Originally posted 12/22/2019
Image by Colin Lake
In the fall of 1994, I got a job with a small logging outfit on
British Columbia’s mid-coast. Rather than felling live trees like
most loggers do, we made our living by salvaging trees that were floating in
the ocean or deposited on shore by high tide. This method of logging
is known as “hand-logging” or “beach-combing”. We would collect
timber from the myriad inlets and channels using a small tugboat, and construct
a large floating raft, or ‘boom’ of logs that would be picked up every couple
of months by barges travelling up and down the coast.
Image Colin Lake
Our
floating camp was nestled in a sheltered inlet roughly midway between Klemtu
and Bella Bella, in the Finlayson Channel area of northern Milbanke
Sound. We were about a three-hour tug boat ride from town, so supply runs
were only made every four to six weeks. The camp consisted of several
trailers on top of a barge measuring approximately 10 x 30 meters, with the
deck sitting about 2 meters above the water. Long lines, the thickness of
your forearm, ran from each corner of the camp to the shore, maintaining the
barge’s protected position at the back of the inlet while still allowing for
rise and fall with the tide. It was common for several weeks to go by
without seeing anyone, with the possible exception of a prawn boat or salmon
fisher who would unexpectedly tie up at our camp for the night to get out of a
heavy sea. We didn’t punch a clock or work regular hours; available daylight,
weather conditions and tides determined where we went and what we did each
day. I was in my early 20’s, and recently graduated from college. I
grew up in a small town in eastern Ontario, and this was the first time in my
life that I had spent any amount of time on the ocean - the scenery, weather
and wildlife all seemed exotic and overwhelming.
