7 Marks On A Cedar You Should NEVER Ignore, From a Retired Washington Logger

There is a mark on a standing cedar up here that tells a faller which way the tree means to fall, no matter where he lays his cut. By the time you read it wrong, the saw is already buried in the wood. I set chokers at 17 and I fell timber in these Washington Cascades through the 1970s and the 1980s, the same as my father and my granddad before me. This is the honest answer to the 7 marks the old crews never walked past, from a man raised under those trees. In this one you will hear the catface, the healed fire scar that pulls a tree down on its burned side; the bear's claw and rub and the height that should scare you; the lightning scar that leaves a tree shattered and still standing green; the old blaze and the fresh one you should never follow; the conk and the hollow butt that throws a barber chair; the line of dead red tops that says the hillside itself has gone bad; and the last one, up the Wind River toward the Dark Divide, that I have never been able to explain. 6 of them a man can read and explain. The 7th, nobody up here ever could. You can weigh it for yourself. If these old woods keep you listening, subscribe, and I will keep bringing you what they taught me. Chapters: 0:00 A Mark on a Standing Cedar 0:33 The Catface 2:09 The Bear Tree 3:35 The Lightning Scar 4:51 The Blaze You Did Not Cut 6:19 The Barber Chair 8:09 The Dead Red Tops 9:26 The Wrung Timber 11:22 What They Taught Me Stay dry, and stay on the trail. Merle #PacificNorthwest #PNW #WashingtonState #Cascades #GiffordPinchot #OldGrowth #Logging #Sasquatch