Sometimes, the blocks can be pretty heinous. Yes, this is a block. How would you like that for your piece?
A beautiful fall day. The weather is usually a lot better in the fall than in the spring.
Phil, working on maps and tallies at the end of the day.
A typical fall piece.
Marcia.
My motel room. No living in tents on the coast. I think there's only one company on the coast that runs a camp operation.
Keeping things in perspetive.
Guy, about to head up into a gnarly piece.
Marcia. This casual smile will soon fade into a challenged look of determination as she starts the toughest bag-up of her season. But she was still smiling at the end of the day.
Rainbow over Campbell River.
Typical coastal slash.
More slash.
How that for a view from your room? Of course, the pool is only used as a giant bird bath for the crows.
Andrew, getting ready for another bag-up.
This piece was fairly epic.
Jillian, at the end of a wet day.
Sometimes, getting up into your piece is the hardest part. Yes, this rock hill on the left is someone's piece. Look at the width of the road (wide enough for a pickup) to put the size into perspective.
Jordan Tesluk, with the early-morning safety audit.
The views can be quite stunning. Especially if you like fog in them.
Matt, our favorite forester.
An early-morning view.
Banana slug! This one was only about five inches long.
Chantarelle mushrooms.
We often work overlooking the water.
Jeff, looking into the block. You can see two planters down and to the right under the truck. One is obvious, the other is mostly hidden by slash.
Me. That derisive gaze was directed at all the salmonberry in my piece.
Although you can't see it, that sign says, "Road reclaimed, use caution." Now I'm not sure who does the road reclamation around here, but if this was a road, they sure take their jobs seriously.
That was my block the previous day.
Sydney, bagging up.
A nice early-morning view.
Yellow cedar. Someone must have been cutting firewood, or cutting shakes/shingles.
Andrew, my planting partner for the day on a special mission to plant burns. Burns just aren't the same on the coast as they are in Alberta.
I liked the contrast between the red and green in this photo. Very Christmas-like. We bleed a lot.
This was my piece one morning. Lots of brush and slash.
Andrew, starting off on another run.
Heading home at the end of the day.
There's a good view of a block. Although they always seem like they're not as steep when you see them in a photo.
More slash, typical slope.
Liz, wasting no time, as usual.
Here's a nice view.
A typical grey and dreary morning.
I made a new friend. And I'm assuming it wasn't toxic, since I didn't get a rash.
A faller's gate. When fallers are working, you aren't allowed to go anywhere near them. Their job is the most dangerous on the coast. Four fallers were killed in July alone.
This block on the hill looks absolutely terrible. I was glad I was on the flat block at the bottom that day.
Coastal cream. It doesn't get any better than this.
Another nice view, with one of our trucks heading home.
This was a tough piece. Check out the size of the planter, almost hidden by the slash down in the right side of the photo.
Another creamy piece.
Andrew, taking a photo.
A dark and dreary morning. Sometimes it can be pretty hard to motivate yourself on a morning like this.
Sydney, adding up tallies at the end of the day.
Another block. This one was on the tougher side.
Always make sure you ribbon your last line of trees very obviously, with winter weight flagging tape, if you can't finish the block.
This one was a bit green, but nice.
Erin is laughing at my little shovel, the D-Trowell. Everyone laughs at it ... until they try it.
A piece for the end of the day.
This was my piece, up above the road. Doesn't look great from this angle, but it was actually quite nice. The only drawback was that I had to walk about 300m to find the only place where I could get up into it.
I asked Andrew to sit for a second, so I could take a photo with this piece of slash. Typical.
This block was pretty steep. Of course, it's really hard to tell in these photos. But if you look at the fully grown trees at the bottom (70-80 feet high) then you'll start to understand.
Lawrence. With the best hats and shirts.
Another piece that I planted.
Heading back up north. This was my last coastal photo of the year. I'm looking forward to more, starting next February.