they'll have to confirm
this one is abandoned.
No bears.
Well, he must have kept
nice and warm in here.
Yeah. You want the snow.
Did you see any hair
or anything?
No, just rotten
cedar pieces.
With no signs
of bear activity,
Jared and Ross are all clear
to keep scouting
for valuable cedars.
They're few
and far between through here,
though, aren't they?
Looks like there's one
in down there, though.
A big money tree right there.
Oh, yeah. That's a money tree
right there, baby.
It's a beautiful tree.
It's nice and straight.
Big, looks sound.
No real defect in it.
And I'm thinking this tree
is going to be upwards
of $40,000 to $60,000.
Drag us out from financial
ruins of the goose.
Money tree.
That looks like a money tree
right there.
Probably the best one
I've seen so far.
Round, sound.
Money tree.
Tree wise, there's lots
of nice big, red cedar here.
That's my favorite.
That's the cheddar.
there's some pretty
nice timber in here.
Giants.
Beautiful trees.
When we tally this up
at the end of the day,
there's gonna be quite
a bit of value here.
It's not easy logging,
but the money is here.
If this expansion
that I'm doing right now
works out,
I'll be able to provide
for my family,
and my guys will be making
good money.
So seeing
people's families thrive,
not only my own.
Have our work cut out for us.
Over a hundred
miles away at Grizzly River
the heat is on
Foreman Dave Lornie.
Pretty exciting.
We're about to load
our first load.
At Grizzly River here,
the big, majestic cedar
that we've been working on.
He's running
Jared's newest operation,
where a $600,000 gamble
is on the line.
It's up to Dave
to make it pay off.
Jared's gonna be
a pretty happy boy.
He's pretty stressed
right now,
and he's gonna really like
seeing this volume
hit the water.
You know, away we go.
Hand fallers
have been methodically
chasing high-grade cedar here,
and with nearly
a million dollars' worth
of wood on the ground,
Jared needs it sent off
to market fast.
What we've got
here is some really big cedar.
It's actually really hard
to handle.
But, uh, I'm a stubborn,
difficult old logger,
so we'll get a nice big load,
put on and head to the beach.
Put her in the water.
Once in the water,
the logs will still have
to journey 15 miles downriver
so they can be towed
off to market.
But to do that, Dave needs
a boom boat operator
willing to take on the endless
obstacles of Grizzly River.
And so far
he's not having any luck.
Getting a booming
contractor lined up
has been the most difficult
part of my job.
Because people have died.
People have retired.
People just don't want
to come to Grizzly River
'cause it's really crazy.
So, I've never felt
more stress.
It's like dragon fire
coming down the back
of your neck
because we don't have
a boom man.
But we have to keep
production going
and just move
forward positively.
And we don't want to lose
any of these logs.
They're worth way
too much money.
Right now,
I'm responsible for this load
and doing it properly.
That's a wrap.
We're gonna put
his wrappers over
and then we're gonna
head to the beach.
A good looking load.
It's really nice to have
piles of inventory.
But at the end of the day,
Jared's been paying
camp costs.
He's feeling
the financial pain.
Without being able to put
the bundles in the river
and actually boom to get paid,
this whole job,
it could bankrupt
the company
if we don't find
a boom man.
Here, I can carry that
the rest of the way.
Getting old sucks.
Some nice ones back there.
In the woods
above Grizzly Camp,
production power's ahead.
Oh, we'll see what it takes.
When the time comes
to start sending logs
downriver,
Jared will need
to keep them coming.
So Jim Gardner and Rob Winger
are on the hunt
for the biggest,
most valuable red cedars
they can find.
Right now,
we're dealing with
a 10-foot red cedar
Oh, yowsers.
-There's not much to her.
-See right through it.
With a tree this rotten
on the inside,
that leaves just a collar
on the outside,
just a small shell.
Each cut's gonna make
this thing do something
very quickly.
I'd say
there's a high likelihood
of this just going over
before it's ready to.
Not much to it at all.
But you don't necessarily
get this every day,
this rotten and this big,
and still get this much
usable wood out of it.
Usually when they
get to this stage,
they just fall over
on their own.
But hopefully,
if we can place it
and control it enough,
we can salvage at least 50-60,
maybe even 70% of this.
-What do you think?
-I think this is going
to be difficult.
You don't have much
of an undercut to get into it.
Word of thought when you
have to hit the undercut out,
I would bore the high side
before you started
the back cut
just so it doesn't
chair on you.
Trees
with this much rot at the base
are notorious for splitting
straight up the middle,
creating what's called
a "barber chair."
When that happens,
the trunk can kick back
with deadly force
and hit a faller head on.
It could pivot 5,
10 to 40 feet in any direction
around the back.
So you're you're scrambling
to get in the clear.
Son of a.
It's gotta be me.
Okay.
To try and stop
a barber chair
before it starts,
Jim will make
a shallow face cut.
Then he'll bore
into the cedar's trunk,
leaving pressure
from the inside.
Finally, he'll start
his back cut
and hope the tree holds
long enough to finish it.
If this tree falls over,
before we need it to,
we're gonna have to be ready
to get out at any moment.
At this point,
Jim is going to proceed
with putting an undercut in.
Jim and I work well together.
If you work side by side
for a while,
you get to know
little gestures.
You almost know
just by what they're doing,
what they're going to do next.
One bad decision could go over
sideways and flatten you.
I had a tree sit back
in the wind
wasn't even a very big tree.
It sat back so fast,
I couldn't even get a
wedge in there,
so I went to push it out
and the wind broke it
right off the stump.
It snaked down
through the timber.
And as I was escaping
on my escape trail,
it's like it had eyes.
It followed me
right up my escape trail
and it hit me in the side
of the head,
the shoulder,
and folded me in half.
I crushed my T10.
I didn't second guess
my career choice at all.
I just thought,
"Why didn't I see that?"
It's starting to pinch.
Tree's starting to come at us.
It's starting to sag this way.
And this thing's rotten,
anything can happen.
Something's not right here.
Back up. Back up!
Something's not right here.
Back up. Back up!
Look out!
Deadly.
In the hills above
Grizzly River,
Jim and Rob are battling
a $50,000 tree
with severe rot at the base.
One wrong move could easily
trigger a barber chair,
causing the cedar to kick back
like a mule
and destroy not only its value
but anyone in its way.
I think there's a little bit
right in behind this slab.
Oh, yeah, you can see
the bark right there.
One thing you're looking for
when you've got
the undercut out,
you're looking for the tree
to collapse.
The tree is starting to sag
in the intended direction,
but it's not really moving.
There's something
holding this thing up.
we can't really see what it is
or tell where it's at.
It's gonna start
to pinch, Jim.
It's too dangerous.
It didn't quite go over
as I thought it was going to.
Is it talking?
Yeah, kind of, yeah.
So there's something
holding this tree up still.
We can't go in there
and fully cut it out.
We're going to have
to go to our plan B.
Back at Float Camp
and having just found
a stand
of giant cedars nearby,
Foreman Ross is eager to bring
a logging crew out there.
But first, they need access.
Before we start anything,
you have to have
the road built,
and then you get
your fallers in
and then you get
your yarder in,
and then you get
your processing in.
Going up to see
Dave Gerard right now
and see how far along he is
with the road
so we can get a timeline
and when we can get some
fallers in.
The goal is asap.
If they hurry,
the timber could add
vital product
to the log barge
arriving in two weeks.
But there's still much
to be done before then.
-How you doing, Dave?
-I'm not bad, man, and you?
Going not so bad.
Just drilling away.
Slowly. But surely.
Yeah, just trying to do
this junction here.
-Just solid rock all the way.
-Oh, I'm sure.
To connect this road
to the new stand of trees,
the crew will have to cut
three quarters of a mile
deeper into the forest.
To that end, they're drilling
into solid rock,
packing it with explosives
and breaking it up
one blast at a time.
So we're looking to push
a little bit,
like get into here as quick
as we can.
Within a week,
I think you might be able
to swing that one.
- No way. Really?
- Yeah.
Try to do the best job
we can.
If we don't have road,
we can't log,
so it's essentially
everything to us.
We can't haul.
We can't do anything.
So without a road,
you got nothing.
And we'll have fallers up here
next week.
Hopefully be able
to get this completed
so those loggers
can get their yarders
and in here.
The pressure is on.
Yeah. Perfect.
That'll get to her.
Hey, after you're done
fueling up,
do you wanna see me
in the office?
Okay.
Back at float camp,
Jared has one goal in mind,
to lock down
a boom boat operator
who's not afraid to take on
the perilous waters
up at Grizzly River.
Dana has worked
on and off for me
as a booming contractor.
He is extremely good
at his job,
and I need him
out in Grizzly River.
He's the only one that I know
that can do this job.
It's called
the principal's office.
I've been putting
a lot of money
into the falling and the camp.
I'm all in
on the poker table here
and without putting that wood
in the water,
I don't get paid,
and if I don't get paid
I can't pay my people.
This is a terrible situation
I've put myself in.
We need a booming contractor
with a small tug
for Grizzly River.
And someone of your skills
is what we need.
Just not doing it.
You should come up there
with me in a helicopter
and look at the job.
Oh, that's
Yeah, I can look at it all I want,
but it's not gonna make me
want to do it.
I think you just need
to go look.
No, I'm just not into it.
I don't understand
why not?
Not for me.
I don't want it.
Stubborn.
All right.
Dana could make a ton of money
if he decided to pony up
and get out there.
But he's heard horror stories
from other boom contractors
that was up there, so
I think he's worried
about losing a boat,
sinking a boat,
and his life, obviously.
Just need a
boom man now.
I can't I can't believe
something's not
not arcing out
between his ears properly.
The problem now I have
is we're putting
all this money in.
There's no point right now
to keep making logs
if we don't have a solid plan
to get them down the river
to market.
We are just burning cash flow
right now
Absolutely lighting
dollar bills on fire.
Hey, John,
it's Jared Douglas calling.
I need a guy
with booming experience
in a river and a small tug.
-If you wanna work.
-It's fairly good pay.
You got any boom men
hanging around
that might want some work?
I'm gonna have
to go call everyone I know
and everybody
that everybody else has known,
uh, to get this job done.
You can't even wave money
at people's
They don't want to be here.
What kid playing a video game,
wants to actually go to work
and sweat their bag off
all day long?
And it's getting really,
really desperate times for me.
Uh, No takers yet there.
I've asked a few of my guys
and and whatnot.
We gotta come up
with something.
We gotta come up
with something quick
or I gotta turn it off.
We're in big trouble.
We're . I don't get it.
We've got logs piling up.
I need to get wood
into that log dump
- and down that river.
- Fire in the hole.
I have so many balls
in the air,
and I can't let
any of them drop.
I got most of the back cut.
The undercut is right close
to that very far corner
that we can see down there,
but we've got a bit of wood
holding in the middle.
At Grizzly River,
Jim and Rob
have been wrestling
with this half-rotten cedar
for hours,
trying to get it on the ground
without crushing them
or exploding into
a million worthless pieces.
That wants to go,
but this doesn't want to go.
'Cause this doesn't
want to lift,
but this is already
lifting hard.
I would cut
a little more right here.
Oh, wait.
You've already cut
from the inside.
Never mind.
Yeah, a little bit.
Cut this off and cut
a little more into here.
Or push it.
Push, push, push, push.
The cedar is not falling over.
There's still some
holding wood in there,
and it's too unsafe to cut
the rest of the holding wood.
The top priority is us
making it out of there safely.
So we're going to look for
another tree to push it over.
To bring this cedar
down safely,
they'll use another tree
to knock it over
from a distance.
But if the push tree
comes down
with too much force,
it could reduce
the giant to splinters,
costing the fallers
a day's work
and Jared almost $50,000
in lost product.
-All right, send it.
-There she goes.
Oh, yeah, baby.
Deadly.
I think
it's in a million pieces.
Well, it's a little more
shingle than we thought.
Lots of shingle, actually.
Looking at it, I probably
would have done
a few things different.
But there's a lot more rot
in the top than we thought
there was initially.
After all
their hard work,
the rot in this red cedar
was just too much
for Jim and Rob.
And what little wood remains
will put practically nothing
toward Jared's debt.
I don't think
it's worth bucking.
No, we did everything
we possibly could
because of the rot in it,
because of the size.
Because of the
the bananing effect
and the smashing
on the ground,
it did peel apart,
and it's just not going to be
the number one quality
that we expected it would be.
Tomorrow, it's your turn.
Back at camp
and still with no
boom boat operator
to shuttle logs
down Grizzly River,
Jared is running out of time
and money.
We got logs piling up.
I got all my trucks here,
sitting here waiting.
It's ridiculous.
I just need to get
a boom operator
in here.
Knocking on
the bankruptcy's door
if we don't get this done.
Just got out from the woods.
We got wood piled to the sky.
I know, buddy.
We need a boom man.
The problem with Dave is
it's hard to keep him
on track, focused.
We need to get this happening
and it's gotta happen now
or we're broke.
I've got a million things
to deal with right now,
and I really need
to lean on Dave
to make sure
that he finds a person
so we can start making money
here or we're in big trouble.
We need to fix this right now.
- I'll do whatever it takes to get it done.
- -Okay.
Jared is under
a lot of stress right now.
There's going to be
a little bit of
running downhill, I think,
'cause he wants to get
this wood to market.
There's not a lot
of booming contractors left,
and the smart ones
don't want to go up
Grizzly River.
They also cannot fail
or it could take down
the company.
I need to get wood
down this road,
into that log dump
and down that river.
I get the supervisors,
and then I let them
have their leash.
It's not a problem
till it is a problem.
and right now
it's a big problem.
I'm not going to tell my wife
we've got to sell our house
because we can't find
a boom man.
This is ridiculous.
The main line here.
Should be logging trucks coming back and forth.
With the
Grizzly River operation
still stuck in limbo,
Jared needs
his Float Camp crew
to start logging the new stand
of giant cedars he found.
Pretty hard rock,
surprisingly.
But to get those trees
on the next log barge
road builders Dave and Nick
must blast their way to them
by the end of the week.
Sweet.
We're ready to shoot.
A shot is a design blast
that it's like just
drilled holes
with a specific pattern
and a specific load
for your situation.
We'll basically pound the hole
and drop our loads in it.
-Pretty much.
-Pretty much what we do
for a living.
We use ANFO,
which is just ammonium nitrate
fuel oil.
And then these are dets,
and this here goes off
which sets this off,
which in turn sets this off.
Chain reaction.
Shooting. There's a lot
of things that can go wrong.
We're doing anywhere from 20
to sometimes 50 bags
in a shot.
So if you can fathom that,
that's how much destruction
that needs.
The powder we can do
is really dangerous stuff.
You want to respect it.
You wanna make sure you follow
the protocol and rules
when you're handling it
and just always be
really careful.
I'm trying to get
the best outcome
with the least amount
of violence, really.
Now we're ready to go.
Now, we just got to move
machines out and get everybody
to a safe area.
And then it'll go boom.
So me and Nick
are going down now
to our safe area
to shoot this shot,
and we want to get
a nice good view.
- Blasting block Q42.
- One shot.
-Ready.
-Yeah, man, you're good.
-You ready, buddy
Firing shot.
-Fire in the hole.
Blasting block Q42.
One shot.
-Ready, buddy.
Firing shot.
-Fire in the hole.
yeah, that turned out
mint, buddy.
- Three-quarter.
Yeah.
-That turned out amazing.
- yeah.
- Yeah, buddy.
That looks mint.
All exactly how I planned.
Now we just go get the hoe
and come in here
and muck it out
and continue on.
He's gonna clean up that shot.
It's called mucking it out.
So you basically
take the big rocks,
put them on the outside,
take your finds,
put them in the road,
make everything nice
and organized.
Dig around all the rock.
Get it pretty clean,
so we can come up there
and lay a pattern,
bring the rock drill in
and start pounding some holes.
Holy!
As they prep
for the next blast,
Dave and Nick hit a problem.
A pair of massive boulders
too big to move with the hoe
and a potential time suck
they don't need.
A couple of boulders
they're just too big
to handle for the digger.
It creates problems
for the next phase.
Really difficult stuff.
Back at Grizzly River
wood is hitting the water.
Another one in.
But Jared
still needs
a boom boat operator
to guide it down
15 miles of sandbars
and submerged obstacles
before it can go to market.
In the meantime, all he can do
is map out the course
and clear a path
for when they're ready
to make the run.
I'm just looking
for things that are gonna
hang up bundles.
I just want to make sure
that the coast is clear.
It's really sketchy
due to, uh,
the silt in the water.
You can't see
what's under at any time.
So you don't know
if you're gonna hit a sandbar.
You don't know
if you're gonna hit
a dead head.
Dead head's a piece of wood
that's just under the water,
enough that going along here
at full speed,
you hit one of these,
you can knock your leg off
and sink your boat.
Very dangerous.
I can see a dead head here.
This one's really bad.
You see how fast
the water is moving
and the current is actually
getting sucked into it.
So I'm gonna try
to buck it off
with a chainsaw
until we can get it, uh,
completely out of the way.
A little sketchy.
Hopefully, it doesn't
hook the boat
and take the boat
down the river too.
We're barely hooked up here.
The river runs wild.
The last guy
that's done this job
sunk one of his boom boats.
Log tow caught up to him
on the river,
took his boat under.
The guy scrambled
to the top of the logs,
just about lost his life.
And nobody will do it.
I'm actually getting
a little nervous.
I have all this invested.
I moved equipment up there
that would hit the ground.
Now we can't make
that would get to market,
because nobody will do
the booming in this river.
It's scary now.
Just hanging over
the side of a boat.
One hand hanging on
for dear life.
You don't know
what's going to happen,
if the branch
is gonna hook the legs,
shift the boat,
A lot of things
you can't see under the water.
Some nice ones
back there
In the nearby wilderness,
having spent all yesterday
on a rotten cedar
they couldn't save
We got to go up
and through there.
Jim and Rob
are looking
to make up lost ground.
But in an area
where every tree
is either damaged
or on the verge of collapse,
they're running low
on solid options.
Six, seven foot cedar.
Something's hit it
and knocked it.
Something big,
like probably 100 years ago.
And then there's a big seam
on this low side.
That could be from when
it got hit too, split it.
Sounds solid enough.
Whereas the other side's like
it's only a shell.
And I'm gonna have to
cut up as much of this
low side as I can.
That's why I want
to keep it low.
So that I'm not cutting
too much over my head here.
So there's gonna be
rot in there, too.
So I'm gonna have to watch
I don't get pinched
on that low side
Hopefully, it's got a leg
to stand on when
it swings over.
Like the tree
they lost yesterday,
this one is rotting hard
at the base.
But there could still be a way
to salvage the valuable
wood above.
Rob will make his undercut low
to prevent it from collapsing
too early.
Then they'll send it across
the side hill with a back cut
and hope it doesn't blow up
like the last one.
We'll tackle this thing.
-Commencing mayhem.
-Say a little prayer.
Almost pinched me.
It dropped.
It's a lot more rotten
than I thought it was.
So I'm just gonna
have to keep nibbling
and nibbling
and hopefully not get stuck.
I don't know what's
going to happen here.
When you're cutting
into a tree
and you get your
undercut out of it,
it's pretty much going
to dictate
how it's going to go over.
But because there was
so much rot in it,
it's really difficult
to control the lead,
and it's really hard
to control
the absolute direction
that this thing
is going to go.
Starting to
Starting to drop.
So I'm just
sitting here enjoying a little
bit of loggers paradise.
'cause you don't get it
every day,
and we've got it
just about every day
in Grizzly River here.
This particular pile
is all of the high-grade
red cedar.
Like, we're sitting
at a million dollars
of wood right here.
This is exactly why
we're in Grizzly River
right here.
This is what we live for.
This is our big gold nuggets
right here. Big Cedars.
We're gonna put it
on the trucks.
This is what it's all about.
Let's let's put some wood
on these trucks.
Jim just told me
over the radio he could see
the tree dropping.
I actually felt before I saw
the ground moving
under my feet.
So I'll just put a couple of
wedges in it and carry on
to my final cut.
High above Grizzly River,
Rob and Jim
are trying to salvage
a red cedar
worth almost $40,000.
But with so much rot
at its base,
it's not cooperating
with the cuts.
There we go.
Roots and all.
It's just rotting right
from the inside out.
Right where that scar
was all the way down it,
that whole section disappeared
with the tree down the hill.
so I didn't expect that.
But you've got to try
and expect everything.
It broke at about 45 feet.
Probably 50-60%
of it's salvageable.
With only half
of this tree intact,
it's a disappointing result
for Rob and Jim
and another costly setback
Jared can scarcely afford.
Okay.
I hope. I hope.
Back near Float Camp,
Dave and Nick
are racing to finish a road
to what should be a more
valuable stand of timber.
We just go ahead,
a bag of AMFO,
which is ammonium nitrate
fuel oil,
that we just put on top,
But only if they
can get a pair of massive
boulders out of their way.
Good thing Dave always keeps
extra explosives on hand.
When you put it on top
is to get like the concussion
and the force of it
blowing down
that cracks the boulder apart.
So you won't get as much
fly rock from it.
We've got this boulder,
and then we got this one here,
and when we come back,
it should be a lot smaller
boulders.
All we got left on this shot
is clear out the site
and let her rip.
Time's a huge factor
'cause the faster
we get it done,
the faster they can get
in here and log.
They definitely put
the pressure on us.
Blasting block Q42. One shot.
My favorite part of the day
would probably be when
we get to push the buttons
on the box.
-Whoo!
-Oh, geez.
I jumped.
Yeah, see,
that's pretty sweet.
I've done this for 15 years.
It still scares me
when those bangs go off
on surface.
-Actually shattered it. Yeah.
-Just eliminated it.
Holy, that turned
into just dust.
It'll be really nice and easy
for me to move
with the hoe now.
Nice job, Nick.
With the path
blasted for the road,
connecting the new stand
of cedars to Float Camp,
the hardest part is done.
Now, Dave and Nick just need
to clear away the rubble
so fallers can start
harvesting timber.
You got her, buddy.
Up at Grizzly Camp
Jared's done all he can
to clear the way for logs
headed downriver.
All he needs now
is a boom boat operator
to get them there
and get his $600,000 operation
to finally turn some profit.
Yep, we'll, uh
Yeah, well, Dave's here.
One second.
I'll call you back.
All right. Thanks.
- Guess what we got?
- We got a boom man.
It took me two weeks
and about 400 phone calls.
We got it, man.
- He'll be here Tuesday morning.
- -yeah, man.
That's awesome.
We just gotta figure
this river out.
Got to get some wood
down there safely.
-Thanks, Dave.
-I know what it's like.
- It's a big relief.
- Yeah.
-That's awesome.
That's the best news
-For a while.
Don't answer the phone again
for the rest of the day
and it'll be the best news
of the day.
I'm hemorrhaging cash
at Grizzly River,
and I cannot wait for the tug
to get its first toe out
so I can start
to, uh, recoup
some of the dollars
that I've been, uh,
putting out.
With only a couple of hundred grand saved toward his $1.
7 million debt,
Jared's company and future
are still hanging by a thread.
But with a boom boat operator
now lined up
for Grizzly River,
he might just have
what it will take
to get his business back
in the black.
Two camps logging full tilt
for the first time.
Opening Grizzly Camp
was a bit of a gamble,
but I've taken
on a lot of debt.
It's become very stressful.
If we can, uh, do really well,
I think it's going to pay
huge dividends.
But right now,
this is going to be
very, very hard
bringing the logs
down the river.
Anything can go wrong.
But I don't have
any other options.
Make it or don't.
I'm not gonna give up.
Batten the hatches
and put on a smile.
We're going river boating.
If we're towing that wood down
and we hit a shoal
of that tugboat,
that wood is gonna run us over
and kill us.
I'm stuck.
Keep going.
Run! Run!
-We had a fat truck.
-Go down.
What do you think
these tires weight, Adrian?
Heavy enough to squish me.
It's completely haywire.
Your lighting it.
Welcome to hell, boys.
This is it.
Last week,
Jared finally gained
a vital foothold on the banks
of Grizzly River
Going in the hole.
Another 600,000 to get this camp started.
as fallers played
a deadly game of dominoes
It's going. Get back.
It's going.
to bring down
the operation's
first load of money trees.
Stand back.
At Float Camp,
crews fought to keep a goose
from gutting production.
We're down. What do we do?
We're not allowed to dump
in fear of disturbing
the goose.
I might be having
a panic attack here soon.
But in the end,
they fell short of filling
the log barge.
Still got empty deck space.
by more than $100,000.
That goose.
Now,
Jared's pushing even deeper
into the wild
with one goal in mind
We're looking
for this high-value cedar.
They're few
and far between through here,
though, aren't they?
to turn
uncharted timber
into cold, hard cash.
It's going.
We've got to come up with something.
We've got to come up
with something quick
or I gotta turn it off.
or lose the business
he built from scratch.
I need to get wood
down this road,
into that log dump
and down that river.
- Man, that goose really
- -Yeah.
screwed me over big time.
After taking
a huge loss last week,
all Jared Douglas can do
is keep pushing forward
and stay one step ahead
of his float camp crew
by tracking down their
next stand of money trees.
You know,
you're kind of expecting
that money to come in,
and it's just not coming in,
all over one goose.
Yeah, the goose put a dampener
on things all right.
Having come up
short on his second log
barge in a row,
Jared's window to pay down
his $1.7 million debt
is closing.
And if the next barge
isn't filled with big timber,
they'll be too far behind
to ever catch up
with the payments
or keep his company.
The barge
is in two weeks.
-It's got to be full, Ross.
-Yep.
I have lots of debt.
Like, I have
Up to my ears in debt.
It's stressful. It's tough.
But I came from nothing.
I want my kids to have things
I didn't have.
So there's no giving up.
-So this is where
the next spot is.
-Yes.
This old derelict dock.
- Looks like some nice timber from the beach.
- -Yeah, it does.
A little steep.
For now,
the area Jared's scouting
is only accessible by boat,
but with just a week
or so of blasting,
he could tap into his
established road system
leading back to float camp.
But only if the trees here
are worth the trouble.
Looks like you got some cedar
and some fir
from here already.
I wonder how much
is actually in here.
We're looking
for this high-value cedar.
It's the gold of the forest.
And people pay
a lot of money for it.
But getting to these trees
is difficult.
They're getting hard to find,
so we are in the most
remote places.
I don't like this tree.
Yeah, that's not
a good tree at all.
- This is a bad tree for fallers to deal with.
- -Yeah.
You see the split
going way up,
hard to put an undercut in
when there's nothing
holding on the back end.
That's a dangerous tree.
It's lots of value.
Just, uh, we can't have anyone
get hurt trying to fall
something like this.
Let's keep going.
It's steep, it's ugly.
We're sweating.
It's not easy,
and you've got to think
men are packing power saws
and, uh, blocks up here.
We're packing a can of paint
and we're winded.
That's the bear done.
Hopefully, Yogi's not in here.
-Anyone home?
-Is he in there?
I don't know.
We don't normally harvest
anywhere near bear den.
Hopefully, there's not
a bear up there
that's going to slow us down
any more.
Just go in there
and check out.
Ooh.
Always hard to run from a bear
when you're winded.
Like goose nests,
active bear dens
are protected.
So before any logging
can happen here,
they'll have to confirm
this one is abandoned.
No bears.
Well, he must have kept
nice and warm in here.
Yeah. You want the snow.
Did you see any hair
or anything?
No, just rotten
cedar pieces.
With no signs
of bear activity,
Jared and Ross are all clear
to keep scouting
for valuable cedars.
They're few
and far between through here,
though, aren't they?
Looks like there's one
in down there, though.
A big money tree right there.
Oh, yeah. That's a money tree
right there, baby.
It's a beautiful tree.
It's nice and straight.
Big, looks sound.
No real defect in it.
And I'm thinking this tree
is going to be upwards
of $40,000 to $60,000.
Drag us out from financial
ruins of the goose.
Money tree.
That looks like a money tree
right there.
Probably the best one
I've seen so far.
Round, sound.
Money tree.
Tree wise, there's lots
of nice big, red cedar here.
That's my favorite.
That's the cheddar.
there's some pretty
nice timber in here.
Giants.
Beautiful trees.
When we tally this up
at the end of the day,
there's gonna be quite
a bit of value here.
It's not easy logging,
but the money is here.
If this expansion
that I'm doing right now
works out,
I'll be able to provide
for my family,
and my guys will be making
good money.
So seeing
people's families thrive,
not only my own.
Have our work cut out for us.
Over a hundred
miles away at Grizzly River
the heat is on
Foreman Dave Lornie.
Pretty exciting.
We're about to load
our first load.
At Grizzly River here,
the big, majestic cedar
that we've been working on.
He's running
Jared's newest operation,
where a $600,000 gamble
is on the line.
It's up to Dave
to make it pay off.
Jared's gonna be
a pretty happy boy.
He's pretty stressed
right now,
and he's gonna really like
seeing this volume
hit the water.
You know, away we go.
Hand fallers
have been methodically
chasing high-grade cedar here,
and with nearly
a million dollars' worth
of wood on the ground,
Jared needs it sent off
to market fast.
What we've got
here is some really big cedar.
It's actually really hard
to handle.
But, uh, I'm a stubborn,
difficult old logger,
so we'll get a nice big load,
put on and head to the beach.
Put her in the water.
Once in the water,
the logs will still have
to journey 15 miles downriver
so they can be towed
off to market.
But to do that, Dave needs
a boom boat operator
willing to take on the endless
obstacles of Grizzly River.
And so far
he's not having any luck.
Getting a booming
contractor lined up
has been the most difficult
part of my job.
Because people have died.
People have retired.
People just don't want
to come to Grizzly River
'cause it's really crazy.
So, I've never felt
more stress.
It's like dragon fire
coming down the back
of your neck
because we don't have
a boom man.
But we have to keep
production going
and just move
forward positively.
And we don't want to lose
any of these logs.
They're worth way
too much money.
Right now,
I'm responsible for this load
and doing it properly.
That's a wrap.
We're gonna put
his wrappers over
and then we're gonna
head to the beach.
A good looking load.
It's really nice to have
piles of inventory.
But at the end of the day,
Jared's been paying
camp costs.
He's feeling
the financial pain.
Without being able to put
the bundles in the river
and actually boom to get paid,
this whole job,
it could bankrupt
the company
if we don't find
a boom man.
Here, I can carry that
the rest of the way.
Getting old sucks.
Some nice ones back there.
In the woods
above Grizzly Camp,
production power's ahead.
Oh, we'll see what it takes.
When the time comes
to start sending logs
downriver,
Jared will need
to keep them coming.
So Jim Gardner and Rob Winger
are on the hunt
for the biggest,
most valuable red cedars
they can find.
Right now,
we're dealing with
a 10-foot red cedar
Oh, yowsers.
-There's not much to her.
-See right through it.
With a tree this rotten
on the inside,
that leaves just a collar
on the outside,
just a small shell.
Each cut's gonna make
this thing do something
very quickly.
I'd say
there's a high likelihood
of this just going over
before it's ready to.
Not much to it at all.
But you don't necessarily
get this every day,
this rotten and this big,
and still get this much
usable wood out of it.
Usually when they
get to this stage,
they just fall over
on their own.
But hopefully,
if we can place it
and control it enough,
we can salvage at least 50-60,
maybe even 70% of this.
-What do you think?
-I think this is going
to be difficult.
You don't have much
of an undercut to get into it.
Word of thought when you
have to hit the undercut out,
I would bore the high side
before you started
the back cut
just so it doesn't
chair on you.
Trees
with this much rot at the base
are notorious for splitting
straight up the middle,
creating what's called
a "barber chair."
When that happens,
the trunk can kick back
with deadly force
and hit a faller head on.
It could pivot 5,
10 to 40 feet in any direction
around the back.
So you're you're scrambling
to get in the clear.
Son of a.
It's gotta be me.
Okay.
To try and stop
a barber chair
before it starts,
Jim will make
a shallow face cut.
Then he'll bore
into the cedar's trunk,
leaving pressure
from the inside.
Finally, he'll start
his back cut
and hope the tree holds
long enough to finish it.
If this tree falls over,
before we need it to,
we're gonna have to be ready
to get out at any moment.
At this point,
Jim is going to proceed
with putting an undercut in.
Jim and I work well together.
If you work side by side
for a while,
you get to know
little gestures.
You almost know
just by what they're doing,
what they're going to do next.
One bad decision could go over
sideways and flatten you.
I had a tree sit back
in the wind
wasn't even a very big tree.
It sat back so fast,
I couldn't even get a
wedge in there,
so I went to push it out
and the wind broke it
right off the stump.
It snaked down
through the timber.
And as I was escaping
on my escape trail,
it's like it had eyes.
It followed me
right up my escape trail
and it hit me in the side
of the head,
the shoulder,
and folded me in half.
I crushed my T10.
I didn't second guess
my career choice at all.
I just thought,
"Why didn't I see that?"
It's starting to pinch.
Tree's starting to come at us.
It's starting to sag this way.
And this thing's rotten,
anything can happen.
Something's not right here.
Back up. Back up!
Something's not right here.
Back up. Back up!
Look out!
Deadly.
In the hills above
Grizzly River,
Jim and Rob are battling
a $50,000 tree
with severe rot at the base.
One wrong move could easily
trigger a barber chair,
causing the cedar to kick back
like a mule
and destroy not only its value
but anyone in its way.
I think there's a little bit
right in behind this slab.
Oh, yeah, you can see
the bark right there.
One thing you're looking for
when you've got
the undercut out,
you're looking for the tree
to collapse.
The tree is starting to sag
in the intended direction,
but it's not really moving.
There's something
holding this thing up.
we can't really see what it is
or tell where it's at.
It's gonna start
to pinch, Jim.
It's too dangerous.
It didn't quite go over
as I thought it was going to.
Is it talking?
Yeah, kind of, yeah.
So there's something
holding this tree up still.
We can't go in there
and fully cut it out.
We're going to have
to go to our plan B.
Back at Float Camp
and having just found
a stand
of giant cedars nearby,
Foreman Ross is eager to bring
a logging crew out there.
But first, they need access.
Before we start anything,
you have to have
the road built,
and then you get
your fallers in
and then you get
your yarder in,
and then you get
your processing in.
Going up to see
Dave Gerard right now
and see how far along he is
with the road
so we can get a timeline
and when we can get some
fallers in.
The goal is asap.
If they hurry,
the timber could add
vital product
to the log barge
arriving in two weeks.
But there's still much
to be done before then.
-How you doing, Dave?
-I'm not bad, man, and you?
Going not so bad.
Just drilling away.
Slowly. But surely.
Yeah, just trying to do
this junction here.
-Just solid rock all the way.
-Oh, I'm sure.
To connect this road
to the new stand of trees,
the crew will have to cut
three quarters of a mile
deeper into the forest.
To that end, they're drilling
into solid rock,
packing it with explosives
and breaking it up
one blast at a time.
So we're looking to push
a little bit,
like get into here as quick
as we can.
Within a week,
I think you might be able
to swing that one.
- No way. Really?
- Yeah.
Try to do the best job
we can.
If we don't have road,
we can't log,
so it's essentially
everything to us.
We can't haul.
We can't do anything.
So without a road,
you got nothing.
And we'll have fallers up here
next week.
Hopefully be able
to get this completed
so those loggers
can get their yarders
and in here.
The pressure is on.
Yeah. Perfect.
That'll get to her.
Hey, after you're done
fueling up,
do you wanna see me
in the office?
Okay.
Back at float camp,
Jared has one goal in mind,
to lock down
a boom boat operator
who's not afraid to take on
the perilous waters
up at Grizzly River.
Dana has worked
on and off for me
as a booming contractor.
He is extremely good
at his job,
and I need him
out in Grizzly River.
He's the only one that I know
that can do this job.
It's called
the principal's office.
I've been putting
a lot of money
into the falling and the camp.
I'm all in
on the poker table here
and without putting that wood
in the water,
I don't get paid,
and if I don't get paid
I can't pay my people.
This is a terrible situation
I've put myself in.
We need a booming contractor
with a small tug
for Grizzly River.
And someone of your skills
is what we need.
Just not doing it.
You should come up there
with me in a helicopter
and look at the job.
Oh, that's
Yeah, I can look at it all I want,
but it's not gonna make me
want to do it.
I think you just need
to go look.
No, I'm just not into it.
I don't understand
why not?
Not for me.
I don't want it.
Stubborn.
All right.
Dana could make a ton of money
if he decided to pony up
and get out there.
But he's heard horror stories
from other boom contractors
that was up there, so
I think he's worried
about losing a boat,
sinking a boat,
and his life, obviously.
Just need a
boom man now.
I can't I can't believe
something's not
not arcing out
between his ears properly.
The problem now I have
is we're putting
all this money in.
There's no point right now
to keep making logs
if we don't have a solid plan
to get them down the river
to market.
We are just burning cash flow
right now
Absolutely lighting
dollar bills on fire.
Hey, John,
it's Jared Douglas calling.
I need a guy
with booming experience
in a river and a small tug.
-If you wanna work.
-It's fairly good pay.
You got any boom men
hanging around
that might want some work?
I'm gonna have
to go call everyone I know
and everybody
that everybody else has known,
uh, to get this job done.
You can't even wave money
at people's
They don't want to be here.
What kid playing a video game,
wants to actually go to work
and sweat their bag off
all day long?
And it's getting really,
really desperate times for me.
Uh, No takers yet there.
I've asked a few of my guys
and and whatnot.
We gotta come up
with something.
We gotta come up
with something quick
or I gotta turn it off.
We're in big trouble.
We're . I don't get it.
We've got logs piling up.
I need to get wood
into that log dump
- and down that river.
- Fire in the hole.
I have so many balls
in the air,
and I can't let
any of them drop.
I got most of the back cut.
The undercut is right close
to that very far corner
that we can see down there,
but we've got a bit of wood
holding in the middle.
At Grizzly River,
Jim and Rob
have been wrestling
with this half-rotten cedar
for hours,
trying to get it on the ground
without crushing them
or exploding into
a million worthless pieces.
That wants to go,
but this doesn't want to go.
'Cause this doesn't
want to lift,
but this is already
lifting hard.
I would cut
a little more right here.
Oh, wait.
You've already cut
from the inside.
Never mind.
Yeah, a little bit.
Cut this off and cut
a little more into here.
Or push it.
Push, push, push, push.
The cedar is not falling over.
There's still some
holding wood in there,
and it's too unsafe to cut
the rest of the holding wood.
The top priority is us
making it out of there safely.
So we're going to look for
another tree to push it over.
To bring this cedar
down safely,
they'll use another tree
to knock it over
from a distance.
But if the push tree
comes down
with too much force,
it could reduce
the giant to splinters,
costing the fallers
a day's work
and Jared almost $50,000
in lost product.
-All right, send it.
-There she goes.
Oh, yeah, baby.
Deadly.
I think
it's in a million pieces.
Well, it's a little more
shingle than we thought.
Lots of shingle, actually.
Looking at it, I probably
would have done
a few things different.
But there's a lot more rot
in the top than we thought
there was initially.
After all
their hard work,
the rot in this red cedar
was just too much
for Jim and Rob.
And what little wood remains
will put practically nothing
toward Jared's debt.
I don't think
it's worth bucking.
No, we did everything
we possibly could
because of the rot in it,
because of the size.
Because of the
the bananing effect
and the smashing
on the ground,
it did peel apart,
and it's just not going to be
the number one quality
that we expected it would be.
Tomorrow, it's your turn.
Back at camp
and still with no
boom boat operator
to shuttle logs
down Grizzly River,
Jared is running out of time
and money.
We got logs piling up.
I got all my trucks here,
sitting here waiting.
It's ridiculous.
I just need to get
a boom operator
in here.
Knocking on
the bankruptcy's door
if we don't get this done.
Just got out from the woods.
We got wood piled to the sky.
I know, buddy.
We need a boom man.
The problem with Dave is
it's hard to keep him
on track, focused.
We need to get this happening
and it's gotta happen now
or we're broke.
I've got a million things
to deal with right now,
and I really need
to lean on Dave
to make sure
that he finds a person
so we can start making money
here or we're in big trouble.
We need to fix this right now.
- I'll do whatever it takes to get it done.
- -Okay.
Jared is under
a lot of stress right now.
There's going to be
a little bit of
running downhill, I think,
'cause he wants to get
this wood to market.
There's not a lot
of booming contractors left,
and the smart ones
don't want to go up
Grizzly River.
They also cannot fail
or it could take down
the company.
I need to get wood
down this road,
into that log dump
and down that river.
I get the supervisors,
and then I let them
have their leash.
It's not a problem
till it is a problem.
and right now
it's a big problem.
I'm not going to tell my wife
we've got to sell our house
because we can't find
a boom man.
This is ridiculous.
The main line here.
Should be logging trucks coming back and forth.
With the
Grizzly River operation
still stuck in limbo,
Jared needs
his Float Camp crew
to start logging the new stand
of giant cedars he found.
Pretty hard rock,
surprisingly.
But to get those trees
on the next log barge
road builders Dave and Nick
must blast their way to them
by the end of the week.
Sweet.
We're ready to shoot.
A shot is a design blast
that it's like just
drilled holes
with a specific pattern
and a specific load
for your situation.
We'll basically pound the hole
and drop our loads in it.
-Pretty much.
-Pretty much what we do
for a living.
We use ANFO,
which is just ammonium nitrate
fuel oil.
And then these are dets,
and this here goes off
which sets this off,
which in turn sets this off.
Chain reaction.
Shooting. There's a lot
of things that can go wrong.
We're doing anywhere from 20
to sometimes 50 bags
in a shot.
So if you can fathom that,
that's how much destruction
that needs.
The powder we can do
is really dangerous stuff.
You want to respect it.
You wanna make sure you follow
the protocol and rules
when you're handling it
and just always be
really careful.
I'm trying to get
the best outcome
with the least amount
of violence, really.
Now we're ready to go.
Now, we just got to move
machines out and get everybody
to a safe area.
And then it'll go boom.
So me and Nick
are going down now
to our safe area
to shoot this shot,
and we want to get
a nice good view.
- Blasting block Q42.
- One shot.
-Ready.
-Yeah, man, you're good.
-You ready, buddy
Firing shot.
-Fire in the hole.
Blasting block Q42.
One shot.
-Ready, buddy.
Firing shot.
-Fire in the hole.
yeah, that turned out
mint, buddy.
- Three-quarter.
Yeah.
-That turned out amazing.
- yeah.
- Yeah, buddy.
That looks mint.
All exactly how I planned.
Now we just go get the hoe
and come in here
and muck it out
and continue on.
He's gonna clean up that shot.
It's called mucking it out.
So you basically
take the big rocks,
put them on the outside,
take your finds,
put them in the road,
make everything nice
and organized.
Dig around all the rock.
Get it pretty clean,
so we can come up there
and lay a pattern,
bring the rock drill in
and start pounding some holes.
Holy!
As they prep
for the next blast,
Dave and Nick hit a problem.
A pair of massive boulders
too big to move with the hoe
and a potential time suck
they don't need.
A couple of boulders
they're just too big
to handle for the digger.
It creates problems
for the next phase.
Really difficult stuff.
Back at Grizzly River
wood is hitting the water.
Another one in.
But Jared
still needs
a boom boat operator
to guide it down
15 miles of sandbars
and submerged obstacles
before it can go to market.
In the meantime, all he can do
is map out the course
and clear a path
for when they're ready
to make the run.
I'm just looking
for things that are gonna
hang up bundles.
I just want to make sure
that the coast is clear.
It's really sketchy
due to, uh,
the silt in the water.
You can't see
what's under at any time.
So you don't know
if you're gonna hit a sandbar.
You don't know
if you're gonna hit
a dead head.
Dead head's a piece of wood
that's just under the water,
enough that going along here
at full speed,
you hit one of these,
you can knock your leg off
and sink your boat.
Very dangerous.
I can see a dead head here.
This one's really bad.
You see how fast
the water is moving
and the current is actually
getting sucked into it.
So I'm gonna try
to buck it off
with a chainsaw
until we can get it, uh,
completely out of the way.
A little sketchy.
Hopefully, it doesn't
hook the boat
and take the boat
down the river too.
We're barely hooked up here.
The river runs wild.
The last guy
that's done this job
sunk one of his boom boats.
Log tow caught up to him
on the river,
took his boat under.
The guy scrambled
to the top of the logs,
just about lost his life.
And nobody will do it.
I'm actually getting
a little nervous.
I have all this invested.
I moved equipment up there
that would hit the ground.
Now we can't make
that would get to market,
because nobody will do
the booming in this river.
It's scary now.
Just hanging over
the side of a boat.
One hand hanging on
for dear life.
You don't know
what's going to happen,
if the branch
is gonna hook the legs,
shift the boat,
A lot of things
you can't see under the water.
Some nice ones
back there
In the nearby wilderness,
having spent all yesterday
on a rotten cedar
they couldn't save
We got to go up
and through there.
Jim and Rob
are looking
to make up lost ground.
But in an area
where every tree
is either damaged
or on the verge of collapse,
they're running low
on solid options.
Six, seven foot cedar.
Something's hit it
and knocked it.
Something big,
like probably 100 years ago.
And then there's a big seam
on this low side.
That could be from when
it got hit too, split it.
Sounds solid enough.
Whereas the other side's like
it's only a shell.
And I'm gonna have to
cut up as much of this
low side as I can.
That's why I want
to keep it low.
So that I'm not cutting
too much over my head here.
So there's gonna be
rot in there, too.
So I'm gonna have to watch
I don't get pinched
on that low side
Hopefully, it's got a leg
to stand on when
it swings over.
Like the tree
they lost yesterday,
this one is rotting hard
at the base.
But there could still be a way
to salvage the valuable
wood above.
Rob will make his undercut low
to prevent it from collapsing
too early.
Then they'll send it across
the side hill with a back cut
and hope it doesn't blow up
like the last one.
We'll tackle this thing.
-Commencing mayhem.
-Say a little prayer.
Almost pinched me.
It dropped.
It's a lot more rotten
than I thought it was.
So I'm just gonna
have to keep nibbling
and nibbling
and hopefully not get stuck.
I don't know what's
going to happen here.
When you're cutting
into a tree
and you get your
undercut out of it,
it's pretty much going
to dictate
how it's going to go over.
But because there was
so much rot in it,
it's really difficult
to control the lead,
and it's really hard
to control
the absolute direction
that this thing
is going to go.
Starting to
Starting to drop.
So I'm just
sitting here enjoying a little
bit of loggers paradise.
'cause you don't get it
every day,
and we've got it
just about every day
in Grizzly River here.
This particular pile
is all of the high-grade
red cedar.
Like, we're sitting
at a million dollars
of wood right here.
This is exactly why
we're in Grizzly River
right here.
This is what we live for.
This is our big gold nuggets
right here. Big Cedars.
We're gonna put it
on the trucks.
This is what it's all about.
Let's let's put some wood
on these trucks.
Jim just told me
over the radio he could see
the tree dropping.
I actually felt before I saw
the ground moving
under my feet.
So I'll just put a couple of
wedges in it and carry on
to my final cut.
High above Grizzly River,
Rob and Jim
are trying to salvage
a red cedar
worth almost $40,000.
But with so much rot
at its base,
it's not cooperating
with the cuts.
There we go.
Roots and all.
It's just rotting right
from the inside out.
Right where that scar
was all the way down it,
that whole section disappeared
with the tree down the hill.
so I didn't expect that.
But you've got to try
and expect everything.
It broke at about 45 feet.
Probably 50-60%
of it's salvageable.
With only half
of this tree intact,
it's a disappointing result
for Rob and Jim
and another costly setback
Jared can scarcely afford.
Okay.
I hope. I hope.
Back near Float Camp,
Dave and Nick
are racing to finish a road
to what should be a more
valuable stand of timber.
We just go ahead,
a bag of AMFO,
which is ammonium nitrate
fuel oil,
that we just put on top,
But only if they
can get a pair of massive
boulders out of their way.
Good thing Dave always keeps
extra explosives on hand.
When you put it on top
is to get like the concussion
and the force of it
blowing down
that cracks the boulder apart.
So you won't get as much
fly rock from it.
We've got this boulder,
and then we got this one here,
and when we come back,
it should be a lot smaller
boulders.
All we got left on this shot
is clear out the site
and let her rip.
Time's a huge factor
'cause the faster
we get it done,
the faster they can get
in here and log.
They definitely put
the pressure on us.
Blasting block Q42. One shot.
My favorite part of the day
would probably be when
we get to push the buttons
on the box.
-Whoo!
-Oh, geez.
I jumped.
Yeah, see,
that's pretty sweet.
I've done this for 15 years.
It still scares me
when those bangs go off
on surface.
-Actually shattered it. Yeah.
-Just eliminated it.
Holy, that turned
into just dust.
It'll be really nice and easy
for me to move
with the hoe now.
Nice job, Nick.
With the path
blasted for the road,
connecting the new stand
of cedars to Float Camp,
the hardest part is done.
Now, Dave and Nick just need
to clear away the rubble
so fallers can start
harvesting timber.
You got her, buddy.
Up at Grizzly Camp
Jared's done all he can
to clear the way for logs
headed downriver.
All he needs now
is a boom boat operator
to get them there
and get his $600,000 operation
to finally turn some profit.
Yep, we'll, uh
Yeah, well, Dave's here.
One second.
I'll call you back.
All right. Thanks.
- Guess what we got?
- We got a boom man.
It took me two weeks
and about 400 phone calls.
We got it, man.
- He'll be here Tuesday morning.
- -yeah, man.
That's awesome.
We just gotta figure
this river out.
Got to get some wood
down there safely.
-Thanks, Dave.
-I know what it's like.
- It's a big relief.
- Yeah.
-That's awesome.
That's the best news
-For a while.
Don't answer the phone again
for the rest of the day
and it'll be the best news
of the day.
I'm hemorrhaging cash
at Grizzly River,
and I cannot wait for the tug
to get its first toe out
so I can start
to, uh, recoup
some of the dollars
that I've been, uh,
putting out.
With only a couple of hundred grand saved toward his $1.
7 million debt,
Jared's company and future
are still hanging by a thread.
But with a boom boat operator
now lined up
for Grizzly River,
he might just have
what it will take
to get his business back
in the black.
Two camps logging full tilt
for the first time.
Opening Grizzly Camp
was a bit of a gamble,
but I've taken
on a lot of debt.
It's become very stressful.
If we can, uh, do really well,
I think it's going to pay
huge dividends.
But right now,
this is going to be
very, very hard
bringing the logs
down the river.
Anything can go wrong.
But I don't have
any other options.
Make it or don't.
I'm not gonna give up.
Batten the hatches
and put on a smile.
We're going river boating.
If we're towing that wood down
and we hit a shoal
of that tugboat,
that wood is gonna run us over
and kill us.
I'm stuck.
Keep going.
Run! Run!
-We had a fat truck.
-Go down.
What do you think
these tires weight, Adrian?
Heavy enough to squish me.
It's completely haywire.
Your lighting it.