Mike Pearson's Adventures on a Pale Blue Dot

Logging skidders are/were a corner stone of small and medium sized logging operations. These machines lift one end of the log ( or logs ) and drag the prize down the hill, through the trail, over the rocks and stumps, through the mud...to a log landing. Hence the term "skidding"..because the back end of the load is dragging on the ground. The load is called a "turn"...as in "I'm going back for another turn" ...or.."how many turns did you get today?" When you drive a skidder, it's called "running"...as in "I have been running the skidder all week" Skidders can be on rubber tires, or on tracks. You can skid logs with a cat and arch, you can have a cat with a log grapple to skid logs. Rubber tired skidders can be equipped with just a winch and steel cable, or have a hydraulic grapple to organize and grasp the load...plus a winch and cable. The old style skidders with the winch and cable are a much more physical bea...