Ryan Byrd’s Ramblings

Thanksgiving Point, that overpriced eyesore of a hangout for socially-awkward, nouveau riche Alpine women, was the spot for the Wild Outdoors Festival STIHL Timbersport Series. This first stop in the Series competition featured top-ranked lumberjacks, the world’s best speed climbers, and female boom runners. Also, Smokey the Bear was walking around scaring the little children.

Like most gatherings of hard working Americans, there was pulled-pork sandwiches, baked beans and funnel cake. These are down-to-earth, meat-and-potatoes type of people, and this was their type of entertainment; chopping and sawing and climbing and running.

These lumberjacks, by the way, many from Australia and New Zealand, are burley men, with giant forearms and quick smiles who race up trees at the drop of a hat. It must be a cultural thing. In the US, if a grown man kept climbing your trees, we’d probably lock him up.

The main event, of course, was the female boom running, which featured fleet-footed, spiked-shoed ladies sprinting across soggy, spinning logs floating in a swimming pool. The slightest misstep and splash! into the water she goes. Fast fact: the term “lumberjill” is the female equivalent of a lumberjack.

There were related booths set up around the park, including those with duck decoy vendors, park rangers and barbecue associations. There was even a tent filled with lumberjacks in period costumes attempting stunts with a bull whip. Did I learn how to crack a whip? Yes. Did I manage to do it on my first try? Yes.

Unlikely corporate sponsor of the day: Best Buy’s Geek Squad.

Here are a few of the lumberjacking pictures I took there. Enjoy!