Original subtitles

[Jared] We're going to do something crazy.

Ether is extremely flammable.

We're going to spray a little bit in the tire,

hope it expands.

You ready? I'm going to light you.

[narrator] Last week, Jared's all-out push

to turn a profit at Grizzly River

got off to a rocky start.

[Jared] That don't work. [bleep]

-[chainsaw whirring] -[narrator] But high above camp,

hand fallers landed some hard-to-reach money trees.

-[Jeff speaking] -[loud popping]

-[Chris] Get out of there. -[creaking]

[narrator] And after wrangling their first logs downriver...

-[Leon speaking over radio] -[bleep]

[narrator] ...Team Grizz scored a $280,000 payday.

[Jared] It was a huge gamble,

and I'm very happy that things worked out.

We're cruising, man. This is a good feeling.

[narrator] Now, as midsummer gives way to fire season,

Jared is racing the clock...

[Jared] A forest fire could erupt.

We're going to have to shut down.

[narrator] ... counting on his crew

to fill as many log barges as possible...

Holy [bleep].

[Brad] I've had extremely close brushes with death.

I almost took my head off once.

[narrator] ...and pick up the pace at Grizzly River...

[Jared] We have to build the roads

to really increase production.

[narrator] ...before wildfires shut them down for good.

[man over radio] One, two, three.

[tense music playing]

[Jared] For right now,

the tides have turned into bleeding money

to making some money.

But nothing else can go wrong.

[narrator] After cashing in at Grizzly River

and paying off his $600,000 investment there,

Jared is roughly half a million

toward his now $1.1 million debt.

And with the end of his season just around the corner,

there's no time to waste.

[Jared] It's getting hot.

Fire season's coming soon.

When fire season starts, we're going to have to shut down.

[narrator] Every year, the hot summer months

turn these forests into a tinderbox,

causing widespread government shutdowns for loggers

and reducing millions of dollars' worth of timber

to ash.

[Jared] I got a log barge coming at the end of the week,

and I'm hoping that's going to net me $200,000.

I don't want to have to bring bad news home to the wife.

Bracing for the worst and hoping for the best.

Financially, I've never been in this kind of debt.

It's scary now.

My dad's had two heart attacks and a stroke now,

and he worked for the government

and had a very stress-free lifestyle.

So, you know, how long am I going to last at this?

Failure's not an option.

[narrator] To help speed up production

before fire season hits,

Jared's rushed in an old yarder

straight from the repair shop,

and woodsman Cody Bezaire

and Brad Laviolette to start moving logs.

Their mission,

get every last stick of timber off this hill

and send down the mountain

before the next log barge arrives.

[Cody] Hey Brad, what do you think

about putting out the guylines here,

and then we'll boom down and put the lines for the boom

and shorten up on the haul back there?

Yeah, that's not a bad idea.

We got to wait for the grapple to show up, so.

-Yeah. -Yeah, I like it.

[car chimes]

[Jared] So we're going to rig up

in those two trees right there...

Yeah.

...park the yarder down here somewhere out of the way.

You guys will have this done in two days.

Yeah, it looks like good wood.

Yeah, it's nice wood.

-Can't smash it. -Yeah.

Need it nice and valuable.

I'll teach it all to fly.

Our job here as a grappler-yarder crew,

we're brought in to extract

all the timber off the side hill

that the fallers have laid out.

And we bring it all down to the built road surface

where the loading crew can come in behind us

and put them on a truck and ship them off to market.

-[metal clinks] -Man, I wish

my [chuckling] wife was that kinky.

Wildfires are very serious in this area.

[Jared] Cables make sparks when they are yarding logs,

so we cannot have any kind of cables

starting forest fires in our downed timber.

You got to think that's money that we've paid the fallers

to put the wood on the ground,

and all the moving of machines,

we cannot have it burn up.

-Okay. See you soon. -Yeah.

-Happy trails, man. -You betcha.

See you in the future.

[narrator] To make their deadline,

Brad and Cody will work as a team,

pulling no less than 200 logs off the hill per day

and pushing this 60-ton grapple-yarder

to its absolute limit.

[Brad] The grapple yarder is a oversized swinging crane.

Through the use of wire rope and pulleys and a big grapple,

we can actually send our grapple

out into the forest, pick up logs,

and airmail them back to the landing.

I'll just finish filing up,

and then I'll just disappear into the forest here

-and come up with some targets. -Yeah.

Let me know, and I'll start pulling

-the bite for you there. -Okay.

Time to start sweating.

[tense music playing]

[narrator] As hook-tender,

Brad will ensure the yarder is firmly anchored

to surrounding trees and stumps

so it doesn't topple off the road,

which starts with hauling 100 pounds worth of gear

up the hill.

[Brad] Being a hook-tender, it's very physically demanding

because you're fighting very rugged terrain

where most people can't even crawl.

We are industrial athletes.

Like...

there's no Olympic gold medals for logging,

but if there was,

I'd be interested in trying to get that gold medal.

When I was a teenager, I was kind of a [bleep] head.

I got in a lot of trouble with the law.

I was hanging out with the wrong crowd.

For a while, I wanted to be an architect,

then I wanted to be a porn star.

[chuckles softly]

But I just got into logging,

and then logging saved me in a way.

I started hanging out with the right people

who took care of their families,

and eventually my life turned around.

So logging's been good to me,

and I try and pay it back.

Blood, sweat, and beers.

So this one's got a lot of things going for it.

Nice, healthy canopy.

Not too many dead limbs over my head as I climb.

Name of the game is just climb this tree,

put all this gear up there,

put the lines through it

back down to the grapple-yarder.

Away we go, I'll just get all suited up here.

[narrator] Once the lines and pulleys are in place,

Brad will tie off to a nearby stump,

creating an anchor system able to withstand

more than 90,000 pounds of pulling force,

-if it holds. - [Brad exhales]

[Brad] Now, I just got to get to the other side of the tree.

There's a whole slew of things that can go wrong.

I've had extremely close brushes with death.

I don't want to get into too much detail

about any of them because my family's watching.

But from cables breaking and flying at you.

I almost took my head off once.

It was not a good scene.

Logs slipping out of the grapple, coming at you.

I learned a lot from it.

And, you know, fear will keep you alive.

Okay.

That's all good to go.

Winner, winner, chicken dinner.

[narrator] With the old yarder anchored and ready,

Brad and Cody can finally start moving some product

down the hill

and on to the next log barge.

[engine starting]

[engine revs]

[clicking]

[Cody] Nothing's really working.

[Cody] Two months ago, yarder caught on fire

and melted a bunch of electrical

and a bunch of clutches got melted.

We did a test run in the shop

and seemed to be working okay.

And then we brought it out

and something's came loose

or, you know, shorted out again.

Hit the work-real-good button.

One of the clutches is

engaged and it's not supposed to be.

This is something we can't fix out here.

You on the repeater there, Jared Douglas?

[static]

[Jared speaking over Radio]

[Cody] Hey, do you know if Nick's in today?

Something's stuck on.

I can't get the bull gears to turn around--

to turn here.

[Jared speaking]

Okay. Sounds good.

Ah, they're trying to track down the mechanic

to come out and take a look.

[narrator] But every hour this machine sits idle

will cost Jared more than $1,000 worth of wood,

money he desperately needs to pay his $1.1 million debt.

I guess we're just on standby.

[Cody] What a piss off.

[tense music playing]

[Jim] I think these are going to be next if we can.

[Rob] Okay.

[Rob] And if we could tackle these ones,

we got a bunch together.

[narrator] Up at Grizzly River,

road crews are racing to open one final section of forest

for loggers to harvest

before fire season shuts them down.

[Rob] We'll have to start over here somewheres, I guess.

[narrator] But to get the big wood to the water,

this road will have to be widened enough

for fat trucks to pass through.

And since doing that means

bringing down several giant cedars,

fallers Jim Gardner

and Rob Winger are joining the charge.

[Jim] It's leaning up the hill pretty hard.

[Rob] It is leaning up the hill.

[Jim] It's leaning back pretty hard, too.

[Rob] To widen this corner,

they want everything out this way

to keep it away from the river.

Should have brought the jack in this shift.

Would've helped.

That could've helped.

[Jim] We've got a large diameter red cedar.

It's a nice piece of wood.

We're gonna try and get what we can out of this thing,

and hopefully if we can lay it out properly,

we're gonna be able to salvage the whole length of the tree.

[Rob] How is it there?

-[Jim] Powder? -Powder?

Ooh, that's hollow there.

[Rob] As long as we got sound wood

for our holding wood.

And...

probably right here is going to be the low side

of the holding wood.

[Jim] We don't have anything really to hit it with.

[Rob] No.

Just be a hell of a lot of wedging.

We've got nothing to push it with,

so we're going to have to wedge

our guts out on this tree.

Let's put the undercut in, cut the high side up first.

Wedge it up as much as we can,

and then

slowly nibble away at the low side.

Put her just right at that face there.

That maple face staring at us.

[Jim] That'd be perfect.

[Rob] I think so.

If we put it in the river,

there's destruction of fish habitat.

There's fines involved.

So we've got to do our best to keep it out of the river.

Otherwise, there's some pretty heavy consequences.

-So I got your watch here. -Okay.

[Jim] I'll be pounding wedges.

[narrator] To avoid hitting the river

and the fines that come with it,

Rob will make his face cut on the tree's low side,

followed by a back cut.

Finally, they'll use wedges to counter its lean

and send it safely down on dry land.

If they succeed,

they'll be one step closer

to one last stand of money trees.

[Rob] Let's do it.

[chainsaw revving]

It's absolutely imperative

that we keep this tree away from the river,

but because of the heavy lean,

there's a good chance it could break off

or prematurely come unhinged and come over backwards.

[chainsaw idling]

[Rob] Just heads up while I cut this low side up.

We can watch for movement,

and if it starts moving

while I'm cutting on the low side,

get me the hell out of there.

[chainsaw revving]

[Jim] It's definitely sagging back

when you were cutting.

[bleep]

[Rob] Let's see what happens.

Look out, Jim. Look out. It's going.

[loud popping]

-[Rob] [bleep] Get out of there! -[crashing]

[tense music playing]

[narrator] On the roads of Grizzly River...

[Rob] Look out, Tim! Look out! It's going!

[bleep]

[popping]

[Jim] Let's go!

[loud popping]

[Rob] Right on the money.

[Jim] All honey shot.

[Rob] It went a lot faster than I thought it would,

with Jimmy wedging it up.

And then as soon as I cut that low side up, away she went.

I thought we were going to wedge our guts out, Jim.

[Jim] Well, you did wedge your guts out, kind of.

[Rob laughs]

[narrator] With this tree on the ground,

Jim and Rob are that much closer

to accessing one last stand of cedars

before fire season forces their shutdown.

[Jim] I like it when it goes better than planned.

We've got this tree laid out perfectly

along the side of the road.

We were able to keep it away from the river.

It went over by itself,

but from right from the butt,

right to the tippity top of this tree,

every single piece is going to be used.

On the ground, all clear.

Walk on out.

Let's do this.

[Jim] Heck yeah.

[chainsaw revving]

[Rob] Jared will be happy

because he's got half a truckload of wood

in one tree.

[narrator] But with more trees blocking access

further up the road,

Jim and Rob's work is far from over.

[Rob] So what's next, you figure?

[Jim] Let's check the next one.

[tense music playing]

[narrator] Back at float camp...

[Cody] I don't know.

-The bull gears aren't turning. -Oh.

[Cody] Yeah.

[narrator] ...Cody and Brad have been down

for three hours,

leaving hundreds of thousands of dollars' worth of wood

still stuck on the hillside.

[Cody] I think all the clutches are

[clears throat] being told to be stuck on there.

[narrator] But with bush mechanic Nick now on the scene,

there may be hope for the old yarder yet.

This machine had a little bit of a fire,

so this post right here,

which is supposed to switch

between that terminal and this terminal,

is melted, so it's contacting both.

These things aren't really meant to come apart, so...

it's gonna be a little tricky.

[tense music playing]

I am sanding off the burnt...

part of the connection.

It's kind of a Hail Mary fix.

Keep your fingers crossed, bud.

[Nick] What do you think?

One way to find out, buddy.

[Brad] Give her a go, bud.

[narrator] If Nick's backwoods remedy doesn't work,

Brad and Cody won't be able to send logs down the hill,

leaving Jared's high-value timber

vulnerable to wildfires,

along with his $1.5 million yarder.

[engine starts]

[indistinct chatter on radio]

[Cody] Nice, that's all working.

Let's try a reverse.

Haul back should be going off.

[bleep] sweet. Frickin' all working.

Woo-hoo!

Let's go get some wood!

Yee-haw.

[Brad] So now that the grappier is working,

we're actually going to try

and get the wood off the hill to the road

as quickly and safely as possible.

[Brad strains]

[narrator] Now it's a mad dash

to get this wood on the road and down to the water

before the log barge arrives in less than 48 hours.

[Brad strains]

[Cody] Yeehaw!

[Brad] All right.

Now we're cooking.

[tense music playing]

[Jared] Well, at least the wind hasn't kicked up yet.

11 o'clock.

-11 o'clock, the wind's coming? -Yeah.

[narrator] While both of his camps brace

for fire season on a remote inlet,

Jared's already thinking one step ahead.

[Jared] Today we're going log salvaging.

There's valuable wood sitting around

on all these inlets.

A logger did all the hard labor,

but a couple of bundles got away on him.

[narrator] When temperatures rise enough

to shut logging down completely,

Jared will need to keep earning an income,

so he's teaming up

with First Nations Chief Jerry Jack

on a joint venture that could benefit them both,

if they can make it profitable.

[Jared] Jerry Jack's a hereditary chief

of the Mowachaht-Muchalaht Nation.

We need strong relationships with First Nations.

They're getting the revenue from their forests,

and they need to have someone that they can trust

and work with in a partnership,

that's going to be mindful of their land,

and that's us.

I can't wait to see what kind of wood's in this bundle.

Yeah.

[Jerry] Working with Jared,

we just have a mutual respect for each other.

And we're open about everything.

If I have to say something he might not like,

I'll say it anyway.

Basically, we have trust in each other.

You need to have that trust

in who's doing the work for you.

We can't have dishonest companies in here

taking trees

that they shouldn't be taking in the first place.

[Jared] Definitely some really good value,

some nice fir. Somebody, uh,

left this behind.

There's some logs, boys.

[chainsaw running]

[Jared whoops]

This industry is shrinking.

A lot of people are getting out,

so you've got to be relentless.

There's no substitute for hard work.

Let's hook up the first ones and see what happens.

Try to get two off the top here.

[strains]

Should work.

[narrator] With logs weighing up to six tons,

Jared's dozer boat can only pull a few at a time.

But if they can salvage enough of them,

it could pay up to $30,000 a day

during the slow season.

[Jared] Wildfires will shut us down eventually.

It's just a matter of time.

But this could be a way

to keep my guys working through summertime.

Hey, you want me to hit it?

[Jared] Oh, yeah!

Hard as you can hit it.

Go! Till you see the checkered flag or Jesus.

[tense music playing]

[Jared] [bleep] damn.

Oh, good start.

Wait till we get some big, big ones.

Nice.

Money in the bank.

It's going really good.

They're coming off.

[Jared] I want that big one...

-[Jerry] Yeah. -[Jared] ...in the worst way.

Trying to get this big puppy out of here.

So hopefully this one will throw

that one that way.

This is the one I want.

[tense music playing]

[Jeff] Look at this thing.

[Chris] Holy.

[narrator] While Jared works to find

a new source of income

during the lean summer months,

high above float camp,

fallers Chris Hersics and Jeff Logan are

on a mission to harvest

every last giant cedar they can find

before fire season arrives.

It's another lunker.

[Jeff] It is. Oh, it's another nice tree for sure.

Through here, it's rotten. Look at this thing.

We can cut that right off and...

probably get right inside.

I'm hoping it'll go over here and stay sideways.

I don't want it to go down the hill.

I'd like to keep it side hill as much as I can.

I'm not sure how big of an undercut

I'll get out of it either.

Otherwise, I'll be aiming it way down here.

It's just rock solid down at the bottom there, though.

It is, yeah, I know.

All the way around to the other back

around the corner, so...

The trick will be not getting pinched as usual.

[Chris] Down on the low side in the undercut.

[Jeff] Yeah.

Yeah, the worst part about the whole situation is

just getting that hemlock off the back.

It is, yeah.

[Chris] Everything's just got to have

a little something dangling off of it

just to keep you on your toes.

[narrator] After sawing the hemlock out of his way,

Jeff will cut a slab

from the high side of the cedar.

That way, if his saw gets pinched

by the off-balance tree,

he can access and free it from inside the trunk.

From there, he'll carefully make his undercut,

followed by a back cut

to guide it safely onto the side hill.

[chainsaw running]

I don't have much room to fit my saw in,

and it's grown into the cedar tree,

so I'm going to have to try to reach up higher to get it.

[chainsaw revving]

[Chris] He's got to fall it up the hill.

It's got the potential to slide back,

maybe wipe him out with the limbs,

but he should be able

to escape around the front side

and use the big tree as cover.

[popping]

[Chris] Watch out! Watch out!

[Jeff bleep]

[chainsaw running]

[popping]

[Chris] Watch out! Watch out!

[bleep]

[Chris] Things almost got difficult there for a second.

-[chuckling] It just about did. -[chuckles]

[Jeff] I thought I would go over way more,

but we got it.

[Chris] Hung her right in there.

[narrator] High above float camp

and with a dangerous hemlock now out of the way,

Jeff is all clear to start turning

this end-of-its-life-cycle cedar

- into money in the bank. -[Jeff] Okay, next step.

[chainsaw running]

[narrator] To start,

he'll take a slab from the uphill side.

So if his saw gets pinched,

he can cut it from inside the cedar.

Then he'll cautiously make his undercut

and finish with a back cut

to send it down on the side hill.

[chainsaw stops]

[Jeff] At least now if I can't

reach it all from the other side,

I can reach in from here now.

Well, I'll start this undercut, I guess.

Let her rip, tater chip.

[chainsaw starts]

[chainsaw idling]

[Jeff] I don't really want to cut too much on this undercut.

I want that to hold it.

'Cause if I cut this side up

and then go cut that last,

all the weight will be there.

[chainsaw running]

[popping]

[Jeff] Sorry, can I sit down on you there?

[Chris] Yeah.

[Jeff] See how it looks like inside?

[cracking]

[Jeff] I'm going to do it.

[Chris] You do your thing.

[chainsaw running]

[tense music playing]

[Jeff] I think I got it all cut up.

I don't know, Chris.

Went in there as far as I could

under that thing, so.

I don't want to be going down below.

It's pinching me down there now.

Oh, yeah.

[Jeff] I think it's just this piece right here.

[chainsaw whirring]

[whirring stops]

[Jeff] It's going.

[cracking and popping]

[Jeff] Oh, yeah. It's talking.

[cracking intensifies]

[tense music playing]

[Jeff laughing] Yeah.

[Chris] Hey, it saved out pretty good.

[Jeff] It went downhill a little further than I was aiming,

but fiber's so strong. Just that little post,

I didn't think that would hold that whole tree up.

And there was no other holding wood anywhere,

just this one piece.

Once I cut that off, that's why it went down there.

[Chris] Hey, it's on the ground.

[narrator] It was a challenge to bring down,

but at over $50,000,

this tree will be a much needed addition

to the log barge.

[tense music playing]

[narrator] Back down on the water...

[Jared] I'm a bit of a meat hound.

I want to get it all.

Greedy.

Yeah. Keep going.

[narrator] ...Jared and Chief Jerry Jack are

still in the early stages of a salvage business

that could bring in money during the fire season.

But to make it worth their while,

they'll need to up their volume.

[Jared] Uh-oh.

This is not good.

The boom boat has a nozzle,

so the propeller turns in the nozzle.

What can happen is rocks can jam in the nozzle,

then you're dead in the water.

[bleep]

[Jared] I think you got to come this way.

I know you're back here.

[Jared] Don't stop, keep going.

That was a close call.

[man speaking]

Yep.

This should be interesting.

[man 2] Ready when you are.

[motor accelerating]

[Jared] Don't stop, keep going.

[chains rattling]

Whoa! Chain came undone.

I think I got a little greedy there.

[Jared] Damn.

[Jared groans]

[narrator] Back in the hills above Float Camp...

[Cody] I think we're ready to log here.

Hey, Brad. Ready to go?

All clear in the landing. Give her.

[narrator] Brad and Cody still have hundreds of logs

to send downhill before the barge arrives tomorrow.

Yeah, I'm liking it. It's pretty stable so far.

[narrator] And with their yarder finally working again,

they're running full throttle to catch up.

[Brad] Big wood requires really tough gear.

So we've got the grapple yarder here.

A grapple yarder is the giant swinging crane,

designed to extract logs through a cable yarding process.

Send the grapple out into the forest,

pick up a log, bring it back in,

rinse and repeat all day long.

But when you're maximizing the, uh, pulling capacity

of the grapple yarder,

things can break, and that's...

that's when things can get quite dangerous.

[bleep] yeah.

Now we're logging.

The operator, he's got a set of blinders on.

He can see the hill in front of him.

So it's up to me, the hook tender,

to get on the radio and communicate to him.

Uh, you might want to go ahead on your throw a little bit. Here we've got a belly.

A little more.

That's good.

The logs are heavy, anywhere up to 20,000, 30,000 pounds.

So in order to not damage the logs,

try to grab them by the butt end, the thicker end.

So the top, lighter, otherwise you just snap them in half.

Easy on my tree there, big fella.

You've got to be careful to not come down the hill too fast

and hit the machine. $1.5 million machine.

[bleep] yeah.

Lots going on, lots to pay attention to.

Always looking right, left, and out the window.

Sometimes your eyeballs feel like sandpaper at the end of the day.

Oh, [bleep].

Oh, [bleep].

[narrator] In the hills above Float Camp...

[Cody] I [bleep] up.

[narrator] While racing to move wood to the water

before tomorrow's log barge arrives,

Cody may have just pushed this yarder a little too far.

[Brad] It looked like as he was trying to land that log,

looks like this big, long hemlock log

came shooting off the bank and...

It came close to the yarder but didn't quite touch it.

Everything we use out here has the potential to kill people.

A lot of people started their day and never finished it.

We've lost some friends and broken most of the bones in my hands.

Concussions, uh, twerked knees.

Anytime everybody finishes the job without an injury,

it's a successful day.

[narrator] As long as there are no more setbacks,

Brad and Cody should be on track to get the last of this lumber

down the mountain and off to market,

well before fire season strikes.

[Cody] Yeehaw!

Pretty slick, Cody, pretty slick.

This guy's got the skills to pay the bills.

The logs will be processed

and loaded and put onto a truck

and brought down to the barge.

[water splashing]

[engine starts]

[narrator] Back down on the water,

while exploring a whole new logging venture

that could bring up to 30 grand a day over the fire season,

Jared and Chief Jerry Jack are starting to have second thoughts.

[Jared] This isn't working.

We've been struggling.

Taken us half a day to get a bundle off the beach piece by piece. So...

I'm gonna call in the big guns here.

You got a long tow rope on you there, Glenn?

You want to come try towing a bundle off the beach?

[Glenn on radio] Yes, sir.

[narrator] To keep costs down,

Jared was hoping his fleet of smaller boats

would get the job done.

But if Captain Glenn's tugboat can move enough logs at one time,

this salvaging venture could still turn a profit.

[Jared] Glenn's boat has about five times the horsepower of the boat that we're using.

I know it's probably gonna be a long shot, but we'll, uh,

we'll give it a try since you're in the neighborhood.

[Glenn on radio]

[Jared] Sometimes you just got to call in the horsepower.

I like it.

[Jared] It's gonna be interesting.

Will my plan work? Probably not.

Tighten up on it.

[Glenn] Very well.

[Jared] There we go. That's some power.

Oh, yeah.

That worked out, finally.

[narrator] In all, Jared's small team

was able to harvest more than 80 logs

worth $25,000 in a single day.

A much needed boost during the lean times of fire season.

And with a few adjustments, they could easily bring up production even more.

Very happy.

Log salvaging day is over.

We got what we could get.

[Jared] All we got to do now is dial things in a bit,

and this could be a great way to make some money during fire season.

[both laughing]

I think today was a win.

Nice fur for somebody's, uh, deck.

[narrator] Meanwhile, in Grizzly River...

[man] Oh, they got two drills going.

[motor whirring]

[narrator] Jim and Rob are working side by side with road crews

to access what may be their last stand of giant cedars before the shutdown.

[Rob] We've got a right of way here.

But we have a tree that's going to be undermined by this blast.

It's leaning up the hill and towards us.

-Yeah. -If they blow this front section of it out,

it should just come right into here.

[Jim] Yeah. I think that's going to be what happens.

It is leaning up the hill quite a bit, isn't it?

[Jim] Yeah.

[narrator] Dead standing trees like this one

are loaded with widowmakers.

Notoriously brittle and too dangerous to bring down by hand.

So instead, the road crew will tie it into their next blast

and save it out as best they can.

[Jim] If we're gonna blow it up,

we're gonna have to deal with all as one problem.

And this is part of the way that we mitigate, uh, problem trees,

is with blasting assist.

Are we ready?

[Rob] Hell, yeah.

Oh, it's very hollow right here.

It's easy peasy to get a hole in here.

How does it look over there?

[Jim] It looks like this is the solid part.

[narrator] To bring this tree down safely,

they'll use strategically placed explosives

to separate it from the stump.

And having sized up thousands of giant cedars in their time,

Jim and Rob know just where to put them.

Solid here.

It's just a little punk around the outside, but it's solid inside.

I'm not gonna compromise any wood.

I'm just gonna try and take this rotten [bleep] out of here

so you can get a bag in there.

He says one bag should do it,

but if I get my hole big enough for two...

-[Rob] Yeah. -Go big or go home.

[motor revving]

When you're blasting a tree, it's pretty dangerous.

There's so much power.

At the start, your knees are shaking a little bit

and you're like, "Holy crap."

But I'm an adrenaline junkie. Yeah.

I like adrenaline, so it's a rush for sure.

Even if it collapses that ways.

Hey, Kevin, do you want to have a look to see if that's all right?

Bore that a little bit more, you could have a nap in there.

Kev.

Not gonna work for ya?

[Jim] A bag or you put a stick back there?

And then a sausage out here or something?

We'll just bore a pilot hole.

-[Kevin] That's it, yeah. -[Jim] 'Kay.

[narrator] To ensure a clean break,

Rob will carefully carve a second, smaller window on the opposite side,

making room for extra firepower.

[Jim] That will take this back leg out.

It should launch it straight up.

-[bleep] right that will. -[all laughing]

[Rob] That's, like, gonna reach orbit.

[narrator] Next, the crew will pack the tree trunk with explosives

to blast it off the stump.

And hopefully keep it somewhat intact.

So I'm gonna use this one as my the initial charge

and hopefully blast out this.

One main leg of the tree.

And hopefully just knock it over.

This will help... kind of like an undercut.

But with explosives.

This should kick out that and then the bag will do the rest.

Okay.

Hello, Getter.

[Getter on radio] Yo, what's up, man?

Are you guys ready?

[Getter on radio] Yep. Big thumbs up there, Tripod.

Roger that, Jim. We're gonna blast.

One, two, three.

[explosion]

Maya just brought her new hound puppy,

which I'm gonna say we're sharing this puppy.

When it's in camps, it's Dave and Maya's.

This is Raven.

-This is my new dog that I share with Maya. -[Maya] Oh, sure.

[laughing] You're going to share. I'm sharing with you.

[Dave] Oh, no, there's somebody on the phone over there.

[Raven barking]

There's a bear coming at ya.

Talk to him.

-[Raven barking] -Atta girl. Good girl.

Good girl. Talk to him.

[narrator] On the outskirts of Grizzly Camp...

Roger that, Jim. We're gonna blast.

One, two, three.

[explosion]

[explosion]

[bleep], that was intense.

Boom, baby.

[Rob laughing] That was awesome.

I don't see a tree anymore.

That was [bleep] intense.

That was really intense.

Can feel the vibrations going through that tree we were hiding behind.

[narrator] Jim and Rob's mission to make way

for fat trucks has been a success.

And with all the larger obstacles out of the way,

the road crew should be able to access

their final stand of timber in just a few short days.

[Jim] So it worked, just like Kevin was saying.

It blew the front out, blew the back out

and it laid right down across the road.

It was perfect.

It's almost like somebody cut this down.

[Rob laughing]

Onto the next one.

[Jared] A little wavy out here today, Roscoe.

-Yeah. -[Jared groans]

[narrator] Back near Float Camp...

With the threat of wildfires drawing closer by the day,

the time has come for Jared to cash in on what could be

one of his last log barges of the season.

[Jared] Ah, the Herc ' s here, buddy.

She's a mammoth barge, isn't it?

Big wood.

[narrator] If he fills the barge, his profit is $200,000,

and he'll need every cent of that toward his $1.1 million debt.

[Jared] I'm really sweating about this load.

I don't know, man.

It's gonna be, uh, touch and go.

With everything I have going on right now,

expanding camps, buying out a business partner.

I'm in so much debt.

Financially, we need to get this done.

I'm feeling like, uh, we got a lot of balls in the air.

A lot of expenses.

Every dollar is needed at this point.

Not optimistic we're going to get the load that we need outta here today.

Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh.

Oh, [bleep]. Look at that bundle. Just blew apart.

[bleep]. It's...

That's dangerous right there.

That was a, uh, poor bundle replacement.

I really hate getting this late into the season,

because if we come up short on this barge,

we're not going to have much time to make that money up.

Well, you on this one, Lynn?

[Lynn on radio] Yes, sir.

Here we go.

Is there a full load here for you right now?

[Lynn on radio] Yes, sir. It looks like it's gonna be a full one.

Nice work.

[Roscoe] Yeah, buddy.

-You did it. -[Jared] You betcha.

[bleep] right.

[narrator] This barge brings Jared's total net income this season

to $703,000.

Leaving him with nearly 400 grand remaining to pay off his debt.

[Jared] Can't help but win it, baby.

I'm going to get Employee of the Month. [laughing]

I want a medal and a chest to pin it on.

A lot of people put food on their table

due to this big company that we run.

Oh, whales, a bunch of whales.

-Oh, whales. -Marcus.

[Jared] Letting my crew down is one of my biggest nightmares.

So I'm gonna work my ass off to make sure that I can pay my debts

and keep this company afloat.

These guys are out here, away from their family,

busting their ass so I can make my payments.

Without them, I could not be who I am

and I could not do what I'm doing.

-Cheers. -[man] Cheers, boys.

Go get some crabs.

[man 2] Won't be the first time you getting crabs.

-[Jared] No. -[all laughing]

[man] Fire season came early.

The winds are blowing. The sun is out.

If our humidity drops, we've got to shut down right now

because things could spontaneously combust.

[Jim] I'm looking at the barge.

[man on phone] There might be a hole down there somewhere.

A hole in the barge.

That doesn't look quite right, does it?

We definitely have a little bit of water in here.

[Jared] Taking Float Camp out of operation right now, it could break me.

Yeah, I could lose everything.