Original subtitles

-[man] Are we ready? -Hell yeah.

[narrator] Last week,

the threat of wildfire arrived early in the backwoods.

[man 2] Forest fire could erupt.

We're gonna have to shut down.

[narrator] ...marking the beginning of the end for Jared's logging season.

[Jared] Right now, nothing else can go wrong.

Every dollar is needed, at this point.

I gotta make sure

all of my operations are firing on all cylinders.

Bracing for the worst, and hoping for the best.

[narrator] But after a mad scramble to get wood to water...

It's all working. Whoo-hoo! Let's go get some wood.

Now we're logging.

[narrator] ...float camp finally filled a log barge

to the brim,

earning Jared another 200 grand toward his debt.

Big wood.

Yeah, buddy!

[narrator] Now, with fire season approaching its peak...

[Dave] The winds are blowing, the sun is out.

If our humidity drops, we gotta shut down right now

because things could spontaneously combust.

[bleep].

[Chris] I'm out of gas.

[narrator] ...and just two more chances to send wood to market...

Take your foot off the main brake.

No, the other brake.

[bleep] yes!

[narrator] ...the race to finish strong or fold up shop

has officially have begun.

[Ross over phone] I'm looking at the barge.

A hole in the barge?

Taking float camp out of operation right now, it could break me.

Yeah, I could lose everything.

[bleep].

[line ringing]

Hey, Roscoe. How you doing, buddy?

[Ross speaking over phone]

[narrator] After months of logging

the furthest corners of the Pacific Northwest,

Jared Douglas is still almost $400,000 shy

of paying off his $1.1 million debt.

And with the full heat of fire season

threatening shutdowns any day now,

time is running out.

What's our, uh, fire danger looking like right now?

[Ross speaking]

Okay, so we're in a Danger Class 4?

[Ross speaking]

[narrator] If he's lucky,

he may have just enough time to fill one last log barge

and send one more haul down Grizzly River.

But after more than a month in the backwoods,

he's taking 24 hours to spend with the family

before racing back for the final push.

[Jared] I'm just heading back home for a bit,

trying to get a day off,

and spend some time with the wife, kids.

I'm away from my family quite a bit.

It's tough. It's really tough.

You don't live a routine lifestyle.

All right, Ross, well, you, uh, you take her easy.

Will, uh, will call you later this evening.

Make sure they're all safe out there today.

[Ross speaking]

[Jared] Fire season right now is coming upon us,

so just kind of pray for rain, and hope for no forest fires.

[Rob] I didn't sleep as well as I thought it would.

It was definitely warm and stagnant.

[Rob] Mm-hmm.

[narrator] At Grizzly Camp,

afternoon highs are already pushing

logging operations to the very brink of shutdown.

So, to make the most of their day,

fallers, Jim Gardener and Rob Winger,

are up well before the sun.

[Rob] The fire season for us,

it's a different lifestyle

'cause you're up early, before the birds,

before everything,

and you're usually eating breakfast in the dark,

so that you're getting into the bush

when the humidity is still pretty high

and the temperatures are low

so there's less of a chance of, uh, starting a fire.

Yeah, like, [bleep], look at that.

Three days ago.

Out of control.

Continuing to spread, not responding to suppression.

[Jim] Hmm.

I've had firsthand experience with wildfires.

I've, uh, I've helped fight them.

I've watched them grow.

I've been pulled off the hill due to wildfires.

Wildfires are super dangerous for the logging industry.

They can potentially destroy millions of dollars of wood

or potentially kill people.

[sighs]

[Rob] Safety is the number one priority.

[Jim] How much water you bringing?

[Rob] Uh, four liters.

[straining] Holy [bleep]! [groans]

That should be four liters. It feels like four liters.

Need an extinguisher, Jim?

[Jim] I do so.

-Yo. -Thanks, man.

In the summertime, when we're not working

our regular jobs, we're out fighting fires.

Because of that, we've had a firsthand experience

to see what the impact is

and the very real devastation that it causes.

Even if you look out here,

there's all sorts of different, painful reminders

on the hillsides that are scarred up

from different fires from the past.

[narrator] Due to safety constraints,

Rob and Jim can't legally start falling

till first light, but they can hunt down

and size up their first money tree of the day.

[Jim] Okay. [sighs]

[grunts]

[Rob] Wow, look at that one, buddy.

[Jim] That's the tallest cedar I think I've ever seen.

[Rob] That's a nice piece of wood.

[Jim] How tall would you say that is?

[Rob] Probably about 150 to180 feet tall,

and it's, uh, 8 to 9 feet diameter at the butt.

[narrator] Rob and Jim will have to work quickly

to get this tree on the ground,

because as temperatures rise by the minute,

so does the risk of them getting shut down.

[Rob] So, in, uh, fire season,

we're allowed to run on a certain humidex index.

It's if your humidity drops below your temperature,

that's called a crossover, so we have to shut down.

Hopefully, that doesn't happen.

We're getting rid of this, this dry moss.

This is the [bleep] that [bleep] burns quick.

'Cause when you've got your dogs dogged right in

and you got the bar fully in there,

this stuff just starts... it glows red,

and then it just burns right up the side of the tree,

and next thing you know, you can't reach it anymore to pat it out.

[Jim] It looks like this is gonna be fairly difficult.

You could definitely tell

this is leaning really hard up the hill.

[Rob] Would be pretty hard-pressed

to get this thing to go straight down the hill.

[Jim] It's not going straight down anywhere.

[Rob] No. [laughs]

[Jim] I think the only problem is just gonna be the weight of it up the hill.

[Rob] We're probably gonna have to wedge it.

[Jim] Okay, sounds good.

[narrator] To keep this tree from falling uphill

and getting mangled in the forest canopy above,

Rob will aim the undercut downhill.

Then, once he makes the bank cut,

Jim will use wedges to further force it in the right direction...

all while keeping a sharp eye out for potential fire hazards.

Okay. I'll give her, I guess.

[Jim] Okay. All righty.

[Rob] I might cut this bit of a root off.

So my muffler is not right in there.

[Jim] Just start cutting!

[bleep] gonna happen.

[chainsaw whirring]

[Jim] We have to start watching where we're putting our saws,

where we're putting our mufflers.

Sparks being thrown out of the exhaust,

they're gonna land wherever they want,

and they're gonna light their own little fires

wherever they're gonna be.

So, there's a couple different things

that we're kinda looking for to... to reduce the risk.

[whirring]

[Rob] Wildfires can be very dangerous to the logging crews,

'cause if, uh, a fire starts

and they don't happen to notice that it's ongoing,

they can get trapped into an area

where there's no escape routes,

and that fire can cut them off

and potentially kill them.

[Dave] How you doing, Darce?

[Darce speaking]

[Dave] You guys are licking this up pretty quick.

I like it.

[Darce speaking]

[narrator] Back near camp,

foreman Dave Lornie is also up early

and making his rounds, which, this time of year,

includes determining whether his crew

can legally keep working or not.

[Dave] Right now, humidity is very low,

the winds are blowing,

the sun is out in full force.

Every day in, we do our fire, weather, danger readings,

and that tells us where we're at.

And if our humidity drops,

we gotta shut down right now

because things could spontaneously combust.

So, we have to legally take these readings,

especially up here at the Grizzly River,

'cause it's a very, very dry spot.

It's more interior conditions.

The fire danger at Grizzly is way increased

compared to on the coast, where the barge camp is.

I'm gonna do my wind speed.

We'll go with an average wind speed.

Average is 1.2.

It's more interior weather. It gets hotter there earlier.

Heavy winds will dry the bush out and get a fire going.

That's gonna burn really fast

and make it very dangerous for the ground crew.

Now, I'll do my relative humidity.

And that's at 48.6.

We really hope for humidity

so that it's a little bit damper.

We're in the moderate. We can keep going for now.

[Jared] Are we rolling these down?

You're gonna start it?

[engine starts]

You want your helmet?

[narrator] While production presses on at both camps,

Jared joins his wife, Tina, and two boys

for the first time in more than a month.

[Jared] Line up right here.

[narrator] But with the final push of his logging season in full force,

twenty-four hours is all he can afford.

Okay, ready?

One, two, three, go.

[engines revving]

[Jared] Growing up, I didn't have a lot.

So, I want my kids to have the things

that I never had.

And I want my sons and I want my family to be proud of me.

That's probably the biggest driver.

[chuckling] He's definitely putting in some extra effort.

-He's showing off. -[Tina laughs]

His leg's flying out.

Tina has been my wife, going on 23 years.

It's a long time. She's the love of my life.

She's a great woman, and she puts up with a lot.

No broken bones yet.

-Today might be the day. [chuckles] -Yeah.

[engine revving]

[Tina] Well, do you want a third one?

-Caution one, caution to the wind? [laughs] -[chuckles] Yeah.

[engine revving]

They'll do this for hours.

[cell phone ringing]

Hey, Ross, what's going on?

[Ross speaking]

A hole in the barge?

Yeah.

[bleep] wonderful.

Do we ever get good news in this industry?

Well, no, not right now.

All right, I'll wave the kids in, pack up,

and I'll be heading over there.

All right. Well, we'll keep an eye on it.

-[Jared] Okay, thanks. -Talk to you later.

[cell phone beeps]

[Jared] My biggest fear is that the family has enough of it

and says I can't live this lifestyle anymore.

It's a big-time fear, to be honest with you.

I gotta head out on the boat, so we gotta wrap this up.

They're gonna be upset, but that's how she goes.

Sorry.

Does anything ever go [bleep] right in logging?

[Ross] Check this side.

[narrator] At float camp,

and with fire season threatening shutdowns

any day now,

foreman Ross may have just found an even bigger problem.

[Ross] The barge is listing.

It's not level.

That means we're taking on water.

I'd say that was, I mean, it's probably about 72.

So, it's probably about six inches lower on this one side.

I'm gonna do some investigating

and see if we can find where the water is coming in.

Better have a... a look in some hatches here.

We definitely have water in here.

It's hard to tell where it's coming from exactly,

but, uh, I would say it's probably at the bottom of the barge.

There's nothing noticeable on the outside.

Maybe, uh, when it undertow, maybe a chunk hit it

or something like that, and knocked a little hole into it.

A hole in a barge is never a good thing.

So, we're gonna have to come up with some kind of plan.

[chainsaw whirring]

[Rob] She's hollow.

[narrator] Up at Grizzly Camp,

and with fire danger still low enough to keep falling...

Boy, that's a lot more rotten than I thought it was.

We're gonna take a little more out of here.

[narrator] ...Jim and Rob are racing

to bring down a red cedar worth almost 60 grand,

but keeping it from falling uphill

and crashing into the dense forest above

is proving harder than they thought.

[Rob] It turns out there's a lot more rot

in this tree than we expected.

There's a very good chance

that it's gonna break off prematurely.

I need your ax.

And to coax this thing over,

we're gonna have to start some wedges early.

We're gonna tap those wedges, and we're gonna chase

the power saw in with those wedges.

And just like physics,

it's gonna lift the back of the tree

and push it over forward.

[chainsaw whirring]

[creaking]

[Rob] There she goes.

[creaking]

[thuds]

Nice, nice.

Perfect.

It went with the plan.

We only needed plan A.

We've got probably 30 feet of shingle off the butt

and then two beautiful, a 40-foot and a 50-foot,

out of the center there. Pretty happy.

Hell, Jim, let's see if we can get another one in.

[Jim] Right on.

[Jared] It's [bleep] hot out there.

[narrator] Back near float camp,

and with Jared still making the five-hour trek out

to inspect a possible hole in the barge,

all Ross can do is keep logging

as fast as he can.

You know pretty well how to run that thing, right?

Yeah.

[narrator] To that end, he's adding another shift

to one of the camp's most productive machines

and dropping new operator, Cody,

off for some much-needed training.

[Jared] All right, Cody,

so we're gonna go and see Glen here, the old cowboy.

He can be pretty sarcastic,

but he'll give you some great advice.

And there she is.

[Cody] The Super Snorkel is a cool, unique machine.

Kind of a specialty job in the logging industry.

[narrator] Weighing in at a hefty 135 tons...

this Super Snorkel a cornerstone of Jared's operation,

able to pluck massive logs straight off the hillside

with its 150-foot boom, but with controls that require

hands, feet, and even knees, all working in tandem,

operating it is one of the most complicated jobs known to logging.

So much so there's only one man at camp who can run this beast,

Glen Baird.

All right, let's go see Glen.

[narrator] But if he can show Cody the ropes,

it'll mean twice as much wood

coming down from the Super Snorkel

and a critical edge in the race against fire season.

[Glen] Howdy.

So, you're this Cody fella I'm gonna break in?

-[Cody] Yeah. -[Jared] We're gonna get you

to help Cody, uh, get used to the machine a little bit there.

Bit of a old school, new school thing.

[Glen] Hmm.

I know it's hotter than a popcorn fart up here.

As soon as Cody comes in the cab,

he's gonna know what a popcorn fart smells like.

As long as it doesn't smell like burnt rubber,

we're okay.

[Glen] You got a big lunch, kid?

-[Cody] Nope. -[Glen] Perfect.

That's a good start.

Hey, I've never negotiated my teaching price, uh...

Everything's negotiable.

You know, did you bring me an apple at least?

All right, have at her, boys.

Get her done safely.

Let's see if we can keep her erect.

Okay. That's good.

[Glen snorts]

I run that them there Super Snorkel.

I've been doing it for 44 years.

When I started, that's all they had,

machines like this to load logs.

They didn't have the hydraulic machines.

That's how old I am.

[machine starts]

Obviously, start, stop.

[Glen] These are for your...

This is for your tag drum.

[Cody] What are those little round glass ones?

[Glen] Uh, glass ones?

Yeah, the little round ones there. Okay.

And this one here to...

It's for the whole panel there.

Something goes awry,

[bleep] hit that electric light.

Oh, okay.

[Glen] Main line brakes.

See that tall back, so up I go.

Now both of 'em.

Now, to get rid of the [bleep],

swing it.

Then I tighten up the hold line

and let go of the tag a bit.

Like, a lot of times,

I'll use the tag-in a bit, too,

and just let it roll off.

See, that's doing it on its own right there.

[Cody] Glen makes it look easy,

but it's hard to pick everything up.

Hopefully, I don't screw up.

[Glen] There you go.

Did I ever tell you about the time,

Cody, I dated your mom?

-[laughs] -[Cody] Sure you did.

[narrator] Back down at float camp...

[Ross] That doesn't look quite right, does it?

[Jared] Bit of a lean to her.

[narrator] ...Jared's finally arrived to assess the damage

to his $2 million floating headquarters.

[Jared] Let's see how much money this is gonna cost me.

In we go.

Water in the hull is a bad thing.

Things like that can sink the ship pretty fast.

We've had a lot of storms.

Maybe it hit a log undertow.

We're gonna crawl down inside these hatches,

we're looking to find out where the leak could be coming in.

[narrator] But there's more to worry about here than a simple leak.

When saltwater mixes with steel, it creates rust,

which can not only cause severe damage

to Jared's vessel,

but also sap oxygen out of confined spaces.

[Jared] There's definitely a lot of risk going inside of these things.

-This is our oxygen canary. -Canary.

So, if it goes below 20.1, it's gonna beep.

We got three minutes to get out of the hatch.

There's definitely been some, uh, tragedies

that's happened inside these barges.

A lot of people have climbed into these barges

and they don't come out.

Here we go.

The rungs, the ladders are really bendy, so don't jump on 'em.

Doing this, safety is our number one priority.

This barge is everything to us.

We couldn't conduct our business without float camp,

so it's a very scary risk right now.

Hoping for a little puncture.

Make sure you hold on tight coming in.

[Ross] Pretty rusty.

[Jared] Well, somewhere along here, we suspect a leak,

as you can see the water in here.

[Ross speaking]

[Jared] Yeah, I know.

[Ross speaking]

[Jared] She's rusty.

Turn your flashlight off for a second.

There's the hole right there.

See, where the light's coming through.

That's where the leak is coming from, right there.

See, it got hit by a log or something.

We're gonna have to get to fixing this right now.

[alarm blaring]

-[Ross] Oh, [bleep]. -[Jared speaking]

[bleep]

-[alarm blaring] -[Ross] Oh, [bleep].

[Jared speaking]

[narrator] Below deck, at float camp,

while trying to diagnose a rupture in the hull,

Jared and Ross have run out of time

and air.

[Ross] That was close.

[Jared] Can you see it?

[Ross speaking]

Can't even really get in there.

We've got to get a patch on this hole immediately.

For the safety of everybody who's sleeping on this boat,

we need to make sure that this barge is sound

and there's no chance of it sinking.

[narrator] A breach like this could not only sink the camp,

but cause the entire hull to rust away

from the inside out.

And until it's addressed, it'll only get worse.

[Jared] Yeah, it's been caved in pretty good.

[Ross] Yeah, it's about the size of my fist.

I mean, the worst thing you can find is a hole.

[Jared] Well, that explains the water.

Salt water goes inside.

It rusts everything in there.

Right now, the hole is just above the water line,

but that could change real fast If a storm blows in

and waves kick up.

We've got to come up with something,

and we've got to come up with something quick.

Yeah, there's some wood around here.

We can grab some wood.

[narrator] With float camp now taking on water,

Jared will need to speed up the process of moving logs out of fire danger

and onto the last log barge.

Just keep the slack on it.

[narrator] Which is why Glen is training Cody to take a second shift,

on the super snorkel.

Try to keep at least two lines tight.

[narrator] It seems complicated,

but the trick to running this rig

basically boils down to three lines.

The haulback, which sends the gravel out.

The tag line, which pulls it in.

And the main line, which moves it up and down.

Master all three, and Cody's got a shot at mastering this machine.

-Wanna give her a whirl? -Sure.

I don't know if you want to come back a bit, get comfy.

I don't know. We'll play it by ear.

I don't know what I want yet, Glen.

[Glen] Okay. Brake's off.

Maxes are off.

Swing brakes off.

-There you go. -[Cody] Okay.

That one toggle you leave on.

Yup, dawg.

[narrator] But in a machine that's as dangerous

as it is difficult to control,

one wrong move could be Cody's last.

Get the tag in.

There you go. Tag in a little more.

Give it some throttle.

We need throttle.

-Yeah. -You got to have throttle.

It's not easy.

You know, everything's-- You need throttle.

Your feet are pumping, your hands are moving,

your toes are pinching buttons.

You know, I explain to people that don't understand it,

it's like sitting in a chair and getting Tasered.

Take your foot off the main brake.

No, the other brake.

Handling the snorkel is a bit different.

A lot of the controls are the complete opposite, especially with the pedals,

compared to the yarder, so it's taking a bit.

[Glen] You're going to get the gravel on the other side of that knot.

Let it down a bit.

Drop it. Whoa, whoa, whoa.

Left, left, left, left, left, left.

Main line.

Yeah.

[narrator] Higher up the hill...

-[Chris] This is ugly. -[Jeff] Yeah.

...the race to harvest as many trees as possible

before fire danger shuts them down is well underway.

-[Jeff] This one's yours. -[Chris] You betcha.

[narrator] And with temperatures nearing 80 degrees,

fallers Chris Hersics and Jeff Logan are eager

to bring down one more money tree before it gets any hotter.

[Jeff] She is a burly old one, that's for sure.

[Chris] It's gnarly.

[narrator] This twisted giant has reached the end of its life cycle

and could easily go up in flames.

Instead, they'll tackle the much tougher job

of bringing it down in one piece.

We're gonna have to really pay attention

to that big widowmaker there hanging over our heads.

Yeah, that's not very nice, is it?

[Chris] Guy doesn't want to be under that any longer than he has to.

Definitely something coming from that high,

it doesn't take much to fall out of the sky and hit you.

[Jeff] Just have to be careful in the backcut.

Yeah. We're gonna have to be careful everywhere with this one.

We might need a springboard in this one or something to reach up here,

depending on where your undercut's going to be.

Well, I think the undercut because of how high the back roots are,

like, the cuts are going to be up here.

So the springboard, ultimately, it's just to get me

up off of the ground

and get me up higher to the cuts

because of the steep ground we have here.

[narrator] To reach above the roots,

Chris will install a pair of springboards

to serve as a makeshift staircase.

Then he'll take most of his undercut from the opposite side

before using the boards to reach the rest

and finish with a backcut.

But with the widowmaker directly above,

he'll have to work with his head on a swivel.

Just gonna have to make sure they're stuck in there good

so they don't wiggle around when you're trying to run off.

[Chris] Yeah, definitely.

[Jeff] Let's get some springboards started

and get it set up, so we're good to go.

Yeah, for sure.

[chainsaw whirring]

[Chris] Back in the old times, hand loggers,

they would pretty much build scaffolding out of springboards

around the whole tree so that they could work on them.

How's that widowmaker up there?

Has it moved at all?

[Jeff] No. No, it's good.

[Chris] Get me up.

Perfect.

I should be cutting right about here.

Yeah, that should work out real good.

I can go flying right out of there

like a squirrel if I have to.

[Jeff] Hopefully, we don't have to.

[chainsaw whirring]

[chainsaw revving]

[Chris] I don't want to be on these springboards for too long.

You're right in the danger zone.

If that widowmaker wanted to let go or release something,

it's coming straight at you, straight on top of you.

And that's just the worst scenario

you could ever possibly imagine.

How's that widowmaker?

[Jeff] It moved a bit.

-Just a bit. Not much. -[Chris] All right.

Backcut.

I'm thinking I must have some holding wood right in here.

[Jeff] Right in behind you, just keep notching it like you're doing.

[Chris] I think so.

It popped huge.

[Jeff] It did when you did it right there where that burl is.

[tree popping]

[Chris] Right now, it's starting to pop.

I know there's one little post to this tree.

And as soon as I touch this post with my chain,

it's gonna go.

-[chainsaw turns off] -[bleep]

[Chris] I'm out of gas.

You can't turn your back to these trees

once you have that much cuts in them.

[Jeff] Yeah, that moved a bit up there.

[Chris] What's that?

[Jeff] It moved a bit.

Hopefully it doesn't go over.

-[tree creaking] -[Chris] Oh, for [bleep] sakes.

-[chainsaw turns off] -[bleep]

[Chris] I'm out of gas.

[Jeff] Popping, it's lifting.

Hopefully it doesn't go over.

[Chris] Oh, for [bleep] sakes.

[Jeff] It's going to go.

[Chris] Must have some holding wood

right by that big blister there.

Okay.

Well, I'll let you know you're still alive.

[chainsaw whirring]

[Chris] Right in here is where the wood is.

Get in there and clear it out.

All right, here we go.

[chainsaw revving]

-[tree pops] -[Jeff speaking]

[Chris] Hell, yeah. Whoo!

-[Chris exhales deeply] -That went quick.

[Chris] Yeah.

It's even gnarly-looking on the ground.

The widowmaker stayed in the top the whole time.

There's actually lots of good wood in it.

It saved out pretty good.

I couldn't believe how sound it was.

That worked out really well.

We're here talking about it, so that's the best thing we could ask for.

Pick it right up and peel it.

[Cody] Yeah.

[Glen] That's it.

[narrator] Further below, it's day two

of Cody's crash course in super snorkel operation,

and Professor Glen is keeping a close eye on his pupil.

Ease up on the brakes while you pick it up.

[narrator] If he can get the hang of it,

the two could tag team shifts,

sending more logs down to float camp

before fire season shuts them down.

But so far, it's been touch and go.

[Glen] Keep your foot on that brake.

Throttle.

And swing.

Pick up that haulback slack a bit.

Now you got two lines tight,

you got the tag and the haulback.

You've got to watch your snorkel, too,

that you don't hit the bank.

Whoa, whoa, whoa.

Yeah.

See, it's all throttle.

-Yeah. -You'll get used to it.

I just have to be patient with him.

I've said it before, Rome wasn't built in a day.

But you can destroy it in a day.

You're gonna have to swing left

and get it on the other side of that.

There you go.

Now we go a little off the main.

[narrator] If Cody can get to a point

where Glen doesn't have to direct him,

he'll be able to tackle extra shifts on his own.

[Glen] There you go.

Okay.

Let me get off here.

[narrator] So for now, Glen will give him more space

and chime in as little as possible.

-Here. I'll give you that. -Okay.

This is a dangerous job.

Some of these logs can come through the window and through the guarding.

It'll shish kebab your--

Plug the hollow gap between the ears.

These machines, you can be pulling a log up,

and all of a sudden, it gets hung up on a stump.

Next thing you know, you're up in the air like this.

Your tracks are three feet in the air,

and you roll down the hill.

Smash, crash.

I flipped a few of them over, and I flipped this one over.

But I have a few lives left, I hope.

You know, knock on wood.

When you're traveling, Cody, full throttle.

[Cody] Yeah. For sure there, Glen.

[Glen] Okay, let it out more and swing to your left.

If you put off the brake, I can hear it squeaking.

Now throttle, lots of it.

[horn tooting]

[Glen] That's the horn.

Good. There you go.

[Cody] It's hard to pick everything up.

Lots going on.

Something you're not used to.

You're, you know, trying to pay attention

to three or four different things at once.

[Glen] Keep going with the throttle.

Keep going. Swing.

Swing.

He's not swinging.

He's stopped throttling.

You've got to swing and throttle at the same time, Cody.

[narrator] Back at camp, Jared and Ross are still taking on water

and all the damage that comes with it.

By now, it's clear the hull is rusted to the point

where the whole vessel will have to be rushed to dry dock for repairs.

But first, they have a hole to patch.

We want to patch it right now, so we don't have any more

further corrosion happening inside.

When saltwater goes inside, it rusts everything in there.

In a logging camp, you always got to have

a plethora of parts and all sorts of junk.

This might do it.

[Ross] I know there's a sump pump on the camp.

This looks like it might work.

We'll scoop it up, get it in there.

[Ross] Oh, it says sump pump on her.

Look at that. We get lucky.

So plug her in

and try to get some of this water out of here anyways.

Stop the barge from sinking.

[Jared] Taking float camp out of operation right now, it could break me.

I could lose everything.

A logger can use an ax for just about any tool.

There's water coming in there right now, just a little bit at a time,

but it's coming in.

[grunts]

[Ross] There she goes, sitting like a glove.

[Jared] Oh, that stuff smells lovely.

We're gonna try a product that's epoxy putty.

They call it barge in a can of all things.

[Ross] Ain't that wonderful feeling stuff.

Oh, yeah, it's starting to get sticky now.

The goal for this patch is just to get it to go up on dry dock.

Welders are gonna have to cut that piece of metal out and patch over it properly.

If this doesn't work, I don't know how I'm gonna rebound out of it.

The barge sinks. It's stressful.

It's the biggest asset I own.

This is a disaster.

[Dave] I've got a giant floating unicorn.

And we're gonna have a giant floating flamingo for our cold plunge pool.

You're only as good as your people, right?

-[man 1] No. -[man 2] I'm loving this.

[Dave] You have to lead by example.

You've got to keep the morale up with the guys.

Try to make everybody feel like number one.

[exclaiming]

[Dave] That's part of my daily job

is making sure we maintain everything

and keep everybody's attitude happy and healthy

because happy, healthy people

are productive people in our industry.

It's done.

Throttle up and swing.

[narrator] In the hills above float camp,

and after two days of working under veteran Glen,

novice super snorkel operator Cody is starting to show promise.

There you go.

I'd say if he can swing a log up from the bush

and put it where he wants to put it by himself

without me coaching, it'll be a good day.

So basically at the moment, we're just trying to grapple these logs

and, uh, get them stacked over in a neat pile

for the processor off to the side.

Just trying to get the fingers and the hands and feet to do what my brain wants it to do.

I'm trying to figure it out.

[Glen] Cody's a pretty good logger.

I'm sure he'll do it.

I'm not gonna admit that to him.

But he'll get quicker at it, better.

We're gonna bring this log up, peel it,

and, uh, stick it in the ditch here for the guys.

Watch the boom on the bank, like Glen was saying earlier.

[Glen] Smooth.

Cody, nice job.

Perfect.

Sorry. Did I say perfect? I meant pathetic.

Ah, just kidding, bud. Good job.

[narrator] Now that Cody can move logs on his own,

he's well on his way to taking over a shift

and keeping this machine running around the clock

before fire season shuts down the operation.

[Glen] Cody's a pretty good kid.

He'll master it. It took me a while, too.

[Jared] We'll have to go inside again and scoop it up from inside.

[Ross] Yeah, I got the light.

[narrator] Back at camp, Jared's floating HQ

is officially going to have to come out of the water

for emergency repairs.

But to make it seaworthy for the trip out,

he and Ross must go back into the hull

they fled earlier today.

[Jared] After we ran out of oxygen the last time,

we opened the hatches, we pumped fresh air inside.

-[Ross] Okay. -[Jared] I got it.

Let's pull this out.

-Here we go. -All righty, bud.

[Jared] Hopefully it's going to be okay.

Uh, when we enter the hull, the worst-case scenario is we run out of oxygen.

That, uh--

Um, a lot of people have died inside of barge hulls.

-Come up. -[Ross] Following you. You got the light.

[Jared] All right.

-She's in there. She's not gonna-- -[Ross] Oh, yeah.

[Jared] I'm just gonna patch it up on this end.

[Ross] Don't even have to take it to the [bleep] dry dock.

[Jared chuckles] Yeah-- Yeah, we do.

This fix is not the final fix,

but it's just going to accomplish a safe travel to dry dock.

We have to do our due diligence

and get this thing out of the water and get it fixed.

Can you do me a favor and turn the lamp off?

And we'll take a look and see if we see light coming in.

-No light. -[Ross] No light.

[Jared] This barge is everything to us.

All right, let's get the hell out of here.

It's going to be a tough financial hit.

[narrator] Now that the temporary fix is in place,

Jared and Ross head for the nearest town to make arrangements

to get float camp to dry dock before it's too late.

There's a couple of dry docks.

I'll start making some phone calls when we get to town here.

See if we can get one.

For the safety of my crew

and, uh, the 53 souls that sleep here every night,

we need to make sure that this barge is sound

and there's no chance of it sinking.

[narrator] But it's about as bad as timing gets.

With just over 700 grand

saved towards his $1.1 million debt

and fire shutdowns looming closer by the day,

Jared has only one more log barge to go,

plus whatever the tug pulls out at Grizzly.

[Jared] This is a bad situation.

The last thing I want to do is shut down float camp right now, man.

This is not what we need.

This is not gonna help the bottom line.

It's gonna be tough.

I don't even know how we're going to do it.

[Jared] It is that [bleep] bad.

But, uh, tough times don't last, tough people do.

I don't have any other options.

Make it or don't, I'm not gonna give up.

[narrator] Next time on the season finale of The Last Woodsmen...

[Jared] This whole barge camp

being pulled out of the water could break me.

[bleep]

[narrator] Fire danger reaches full effect,

sparking a mad dash to move timber.

[man 1] Watch out, watch out.

-[man 2] Oh! -[man 1] Get out of the way!

[narrator] But when all hell breaks loose...

[man 1] Oh, no.

[man 2] Watch out, watch out!

...saving the business is a fight to the finish.

[Jared] I have to have everything go right right now.

[Jared grunts in frustration]

[Jared] And right now, it's not looking good.