RogersFall 2015
Aberdeen, WA: We left our Association of Elk Huntters of Washington at the KOA and headed to Lake Quinault in Olympia National Park. Half way there we drove through the largest logging town we've seen our travels, Aberdeen, WA. Giant Weyerhaeuser factories followed the river through the town. Houses looked like company or union built dwellings, cookie cutter, built 50 plus years ago, most in neglect. We stopped to refill the fridge at a local grocery store and sadly, a few of the people we met were like the houses, depressed and run down. Logging must be a tough business I suspected. True, we were riding through neighborhoods along the 101, it was was overcast day, but it was the sense of the town we both felt. Dreary, like the weather. I imagined the union leaders and mill bosses houses ensconced on the hill over looking the minion. By instinct, we didn't photograph the depression and looked for better shots. Not much, the draw bridge and the happy faced log were the highlights.
Another thing that was interesting as we drove the 4-5 miles through the lengthy community, while riding through the residential neighbors lined with their cookie cutter homes on small same sized 6000 sqft lot is that there weren't very many trees in the yards. On either side of the town, there were miles and miles of forest, green lush trees reaching for the sky. Again, I guess these folks live and breath logs every day. "We don't want no stinkin' trees in our yard." I imagined was the mantra.
To that point, as we continued our drive north, we sure did see a lot of logging trucks. Must have been two dozen that passed us in an hour, all heading towards the mills. I'll remember this the next time I receive a "go paperless" notice from one of the remaining institutions I do business with that I already haven't gone paperless.
Just a note, it does appear that the logging industry does spread their harvest around and we saw many new forest going up as we rode the 101. There sure are a heck of a lot of trees.
