TIME FOLLOWS ME

CHAPTER ELEVEN MONTANA CAMP

CHAPTER ELEVEN

MONTANA CAMP

The camp was in a small clearing beside a logging road. They had cut down a bunch of trees for a bit of a clearing. There were stumps all over the place and a worn narrow path to the fire pit. A couple of Miners Tents were around the clearing.I had a small pup tent that weighted about 3lbs that I set up. A small stream running just to the downward from the mountainside of the camp was there for cleaning the dishes and washing food. It was a great place surrounded by towering cedar trees.

The next day we heard a pick up truck arrive and three short, thinly bearded men got out. Wayne introduced Rich and I to the Hillbillies. I forgot their names but there was clearly a leader and he did little, but most of the talking.

It seemed that that they were partners with Wayne, and they both seemed carved out of the same trunk so to speak. The Deal was they could go up into the mountains and take any trees that were already cut and lying down, but had been abandoned or not harvested. Wayne asked me if I wanted to work and I could make some money. I wasn't that interested in working, or the money, but I wanted to see what they were doing.

We got up really early the next morning and Brenda was beside the fire making bacon and eggs and oatmeal cereal for the baby. It tasted fantastic. There's nothin' like a bit of cold mountain air to get your hunger up. Coffee hot and black was poured into my blue tin cup and I felt like a million bucks. That morning it rained heavy all the way up the mountain as we ascended on the muddiest road you could imagine. The mist completely covered the valley below and it felt as if we were above the clouds. We got to where we would be working that day. The Hill People were already there and Wayne went over and talked to the leader, I think his name was Roy.

They had a jalopy flat bed truck with a motorized winch and a long steel cable that we was used to wrap around the abandoned logs and haul up to the road where they would be sawed up into small pieces. Later, we would chop them into cedar shakes and haul them into town. The slope down to the logs was treacherous from all the rain. I tried to hook a couple of logs but kind of faded from that. It was a bit dangerous when they started winching as the cable might slip or break, flying off taking your head off clearly at the neck.

Wayne and the others had these huge Stihl chain saws that looked to be about ten feet long. I had used a smaller one back on the farm, a Pioneer that was really heavy with the blade about three feet long. I didn't care for that one, and I definitely wasn't going to try the Stihl. It was cold and rainy but Brenda and the baby were with us so we talked a bit. She had a degree in English from Kent State University.

I spent the rest of the day splitting stumps. Rich worked to but he wasn't much good either. He had last been working in a department store folding shirts and pants. This was a long way from Broadway.

I banged away with a wedge and a nine-pound sledge. It was actually good work. When you hit the wedge "just right", it would split open the cedar stumps. It felt like cutting through butter. I was able to make a bit of a pallet but it was hard work all the same. I was pretty bad at it compared to how fast the others worked. I did this for a few days and then both Rich and I and Brenda decided to stay at the camp.

There was one other older guy at the camp. He lived in a camper that fit on the back of his pick-up truck. He was the father of Rich and Wayne and was staying with them. He would come out to the fire and talk a bit about how our day had been. He was pretty self sufficient in his well-provisioned camper and his light glowed through the trees through the little side windows, rounding out our caravan of tents, a Vietnam Vet, Mother and Child, The Brother, Hillbillies and a Hitchhiker.