Original subtitles

-[man 1] Oh! -[man 2] Watch out, watch out!

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

[Jared] It takes a few seconds in this business,

and you could be killed.

[bleep]

It broke off in the wind, and it caught me right on the side of the head.

[man 1] Holy [bleep]!

Sixty-five stitches across one leg.

[Jared] To tell a family that their husband ain't coming home,

nothing's harder than that.

It's the most dangerous job on the planet.

[man 1] Holy [bleep]!

[Jared] You end up with a brotherhood.

Camaraderie.

I harvest some of the biggest trees in the world

in the most remote areas in the world.

When you find those big western redcedars, there's big money in them.

You can get $60,000 to $70,000 out of that one tree.

They're hard to find, so we're pushing limits to get to those.

And the stakes are really high.

The crew, they're risking their lives every day

for something they love to do.

It's the biggest wood, hardest ground,

steepest hauls.

Toughest job in the world.

And then you get that paycheck.

Holy [bleep]!

[narrator] Welcome to the deadliest logging operation on earth...

[man 1] Get out of the way!

[man 2] Oh, my [bleep]!

[narrator] So remote, the crew lives and works

in isolated camps far from civilization.

Where trees as wide as pickup trucks are still cut by hand.

One wrong move can ruin the tree.

Or worse, cost you your life.

[Jared] When we walk out that door,

there is a chance that we might not come home.

[narrator] At the helm of it all, logger Jared Douglas.

[Jared] My destiny is to be the biggest, baddest logger on the coast.

Keep going, keep going.

What the [bleep]?

This is a full-on risk, and everybody thinks I'm bat [bleep] crazy.

Fire in the hole.

I might sink...

[bleep] That was close.

...or I might swim.

Yeah!

I'm not scared of risk.

Nobody's holding me back.

It's just who I am.

[narrator] These are The Last Woodsmen.

[Jared] Okay, forward.

You got her coming out.

[narrator] Deep in the wilds of the Pacific Northwest,

Jared Douglas navigates his float camp

to its remote logging outpost.

[Jared] It feels like we're getting out of that wind pull better now.

[Ross on radio] Yeah. We're good to go now.

[narrator] For the next three months,

he and his crew will be off the grid

and on the hunt for some of the most valuable timber on earth.

[Jared] It's gonna come in hard, boys.

Nice and gentle, nice and gentle.

-[metallic clank] -[Jared] Not gentle.

Our biggest asset is our floating camp.

We can move it from job to job.

Drop our anchors, get to work.

Straight back, Glenn.

I always like to be present when camp's being moved.

Somebody doesn't know there's a rock protruding

from the ocean floor somewhere,

that barge camp would be peeled open like a tin can and sink.

Like a glove.

Nicely done. Touchdown.

Put a couple of ropes on her and we'll be good to go.

[Jared] Ross is my right-hand man,

and he's full speed, out of lead, getting [bleep] done.

And he's in charge of float camp.

-[on radio] Doing excellent, Ross. -Yeah, you bet.

[Jared] I think I gotta get Daniel

to get the barge door to pull back.

Okay. I'll go grab Hoppy.

A float camp is a floating hotel.

Fifty-five rooms, two story.

It has a rec room, weight room, big cookhouse.

Roast beast. And I love it.

You wake up, and you're at work.

Everybody gets their own room.

So I got all my [bleep] here. Mouthwash.

And then I spray my Lysol down,

get everything cleaned up.

Because you don't know what the [bleep] crawling around here.

[Ross] Nobody has to bunk up, which is great.

Nobody wants to do that,

smell some guy's farts all night.

This one can go--

See where your line is right now?

The way I grew up, it was tough.

I didn't have a lot of money.

I barely graduated high school.

I started logging when I was 19 years old.

My first job was bucking cottonwood

they made into toilet paper.

I was a cocky kid.

And I remember my dad dropping me off at the plane and just said,

"Just shut up and listen to the guys."

I was 23 when I started my own company.

I started this with one machine.

And I built this business one machine at a time.

Got a business partner.

I've been with my business partner for about 15 years.

I decided to go out on my own

and buy the business partner out.

It's a lot of money, it's a lot of stress.

It's a lot of debt. Like, it's a lot of debt.

Twenty feet to go, boys.

Hey, Ryan, you want to stay by that winch?

I could lose everything.

You know, it's a short fall

from the penthouse to the outhouse in this business.

You know, what is scary is when you're supposed to jump,

and we're gonna jump.

[narrator] But taking the full reins of a logging operation

isn't just a massive gamble,

it's also one hell of a grind.

First, Jared and his crew have to track down the giants...

It's beautiful. Straight.

...then carve out roads so fallers can get to them.

And that's when the hazard pay really kicks in.

Bringing down just one of these behemoths is a puzzle.

And one wrong move can be deadly.

Once the trees hit the ground,

the yarders take over,

dragging 50,000 pound logs to the road,

where loaders bundle them up

and oversized haulers, called fat trucks,

muscle them to the water's edge.

Once they splash down,

boom boats wrangle them into place until the log barge arrives.

Then it's payday.

And the work of Jared and his crew

finally turns into cold, hard cash.

[Jared] We're out on a limb here. Like, big time.

[Ross] We got a bunch of inventory roadside.

Okay, well, the buyout has gone through.

-[man] Yeah, boy. -[Ross] All right.

-Wow. -It's done. It's been a long time coming.

[Ross] Yeah, it has been. Yeah.

-You betcha, bud. -Oh, yeah.

Now I'm gonna be able to do the things that I want to do,

which is huge.

Now, it's go time.

It's, like, we gotta get that wood.

[Ross] We're sitting good.

[Jared] We've got to move strong and fast.

Everybody's got to stay safe.

We've had some tough ground, but it's coming.

I have a big debt to pay for buying the partner.

If I don't have $1.1 million in profit by the end of the season,

I'll lose everything.

I lose my house, my company.

But what drives me is being able to provide for my family

the things that I wasn't provided.

I've been with my wife for 24 years,

and we met as teenagers.

She's the love of my life. She puts up with a lot.

Life away from family is tough.

We're warrior building. We want tough kids

that are going to be able to take on the world.

I think every business owner wants to hand down the company.

That's what I want. That's why I do it.

You know the log barge is coming.

We've got five days.

It's imperative we get that wood on the barge.

The barge leaves full, I'd be able to put $200,000 into paying off my debt.

We can't drop the ball right now.

-We have to be on step. -[Ross] Mm-hm.

[Jared] How are we doing here in Kleeptee?

[Ross] The fallers are still finishing up this one piece.

We gotta go do there another yarder section.

And this is supposed to be our candy spot here.

-You guys make sure this log barge is fully loaded. -[Ross] You betcha.

Jim and Rob are out there right now, hand falling.

They're finishing things up, doing some daylighting,

so we can get some wood to the road quick, too, so...

-Get it done. -[Ross] All right.

[narrator] To pay off his $1.1 million debt by the end of the season,

Jared's after not just big trees, but the biggest ones,

timber giants at the end of their lifecycle

and worth up to $70,000 apiece.

[Rob] You've got a longer stride than me.

Yeah, look at him, he's already a freaking half a tree length away.

[narrator] Hand fallers Jim Gardner and Rob Winger

are first up the hill,

blazing the trail on the hunt for that prized big wood.

I didn't think I'd end up being a logger.

I've been a faller for 25 years now.

I went to college for electronics technology,

ran out of money and went logging.

When you're out there by yourself, you're your own boss.

But you don't go into the computer programming job

and there's a chance you're going to die that day.

Fallers depend on each other.

Slow down.

There's tons of smaller incidents.

I nibbled the end of my finger with my saw,

broke my nose, broke my back.

A tree broke off in the wind and caught me right on the side of the head,

folded me in half and threw me down into a gully.

Straight up.

Up, up and aways.

My fallen partners helped me down to the road.

You have to be there for your partner,

in case something like that happens.

I've had three decent friends killed falling.

It does take a toll on the families

because it's always in the back of their mind.

Are they going to make it home?

My wife knows.

She knows the people that I know that have been killed.

And she was at those funerals.

Almost getting too old for this.

[Jim] What do we got?

[Rob] This is the biggest tree we've seen in the last few days, Jim.

Right now, we've come up to a big western redcedar.

It's roughly eight feet diameter, 150 feet tall.

There might be a bit of a problem with breaking off

and going down the hill and on the road.

We obviously don't want that.

We have people behind us.

And we're going to be blocking off their escape

and their first aid, if anything happens.

[narrator] If Jim and Rob can safely bring this tree down,

it will add roughly $50,000 to the load headed out in five days.

But at 26 tons, a tree this massive can explode on impact,

destroying every last dollar of its value.

[Rob] Yup.

This cedar is leaning down the hill a bit.

It's got a pretty heavy canopy.

It's definitely going in one direction

with all that weight on one side.

That's good holding wood there.

When you leave yourself a small piece of wood

and that's holding the tree up,

that's called holding wood.

This is what keeps control of the tree,

and to make sure it doesn't sag or fall apart and blow down the hill.

[Rob] Ooh. That's a bit hollow back there.

That's your best holding wood right there.

There's a bit of a hole back here on the high side, too.

The more rot, the less control you have over that tree.

You can point it wherever the heck you want.

But if you've got a lot of rot in there,

there's nothing to hold the tree on the hill.

It's just gonna go wherever it wants to.

So we're going to aim it to the left, down the sideline.

It's nice and flat.

There's no real stumps that this thing's gonna hit.

Hopefully he can keep enough holding wood there

that he can keep it off the road.

[narrator] Jim's first move will be the undercut,

a deep notch in the front of the tree,

to help send it across the sidehill.

Next, he'll make the back cut,

leaving a strip of what's called holding wood,

to further control the fall.

That's the best a faller can hope for.

But with this tree nearing the end of its life cycle

and showing signs of rot at the base,

there's no telling which way it could go.

[Rob] It's all you. Don't hit the road.

[Jim] Okay, making noise.

[chainsaw whirring]

[Rob] It can be trickier in the steep ground

because [bleep] can go sideways real quick.

[narrator] If the tree hasn't rotted to the core,

Jim should have just enough holding wood to send it where he wants it.

But even that best-case scenario has its challenges.

[Jim] The back cut needs to be just a touch higher than the undercut.

[Rob] There's such a different elevation change

from the high side of the tree to the low side.

Because you're gonna have to be up here.

-[Jim] Yeah. -[Rob] Over your head.

Your saw is designed to be held down here.

And you put it over your head and you get a kickback,

you could cut yourself in the neck,

you could cut yourself in the face.

You just have a lot less control when it's over your head.

I think if I can cut this off here, I can be able to stand on it.

I can create a step

-and stand on that. -Stand on the two of them?

[Jim] To start my back cut.

[chainsaw whirring]

[Rob] Let me hold you.

[narrator] Working from a makeshift staircase is the only way

to put the back cut where it belongs.

But it's risky.

Okay.

[narrator] Jim will be right up against the tree trunk.

And that holding wood could snap at any moment.

Most deadly injuries occur within ten feet of the stump.

And right now, he's got no easy escape route.

[Jim] I'm afraid of heights.

I get nervous every single day.

But the second you panic, the sooner you're gonna make poor decisions.

[chainsaw whirring]

[Rob] If you lose control of a falling tree,

a lot of guys will just run away.

I know guys that have ran right underneath falling trees.

That's not good, when you lose control of a tree.

-[chainsaw stops] -[Jim] Uh-oh.

[Rob] Did that just kill it?

-[bleep] dust? -Yup.

[bleep]

[blowing air]

[chainsaw sputters]

[Jim grunts]

[Rob] I don't like the sound of that.

Jim's saw died. It just sucked in so much of that fine cedar dust.

So I just ran up and grabbed my spare saw.

Fired it up for him and handed it off.

[second chainsaw whirring]

Let's see if we can get something happening again.

Come on, baby.

Because this tree is so big and so round,

there's a really high probability

that it's going to roll down the hill.

And it is such a steep hillside, it could hit the road,

smash the road, cause destruction to that.

And on top of that, it's going to cause destruction

to the log that we're falling.

-There she goes. -[Rob] Oh, yeah, baby.

-[Jim] Oh. -[Rob] Beautifully done.

Maybe not.

[Jim] Oh, stay, stay!

Oh, mama, no!

[Rob] Oh, we're screwed.

This is going on the road for sure.

[chainsaw whirring]

-[Jim] There she goes. -[Rob] Oh, yeah, baby.

-[Jim] Oh. -[Rob] Beautifully done.

Maybe not.

[Jim] Oh, stay, stay!

Oh, mama, no!

[Rob] Oh, we're screwed.

This is going on the road for sure.

-Stopped. -[Jim sighs in relief]

[Rob] As soon as it went over that little crest

and nestled in with the rest of the logs, it stopped.

It was the best-case scenario in that situation.

[Jim] Okay, Rob.

As it sits right now, perfect position,

perfect placement, perfect piece.

[narrator] Despite the violent impact,

Jim and Rob were able to preserve

almost every dollar of this tree's value.

And with that value at roughly $50,000,

this one cedar will go a long way

toward helping Jared's bottom line

when the barge arrives in five days.

-Perfect. -Yeah, man.

[narrator] Back at camp, Jared is already on the hunt

for his next stand of money trees.

[Jared on headset] In a helicopter, it's nice to see it from the air.

You can definitely map it out in your head.

[narrator] Joining the charge,

one of Jared's closest associates,

with roots dating back to the area's earliest inhabitants.

My name is Klakwagiila.

I am a chief from Mowachaht-Muchalaht First Nation.

Oh, and my English name is Jerry Jack.

I always forget that part.

First Nations are a big part of harvesting.

They're the biggest stewards of the land.

They have to sign off on any active harvesting.

And, uh, we respect their values,

and we work closely with them.

[Jerry] Being one of the chiefs in my Nation,

my role is to look after resources.

[Jared on headset] This is the land that the time forgot.

Our First Nations' relationship with the forest is very sacred.

We were stewards of our lands thousands and thousands of years

before anybody showed up here,

and we looked after it.

There won't be any logging in a block

unless they have our approval from the Council of Chiefs.

Oh, this is beautiful wood.

This business is as green as it gets.

Everybody thinks we're knuckle-dragging cavemen with power saws

destroying forests.

It's not that way at all.

Sustainability is key.

We remove the older, weaker trees.

And we plant three trees to every tree we harvest.

A regenerated forest is a healthy forest.

So, this is McCurdy Creek.

This is a future, uh, project.

This is the size of the timber

that we're looking to harvest.

[Jerry] Looks like it.

Fist pump to that, Jerry. We found some good wood.

How's your fuel, Tusch? You got it topped up?

[Tusch on radio] Yeah.

[narrator] Back at camp, the push to move wood to water

before the log barge arrives is well underway

all under the watchful eye of woods foreman Ross Davis,

a logging veteran of more than 25 years.

They'll probably get four loads today each.

It's going to be a tall order.

We don't want to have a barge going home late.

Oh, that's a nice, big one.

Ooh, big wood.

Oof.

When I was 15, I dropped out of school.

It wasn't working for me.

I kept getting into trouble.

And then a buddy of mine, just one day, he needed a guy.

And he's seen me, and he's like,

"Hey, you want to come try this out?"

So at 15, I started bundling logs and slowly worked myself up.

My management style is firm and fair.

There's a lot of guys that don't like me.

Usually it's the guys that aren't pulling their weight.

And I'll pick on them a little bit,

and I'll, uh-- I'll ride their ass a little.

Where is everybody?

There was something going on with the yarder when I was pulling in there,

and they were--

The guys were taking a look at something.

-[Ross] Can you walk? -[man] No, I don't think so.

Walk back a little bit so those guys can get this?

[man] I can't get the brakes off.

[Ross] Can't do nothing there, eh?

[man] I can't move.

[bleep]

With him dead in the water, we're, kind of, gonna be at a bit of a standstill.

[narrator] The down yarder is a major problem

because if Ross and his crew can't get wood off the hill and onto the road,

there's no chance of getting it down to the water

and onto the barge.

[Ross] Pile of wood down there, too, to come in.

That yarder is feeding two machines

and all the highway trucks today.

But, uh, with them down...

nothing's happening, so...

We have a log barge coming in.

Jared's not gonna be very happy if we can't log.

[narrator] Twenty miles away...

Gold River Shore, you on the repeater?

[narrator] Jared's pushing even deeper into the wilderness,

chasing a new area rich with big timber.

But getting to it is an endeavor all its own.

[Jared] We work in such remote areas,

we have to build our own roads just to get to the timber.

These guys need to get another half mile road

built from scratch before the fallers can get in.

How you guys doing?

Ready for a blast?

[narrator] In terrain this rugged

blasting is the only way

to cut through both soil and solid rock.

And the resulting debris

makes for excellent road building material.

But to make the most of every explosion,

the crew must work with tactical precision.

[Jared] What's your strategy here like?

[Dave] We can't get by with a hoe

because it's too steep and [bleep], right.

So we have to blast through it before we can go by it.

How many pounds of TNT or dynamite or explosives?

I'd say probably like 400 pounds.

Four hundred pounds of explosives.

This don't get old, man.

-[laughs] No, this does not get old. -No.

[Jared] I've met a lot of weird blasters.

Dave's about the most normal blaster I've ever met.

Usually I feel like the dynamite seeps through their veins

and, uh, makes them all strange.

But the love of blowing stuff up,

you've got to be a different type of person. Thrill seeker.

Okay, let's scatter.

[Jared] You guys good?

[Dave] Let it rip.

Go.

[explosion]

-[cheering] -[debris clattering]

[Jared] You guys good?

[narrator] High in the mountains of the Pacific Northwest...

Let it rip. There...

[explosion]

-[cheering] -[debris clattering]

[man laughing]

[narrator] Jared and his road crew are one step closer

to reaching their next stand of big timber.

[Dave] That's that.

[narrator] While Dave goes about shaping the rubble

into new road,

Jared heads back down the mountain

to check on logging operations below.

[Ross over radio]

Yeah, go ahead, Ross.

[Ross over radio]

Are you serious?

[Ross over radio]

[sighs]

Okay, give me a minute.

[radio static]

[Jared] If we can get that wood on that barge, I don't know.

Argh!

[bleep]

[Jim] It's about a four and a half foot cedar probably.

[narrator] Further up the hill hand fallers Jim and Rob

-are racing to locate some big timber... -[whirring]

...and get it on the ground before the log barge arrives

in just two days.

What do you think, Jim?

[Jim] I think it looks kind of rotten.

[narrator] They found another massive tree

that could be worth nearly $50,000,

but only if they can bring it down in one piece.

The cedar is probably 130, 140 feet tall.

Twenty-seven-feet circumference,

so it's about eight and a half feet.

If you look from here, it's leaning like...

[sharp exhale]

You can see it splitting right there at that first limb.

Yeah, exactly.

[Jim] Big trees are dangerous.

There's usually a lot of things

that are inherently wrong with them

by the time they get to be that age.

So it's going to be difficult to control the direction

or it might just break off

and go where it wants to go,

which is not where we want it to go.

We may as well try and preserve what we can and band her up.

[Rob] Sounds good.

[Jim] Cedar trees are valuable, and when there's so much force

and it hits the ground at one time,

it will crack and devalue the wood.

So if we band it together

with extra tensile-strength banding,

then hopefully we can keep it all together in one piece.

[rattling]

[Jim] Beautiful.

I was just gonna put an undercut

as far as I can into here,

and nibble away at the back until it falls over.

[narrator] While that banding will reduce the odds

of the tree exploding on impact,

it's still no guarantee.

So to hedge their bets even more,

Jim and Rob will make cuts

that should send it toward a cradle of smaller trees

laid out to soften its fall.

-[Jim] All right, buddy. -[Rob] Is everybody ready?

[Jim] Heck, yeah.

[motor whirring]

[whirring]

[Jim] Started falling maybe eight years ago.

I can't work indoors.

I like not having to watch what I say.

I like not having to watch what I do.

I like not having to dress a certain way.

I like not having to shave.

I like having the absolute freedom

to do whatever I want, the way that I want to.

And it's me not living a lie.

[whirring]

[whirring continues]

-[beeps] -[Jim] It's pinching.

[whirring]

[Jim] It's getting stuck.

Come on.

When you've got your bar in the tree,

you can feel the reactions that tree is doing.

You can feel the tensions.

You can feel the snapping and the popping.

You can feel the slabs that are dislocating inside.

So you can actually feel that in the tree

so you know exactly what's going on.

And on top of that, you can see

the tree's starting to go over,

and you can see the tree is starting to lift.

-[cracks] -This might not be good.

These slabs all want to pop straight out like [bleep]...

celery.

[cracking]

[bleep]

[narrator] On the outskirts of float camp...

-Well, lads, you ready? -Yes, sir.

[narrator] Jared has a risky plan

to solve his yarder problem.

He's pulling another one from the shop early,

midway through needed repairs,

in hopes that it can limp him across the finish line.

[bleep] go.

[Jared] We're gonna bring in our best grapple yarder.

Unfortunately, it caught on fire,

and hopefully that problem doesn't arise itself again.

Yeah, man.

[narrator] But first he and his crew

will have to get it to the job site

some 22 miles away.

[Jared] Are we ready there, lads?

-[Lance] Yes, sir. -[radio static]

[narrator] And with a log barge to fill in just two days,

there's not a moment to lose.

[Jared] We don't normally do this,

but we're pressed for time and I need production.

There's quite a procedure getting this thing moved over.

I'll be driving the push truck.

You pretty much ram the bumper

into the back, uh, a little bit.

Double up the horsepower

to get the low bed up into these hills.

We have a new low bed operator, Lance.

He's really good.

[radio static]

How does everything look back there, Jared?

-Looking good, Lance. -[radio static]

Look in the mirror, Lance.

You're looking good too, buddy.

[chuckles]

Thank you.

I wish I could have done something more with my hair.

[all laughing]

[Ross] All good, bud. Keep her coming, Lance.

[radio static]

-All right, partner. -[radio static]

[Jared] That particular yarder

is worth about 1.2 to $1.5 million.

So having it fall off the low bed

would, uh, probably be the end of my company.

I want to make sure that we get this done right.

[metallic creaking]

[Jared speaking]

[Jared over radio]

[Ross speaking]

Yeah, it's not good.

There's not enough clearance.

[Jared] The boom grabbed the trailer on the push truck

and wiped the, uh, supply hoses right off of it.

That boom sticks out a little too far

and it's banging into the truck.

I don't know if we can put a block in there.

I don't know if it'd stay.

[Lance] Yeah, a block might help.

[Jared] We're putting some blocks in on the top of the, uh, ramps

to try to hold the boom there.

The boom can rest on the ramps.

It's kind of a way to give us some clearance

so that the, uh, boom doesn't hit the push truck.

Right. What do you think?

Just put some chains on there.

[bleep] I don't like you up there.

Like a normal Wednesday.

[clanging]

Okay, let's get this show back on the road.

Definitely a lean to the road, eh?

[Jared] I don't think it's going to hold, but we'll see.

It's not gonna work out.

Whoa, there we go.

Oh [bleep]!

Yeah, we lost our blocks there, boys.

-Okay, bud. -[radio static]

[Jared] It didn't work out too well.

Punched a hole in the deck.

Took the whole board right out of the deck.

We're lucky that the blocks

didn't go through the radiator of the push truck.

So, uh, our logger ingenuity just did not work.

This is [bleep] killer!

[Jared] We'll make it happen.

[narrator] With the log barge just two days out

and a yarder down...

-[clanging] -There you go.

...Jared's bringing in reinforcements.

But less than halfway through the journey,

his replacement yarder is already in jeopardy.

Now we're gonna boom it up in a chain

so that it, uh, doesn't swing.

[man] Nice.

[Jared] So you can imagine if the swing brake let go,

the boom would fly out,

hit a tree

and roll the grapple yarder over off the low bed.

-Let's go. -Yeah, you betcha. Let's go.

[Ross] Big boss man always wants to be around

when we make big moves like this.

[Lance] Let's go.

The cross chains are working well.

[Lance] Right on.

I think the road's going to get ugly coming up.

Oh!

[narrator] So far, the yarder finally seems to be secure,

but the true test is still ahead.

A steep stretch of road

that will push Jared's overland haulers to their limits.

[Jared] It's a narrow road. Steep.

And if you can't get up it,

then, you know, there's a chance of flipping.

[narrator] On steep grades like these,

the safe thing to do

would be to take the yarder off the truck

and walk it up the hill on its own tracks.

But that would cost precious time and money

Jared doesn't have.

How's she feeling, Lance?

[Lance over radio] Feeling good, Jared. Feeling good, buddy.

[Jared] We're going to take the risk,

and we're going to push the yarder over the mountaintop.

We're not wasting our time walking this thing through. We're going to go for it.

[narrator] To make the climb,

the team will need all the torque they can get.

So they'll use a pickup truck

to pull the heavy hauler from the front

while Jared pushes from behind.

I feel like this is gonna be a complete [bleep] up, but...

It'll save us hours of time.

There we go.

I actually get a little bit of adrenaline when this [bleep] goes on.

We're going up over the mountain now.

Come on.

Let's go.

[Ross] This is going to be exciting.

At the boss' direction too.

That's even better. No one can [bleep] for this one.

Oh!

[Ross] Over $2 million worth of gear here,

and the [bleep] show happens right here.

This is the steepest pitch that we're sitting on right now.

[Lance] This is our toughest stretch here.

This corner will be interesting.

Holy [bleep]!

Holy [bleep]!

[Ross] Oh, yeah!

Whoo!

[Ross chuckles]

[exclaims]

[laughs]

They got her.

[whistles]

[Jared] So that just saved a whole bunch of time.

I kind of took a risk, kind of took a gamble

and it, uh, probably paid off a good couple of hours on this move.

[narrator] With the yarder finally in place,

wood moving toward water once again,

Jared might just have a shot at filling the log barge after all.

[cell phone ringing]

-Hey, how you doing? -[Tina speaking]

How was your day at work?

That's good. I wish I could say the same.

How are the kids?

Oh, really? You're working on that new dirt bike.

With me being away and everything,

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.

Whenever I get this log barge loaded or...

Whenever that happens, I'll be home.

Okay. Love you guys. Talk to you later.

Bye.

[Jared] I definitely want to be home with the kids

and put them to bed

and do everything a normal family can do.

But, uh, no, we're out here in the woods

trying to get, uh, log barges filled,

and I'm trying to build an empire. It's tough to do

[Jim] This might not be good.

[narrator] Further up the hill,

Jim and Rob have spent over four hours

wrestling with this cedar,

trying to get one last money tree

down to the water before the log barge arrives.

But it's not going without a fight.

[clicking]

[grunts]

[Jim] Trees that are rotten and trees that are fragmented

have different slabs and different pinch points,

and they like to loosen off at different times,

and that's what we're dealing with right now.

These slabs don't want to pop straight out like [bleep]...

celery.

Oh, she'll come out now.

[whirring]

[narrator] To topple a tree this massive

Rob needs to cut deep into its core.

But this cedar's weight keeps shifting,

so his saw keeps getting stuck,

no matter where he makes a cut.

[motor shuts off]

[Jim] Now let's see.

[rattling]

[Rob] No?

[thuds, rattling]

Uh...

[motor whirring]

[speaking indistinctly]

-[Jim] Oh, baby! -[motor revs]

[motor stops]

[Jim] We got the saw out,

but the tree feels like it's about to collapse.

It feels like it's fragmented on the inside

and it looks like it's going to go

wherever it's going to want to go.

We're going to have to come up with a Plan B here.

It wants to collapse straight down.

I say we throw the spruce at her now

before we get stuck again.

-[Rob] [bleep] Yeah. -[Jim] Okay.

[narrator] Their only hope now

use what's known as a push tree

to force the cedar where they want it,

toward a cradle of smaller trees

cut to cushion its fall.

So it wants to just drop straight down.

We're just gonna hit it with the spruce.

Hopefully, I don't miss,

and, uh, hopefully it takes it over.

[motor revs]

[motor whirring]

[cracking]

Some people do drugs. I do big wood.

[laughing]

[whirring]

[Satan] It's a rush.

[chuckles] Get your mojo going.

Everything out here, you're just like a little ant

getting ready to be squished.

[motor rumbling]

[Satan] Nice.

It takes a certain kind of person to do this stuff for sure.

[whirring]

Somebody crazy like myself. [laughing]

There it goes. Uh-oh.

Dodging bullets all day.

[Jim] Let's throw the spruce at her.

[Rob] [bleep]Yeah.

[whirring]

[narrator] Deep in the forest of the Pacific Northwest,

Jim and Rob are battling a giant cedar

with a mind of its own.

Their only hope of getting it down safely

and loaded onto the log barge

is to use a push tree to force it where they want it.

[whirring]

[cracking]

[motor revs]

-[motor stops] -Nice job, Rob.

That couldn't have hit it any more direct.

That was [bleep] perfect shot.

[Jim] So, would you say the banding worked?

[Rob] Yep. That was a good, uh, stroke of genius.

[Jim] Yeah, that's a [bleep] nice piece of wood.

[narrator] Despite Jim and Rob's best efforts,

nearly $9,000 worth of wood has shattered on impact.

But with the rest of the trees safely grounded,

they can buck it up and prep it for transport

before tomorrow's log barge arrives.

[Jared] I pulled the last bag over there this morning.

We gotta make sure these loaders

put every log we can on there.

[narrator] After all the hard work and money spent,

a 400 foot log barge known as the Hercules,

is here to load Jared's timber.

Right now, all my chips are on the table.

I need to make sure that the barge is leaving full.

[narrator] If Jared can fill the log barge,

he's looking at $200,000 in profit,

a strong payment toward his $1.1 million debt.

[Ross] Well, there she is.

Best view in the world.

The Hercules.

Funny, eh, those big logs look so small on that thing.

-[Jared] Yeah. -[Ross] They don't call it the Hercules for nothing.

[speaking indistinctly]

Those things are beastly, aren't they?

-[Jared] Yeah, they are. -[Ross] Look at the size of that grapple.

[moaning sounds]

Hey, Lance. It's Jared. How you doing?

[Lance] Yep.

Right on. How are the bundles? Heavy?

[Lance] Uh, that's...

[narrator] Jared has a rough estimate of the wood here,

but he won't know how much he's made

until the final bundle is weighed in.

[Jared] I'm starting to feel panicky

that I'm not going to be able to pay my debt.

[Lance] You wanna come aboard?

I think we're only gonna do about another hour here,

and then we're out of here for today.

I gotta head to my cabin.

[Lance] How come it's for sale?

Well, I was trying to buy out the business partner.

I didn't think I'd have enough money,

but I keep pumping these barges out

I might be okay.

[Lance] Just keep logging.

They say there's a smell of money,

but, uh, there's definitely a sound.

That moan of the cranes.

The moan of money.

-More money, more problems. [chuckles] -[Ross] Yeah.

He's built this from nothing, from one machine.

[Ross] He tries to keep people working as much as he can,

and the guy's got a lot on his plate

and he handles it better than anybody I know.

I respect him for sacrificing for the company.

[man] Hey, Jared.

Looks like we're gonna be a little late today.

No...

[narrator] After all the effort,

Jared only profited $89,000

out of a possible 200,000.

Less than half what he expected.

[Jared] I'm getting spread a little thin

and I'm getting nervous.

I feel like I've made a mistake,

big time,

buying out my business partner.

It's too far gone to back down,

and, uh, it's going to be stressful

to pay that debt back.

If I fall short on, uh, these log barges,

the bank is gonna come looking for my house.

I'm in big trouble.

[narrator] This season, Jared's striking out on his own.

[Jared] Welcome to hell, boys. This is it.

[narrator] And with his sights set on expansion,

he's headed into uncharted territory.

[man] Getting this to fall side hill is going to be tricky.

[narrator] Putting it all on the line.

[Jared] My time to grow the company the way I want it.

Nobody's holding me back.

[man] Watch out! Watch out!

[bleep]

We're sitting on a million dollars of wood right here.

[Jared] This is a haywire Hail Mary!

That's super-hot.

Ninth inning, the bases are loaded.

I [bleep] up, didn't I?

The risk that we're taking...

I need to get wood down that [bleep] river.

I'm not going to tell my wife we're gonna sell our house. It's ridiculous.

You don't move the wood,

you go broke.

I might sink.

[man 1] That was close!

-[bleep] -[man 2] There's a bear coming at ya.

[exclaims]

-Or I might swim. -Fire in the hole.

[Jared] Got everything on the line.

This is [bleep] bad.

-Uh-oh, my... -[bleeping]

[Ross] Keep going. Keep going.

Back in business.

[Jared] I can lose everything.

[man 1] Man overboard.

-[Jared] My business. -[man 2] We're gonna need first aid.

-[Jared] My family. -[man 3] Oh!

[cracking]

[Jared] This season, there's no giving up.

Oh, holy [bleep]!