Scaling Tall Timber

General Fiction

By Dave Folsom

Publisher : Dave Folsom.net

ABOUT Dave Folsom

dave folsom
I started writing stories and essays over twenty years ago after taking a course in creative writing on a whim. That influence prompted me to write about some of the colorful characters I'd met in the many places and occupations I'd explored. Some, though not all, of the characters and eve More...

Description

Shortly after graduating from college and searching for a fresh start, a young forester is assigned to a new job in a remote area of northwestern Montana.  Recently injured in a vehicular crash that killed his girlfriend, he applies for a new job attempting to rebuild his life.   Centered around the western logging industry, the story focuses on events that bring sudden change to an ideologically resistant area and a young man's unwilling involvement.

            Upon arriving, he confronts his hard-driving boss rebelliously, but soon learns that finding what he's looking for will require a major effort on his part.  The locals, a hard-working, hard-living, idiosyncratic lot take on the task of educating their new co-worker in ways he could never have imagined.  Finally, befriended by an alcoholic logging truck driver, who's efforts to help enable both to grow into recovery.   Learning the lessons teaches him about surviving the horrific and he finds himself melding into the eclectic area when a new change forces the locals to rely on his assistance.

            Just as he becomes attached to his new surroundings and the quirky inhabitants, new technology threatens his job followed by news of a hydroelectric dam construction effort planned a short way downstream that will destroy the entire valley.