Truckin

Oregon gets a lot of credit for the copious amount of rain that falls there every year. While the coastal area west of the Coast Mountain Range, live up to this belief, not all of Oregon is deluged. Truth be known, the eastern half of the state is a high desert.
My brother, Andy, lived in Clatskanie when we were young men. Let me assure you that Clatskanie is not high desert. No way, It is about as rainy as any place. The constant rain helps grow some mighty trees. Much of the timber for our nation comes from this part of the country. Everyone knows about Douglass Fir.
Another tree that is highly sought after is the Western Cedar. Cedar grows in the very bottom of canyons in the wettest places. Like I said, it is very wet around Clatskanie. You can well imagine that the surrounding canyon bottoms are even more wet. Yep, there are places that you must walk carefully across the tree roots and down trees to navigate these swamplands.
When the forests were first logged many years ago, the cedar trees were not wanted like they are today. Mostly they cut the very large Douglass Fir and left the cedar standing. If the cedar was cut down or knocked down accidentally, it was left where it landed.
Some years ago people started using cedar for fencing, decks and increased the use of cedar for roofing. This increased demand for the cedar trees and the fact that cedar grows slowly, caused a shortage of cedar. Well, the very quality that cedar is known for (slow to rot) also kept the left behind logs in pretty good shape. Mind you, these logs are in that very swampy area at the very bottom of some very big canyons. Oh, and did I say already that the canyons themselves are very wet. I did? Eh, sorry for repeating myself.
Well, Andy was building a home for his family. He needed roofing material. He needed beams for the living room. He needed paneling for the home. In other words, he needed the cedar from these canyon swamps.
Whenever we came across a good log that had been left behind, we would make a mental note where it was. Then when we had the time, we would figure out how to retrieve the brute. Sometimes we could get a four wheel drive pickup into the area. This took a lot of skill to navigate between trees, rocks, old stumps, fences and other obstacles. We would help each other by standing nearby and indicating how close the driver was to something. Inside the heart of whoever the spotter was, is up for discussion. Even though we were truthful about the closeness of a tree, or whatever, we were always hoping the other would get his pickup trapped. Oh, the bragging rights that come with Steve towing Andy! I suppose there were the times that Andy towed Steve, but I can think of none.
Along with brother competing with brother, was Chevy vs Ford. Some times, when not using the pickups for useful tasks, one of us would find a spot that we thought our particular pickup could conquer, but our brother's Ford or Chevy could not. We would argue long and hard about such a spot. Usually we would challenge the other to go first. But, the person that came up with the cockamamie idea would have to relent and go first or even worse, admit that the challenge was not doable.
Andy's Ford was taller than my Chevy. Andy would usually win the competition where it required going in and out of a steep ditch. My pickup's bumper would impede me. I would usually win when it was a steep side hill. My pickup's lower center of gravity would be the winning difference. We made the hard work of retrieving those cedar logs into a lot of fun. Thanks for the memories, Andy.
Kayak Bandit '(*!*)'