Loggers take their cuts

A special type of cookie-making contest happened Saturday in the Spokane Valley, one that required chain saws instead of chocolate chips.

Alvie Marcellus, of Spokane, fired up his Stihl saw and buzzed six “cookies” from a vertical cottonwood log. Sawdust sprayed as the whirling teeth sliced round pieces of wood that Marcellus skillfully stacked. The object of this popular timber sport is to cut as many cookies as possible and put them in a pile, using only the saw – not your hands. And no, the competitors don’t eat their creations.

The cookie stack was just one of the many events during the one-day logging competition, a new addition to Valleyfest that’s meant to bring athletes with saws and axes from across the Northwest and Canada to honor the legacy of woodsmen.

The annual Spokane Valley festival wanted to add a spectator sport, and the Spokane Regional Sports Commission came up with logging games.

“It’s a logging community,” said Suzanne Boyce, the commission’s marketing and communications director.

Boyce was impressed with the number of competitors as well as the couple hundred people who watched men and women chop stumps, throw axes and roll logs in a pool of water in a makeshift arena just west of Mirabeau Park. The athletes ranged from beginners just learning how to handle a bucksaw to professionals with world titles and appearances on ESPN.

“Go! Go! Go!” yelled the Rosenbaum family from the metal stands as a young woman with a blond ponytail swung an ax blade into the log she was standing on.

Paul and Kathryn Rosenbaum, of Spokane Valley, brought their three children to the festival for the displays and to watch the logging events.

“We buy our firewood,” Kathryn Rosenbaum said as the female competitor grunted, taking one last swing before chopping the log in half.

Marcellus, 64, helped organize the games, which require competitors to use old-fashioned factory-made saws just like the loggers who cleared the path for cities such as Spokane. There are a few events, like the cookie stack, where motorized saws are used.

The forester, who began working in the woods at age 13, wants the sport to attract new people to carry on the tradition.

“Our goal is to get some young blood,” Marcellus said, adding that there were collegiate teams from both the University of Idaho and University of Montana.

Stephanie Ferguson traveled from Williams Lake, British Columbia, to compete with her boyfriend, John Walker. The couple hit about 14 timber games each year.

“It keeps the tradition alive,” said Ferguson, who grew up in a Canadian logging town.

Ferguson was catching her breath after competing with Walker in the Jack and Jill, where together they used a crosscut saw to slice off two pieces of a 14-inch log.

The saw, about 30 feet long, has handles on each end and traditionally was used to cut the largest trees. It cuts both directions and is faster than a chain saw, Ferguson said.

“You really have to work with your partner,” she said, adding that it takes the perfect combination of weight and speed for the saw to cut smoothly without bowing or binding up.

The couple began competing together eight years ago, and Ferguson admitted it’s taken that long for them to get a rhythm, which was on pace Saturday when they won the first heat by slicing off two slivers in about 16 seconds.

“It’s better to be sawing and chopping than in the spectator’s seat,” Ferguson said.