Last Logging job

loggah · March 09, 2015, 05:28:17 PM

A few years back i got out of full time logging,i had my wife take a picture the other day of where the job was, Blake Mtn. in Thornton N.H.
Its not much of a Mtn. as far as height went ,but it was a steep and boney. !!!! ;D ;D 180 acres of pretty nice hardwood,the reason was no way to get to it. We played winch the skidder up, then winch the D5 up and then build a road from the top down.I spent a week or more with the dozer and a small excavator trying to build roads to get to the ledge plateaus where we could reach the wood. In the end there was still a place where we had to winch the skidders up backward on our main road ,just bare ledge,but no problem coming down. In one place off the side of the hitch road about 80'-100' drop off !! I always like looking at some of the great ,fairly flat logging ,areas you guys post pictures of !!!! ;D ;D ;D

BargeMonkey · March 09, 2015, 06:43:01 PM

Anytime you see vertical rock ledge you know it is steep. :D another local logger is cutting a steep one right now, gets his 460C to the top and his help runs a 1/2 chains thru the clevis on the blade corner around a big tree so when he turns around he doesnt flop.

loggah · March 09, 2015, 06:50:24 PM

We had flat areas we could turn on,but it had to be logged in summer,no way could you get up there in the winter. While i was logging that job Diesel fuel went from $2.00 a gallon to $5.00 a gallon !! >:( >:( thats pretty much why i got out of logging was the fuel spike, and the government basically shutting down logging in the White Mtn. national forest!!

Straightgrain · March 10, 2015, 11:58:40 PM

Looks like a rugged mountain to me; a tough place to earn a living, and probably an area where a helicopter would be used to get the logs out these days.

No doubt, there are a lot of "former" business owners that closed their doors these days as well.

so il logger · March 11, 2015, 12:03:12 AM

I bet you have some story's about working that mountain loggah. Looks like a pain to me

Ken · March 11, 2015, 03:29:10 AM

I think if I had to log a mountain like that I would quit as well. Must have been a few head scratching days trying to figure out how to access the timber.

47sawdust · March 11, 2015, 06:30:55 AM

Loggah,
As they say,"No hill for a climber".

David-L · March 11, 2015, 06:42:32 AM

Thats Hardcore, hope there was good timber. You could probably here the steel spinning off the drivetrain on that one. Nice pic.

loggah · March 11, 2015, 01:19:42 PM

It was a bit hard on tire chains! and there were some places we just couldnt get to.There was only one place where we could get up thru the 10 thru 30 cubic yard boulders that the glacier left at the bottom! ;D ;D When we first started up the hill we had to cut a bunch of wood and throw it in between the boulders so the skidder and dozer could get over it,needed something for the tracks and chains to bite into. ;D

Offthebeatenpath · March 13, 2015, 07:17:47 AM

Yeah, I think that job would have put me out of the logging business too, but for different reasons than yours Loggah. I scramble around that general area on foot and often think about how and when it was cut off. Is Blake Mtn. on USFS land? I'd like to try and find your roads sometime.

mills · March 13, 2015, 07:48:24 PM

My goodness! I just can't believe some of the places you boys pull logs from. The physical toll a job like that must take on man and machine has to be tremendous. Hidden machine cost from these kind of jobs will pop up years later. Not to mention turning young men old. Y'all have my respect.

Dave Shepard · March 13, 2015, 08:09:25 PM

Sounds like you needed to devise a yarder.

loggah · March 14, 2015, 07:42:30 AM

Its actually just off exit 29 of interstate 93, private land that picture is kind of the tip of the iceberg. It abuts government land on one side. Years ago i pretty near tore an achilles tendon off basically in half while pulling winch cable. that was one of the reasons i had to be a bit more careful.

Peter Drouin · March 14, 2015, 01:13:11 PM

One time I grab a winch cable off the back of a skidder with a ton of chokers on it . The thing was 150 lb I bet. I ask the logger you pull all this all the time? :D
Yep he said.
I don't know how that could be fun. :D :D :D :D

I'm going to saw them. :D :D

loggah · March 14, 2015, 01:35:43 PM

I figured that professional football players would give up after a week or so !!! ;D ;D

David-L · March 14, 2015, 07:25:20 PM

I would much rather work in all conditions and hold a tool the revs at 13k plus and ride a large four wheeler any day of the week. Just something about logging thats addictive.

Peter Drouin · March 14, 2015, 10:01:46 PM

Quote from: David-L on March 14, 2015, 07:25:20 PM
I would much rather work in all conditions and hold a tool the revs at 13k plus and ride a large four wheeler any day of the week. Just something about logging thats addictive.

We all do what we love to do 8)

stoneeaglefarm · March 15, 2015, 08:54:20 AM

great stories about the challenges of the ledges and around boulders, Still log full time but I must admit after 30 years in the woods I avoid such places, I logged a set of ledges were we backed skidder down as far as we could, Had 2 separate curls of 100 foot airplane cable and ran them down to wood, Pull up, unhook, re hook and go, Was beautiful oak and hard maple, black birch, It was brutal, But I loved it, No break downs on the job, Except the ones in your head when you got done each day and realized what you were doing. Just love the woods, Its challenge and the in direct peace it gives me.