AFOGNAK

Well it is a barge! (Also an Island near Kodiak, north of here.) Just a guess, but I would say that it was about 200 feet long by 45 feet wide. Anything that can carry 66 loads of logs and equipment is huge!

This is a short story about how they load logs onto a barge for transport to the mill.

We have been watching for several days the logs pile up in the log dump area. Two log trucks have been hauling logs from the other side of the bay and decking them here for transport by barge. Now the day has finally come and I was there to watch this very rare transport take place. Not a lot of logging is done on this end of the island anymore.

We got word that that he barge is at the log dump and loading, so we had better get down there and watch.

This is a shovel or log loader, it is large and moves logs easy from one spot to another, so that the logs can be piled high. It will take a lot of concentration.

This tug pulls the barge to and from the destination; also the tug makes sure that the barge is straight while loading the logs.

The log deck, and what is left of it. There was red cedar, yellow cedar, spruce, and Hemlock in the deck. A total of 66 loads in this deck and they will all go on the barge. Red cedar in front followed by Yellow cedar, Spruce and Hemlock. This is loaded according to weight of the type of wood. It smelled so good with all the types of wood smells in the air.

They have to make sure that the weight is the same so the barge doesn’t list to one side or the other, and also make sure that they don’t fall off in transport.

The front end loader moves logs from the deck to the barge so that the shovel can easily deck them.

It took lots of trips to move all the logs.

Finally it is the last load of logs from the deck. The front end loader holds the loads while the shovel picks them up and puts them in a spot. Things are getting full and they still have to make room on the barge for the shovel and the front end loader at the end.

All loaded up and ready to leave.

The lift goes up and off they go. This was all done in about a 8 hour period, as the tide has to be coming in and finished on the high tide so that the barge can have plenty of water and the ramp is not too steep. It was about 9:30 PM when they got done. Now off to Craig to the mill. Good thing the days are long here, with lots of light left. They will arrive at the mill about 18 hours from take off, which is on the other side of the island.

 

Now during this picture process I got ate alive by bugs! Maybe moving the logs around really made them mad and they were out to bite someone, and it was ME!

This is how they transport logs in Whale Pass, Alaska!