Toba Inlet or: Am I being paid by the vertical foot? (lots of pics)

Spent the last ten or so days in a camp at the somewhat remote Toba Inlet where a run-of-river hydro-electric project is being built. We were hired to remove trees in riparian areas and to piece apart 125 trees down to 6-8 meter spars for use in salmon spawning channels that are going to be built. It's an amazing area, one of the most rugged places I've been and a lot of it is untouched. The most recent logging in the area was in 1987, but mostly it took place in the valley bottom so a lot of old-growth forest remains.

A bunch of photos, mostly of the scenery.

The main camp.


View from my room in the float camp.


Some Amex explosive that they were flying to blast a few hazard snags. They had pallet after pallet of the stuff.


One of the powerhouses under construction


They were flying these up to some of the pole sites with Helifor's Vertol


Old growth.


Some areas must have burnt at one time because there's some lonely old trees in unaccessible spots.


Waterfalls everywhere.


A few of the about ten deer we saw everyday.


We got some sun for the last few days we were there.


Morning.


Some big trees growing in places I wouldn't think there's any soil to speak of.


Waterfall we worked beside for a few days.


Some of the finished spars. Most were Sitka Spruce and Amabilis Fir between 100-180' tall.


Steep country.


Young grizzly.


Flying home in a float plane.


Brem River


Video with some blasting for fun.
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I've got a bunch more pics from the last time I was there if anyone's interested.

Absolutely beautiful Gord. Thanks for sharing the pictures.

Awesome pics and video Gord... What a great experience...
Thanks for putting them up.

Very cool Gord, I guess we forgive you for ignoring us for 10 days

Funny thing is the greenies are making us rip out our hydro-electric cause they are in the way of the salmon.... Our most effecient and clean source of power!

Another day at the office Gord? Great shots and video, thanks for sharing with us.

wicked Gord, nice shots of the BC natural coast stuff. I havent been up to Toba yet but someday I would like to get up that way. Great pics eh.

Incredible. How did you get that gig?

Nice! Do you ever drop your wedge?

Wow, what a gig! Great pics.

AMFO rocks,so do the pics

beautiful up there, nice work

So, where is Toba Inlet?

Dynamic looking place, thanks for posting the great pics.

Love it! Great pics!!!

Gary

I emailed a link of this thread to www.Larslarson.com since you guys are building hydro-electric and we are tearing it down. He is going to talk about Toba inlet project on his show today

Breath taking views, thanks for sharing them.

Interesting willie. These projects have had some bad press, but I have to say when you look at the alternatives for power sources these run-of-river places come out looking pretty good. A portion of the water is taken out of a river, diverted into a steep pipe into a turbine and then returned to the original river. All of the diversion occurs above fish habitat. As in, the waterfall that i'm standing in front of in the one picture is where that water is returned to the river. Aside from the timber felled for the ROW and the earth moved for the building and penstock (pipe) sites the impact on the watershed isn't overly burdensome in any way.

I know that might sound like recited propaganda but it's not. It is a good alternative to almost any other method.

That doesn't sound like propaganda at all...

...but the "greenies" will always find a way to bitch about any kind of project that can benefit mankind.

Gary

Wow

Wow, Gord that video was just like a dream I had once, thanks for sharing, way cool all around!

Hey MB the first top in the video I did drop the wedge, I think that's maybe about the third time I have.

What's AMFO sothere?

That is a sweet video Gord

Thanks for the picts and video...the helmet cam of cutting out the tops was very good. I enjoyed watching your technique.

It looked like there was some fiber at the back of the cut still holding when 2 of the tops went over (see top at 1:57). How and why did you do that? Or was I seeing something wrong?

It was like that in a couple shots, Panther. If I had to guess the fiber's tensile strength wasn't enough to hold the top from going over, same as when a hinge tears.

We take pine's strength for granted here in the southeast.