HUN Chapter 40: Exploring Around the Fishing Platform

The next morning was still clear and calm, with peaceful winds.

Lin Yu'an strapped the logging axe to his back, shouldered his American hunting bow and quiver, then paddled the Pioneer canoe across the tranquil lake waters.

He skillfully used two homemade long wooden paddles to row, first heading to the river bend where he'd set the gill net last night.

From the canoe, he carefully observed the float conditions. The water surface was calm, with no signs of fish hitting the net.

"Looks like luck's just average this morning," he muttered, not lingering, and continued toward yesterday's wooden fishing platform.

After roughly half an hour of paddling, the canoe steadily reached the lakeshore where the platform was located.

Lin Yu'an pulled the boat ashore, tied it with rope to a waterside tree, then began exploring the surrounding area.

He didn't rush into the dense forest, but first walked along the shoreline, carefully observing any possible traces.

Soon, some unusual sights caught his attention at the edge of a forested area not far from the fishing platform.

Some tree cuts were unusually neat, clearly caused by tool cutting, and judging by the weathering of the cuts, they weren't too old.

"Hmm? These are..."

Lin Yu'an crouched down, touching with his finger a tree stump about twenty to thirty centimeters in diameter. The cut surface was smooth, bearing traces of mechanical cutting.

"This is clearly a cut that only a chainsaw or power saw could make. Could there be people living nearby?"

Following these cutting traces toward the forest interior, he discovered similar marks extending deep into the woods.

"So many cut tree stumps, it seems that fishing platform was very likely left by workers who were logging here before."

He decided to follow these logging traces. As he walked, he paid attention to the surrounding environment.

Occasionally he could find discarded cigarette butts or chewing gum wrapper fragments on the ground, further confirming his speculation.

"British Columbia's logging industry is an important economic pillar, with large quantities of timber harvested and transported from these virgin forests each year."

"Small work crews of three to five experienced loggers entering forest areas for selective harvesting is very common."

"They usually set up temporary camps, and after completing harvesting operations, transport the logs via waterways to collection points."

"I hope I can make some discoveries at their temporary camp."

After passing through a relatively dense spruce forest, a small forest clearing appeared before him.

In the center of the clearing was a circular fire pit obviously built with stacked stones, still containing some completely cooled charcoal ash.

"This should be the loggers' temporary camp!" A flash of excitement crossed Lin Yu'an's eyes!

"Looking at these campfire traces, they haven't been completely washed away by rain, suggesting this camp might have had activity just three to five days ago!"

On one side of the clearing stood a simple wooden shed constructed from logs as thick as rice bowls.

The shed roof was now hollow, previously probably covered with large waterproof tarps.

Inside the wooden shed was empty, but the air still carried a faint mixed scent of diesel and motor oil.

Lin Yu'an entered the shed and saw wood chips scattered on the ground along with several small puddles of dark oil stains.

"This should be where they stored chainsaws and diesel. At night the chainsaws and tools were kept here, while the workers probably returned to sleep on boats moored at the lakeside."

He noticed several rows of thick iron nails hammered into the shed's inner walls, obviously for hanging tools and clothing.

Most nails were empty, but on one nail near the very back hung a small piece of something glinting with metallic luster.

Lin Yu'an walked closer and couldn't help but feel delighted, it was actually a broken chainsaw chain segment!

This chain segment looked quite new, dark and glossy, with teeth still sharp, showing no obvious wear or rust.

Only at one chain link was there an obvious break gap.

Lin Yu'an happily removed the chain segment from the iron nail and weighed it in his hand.

"So lucky! This should have been casually hung here by the loggers, and when they left they either forgot to take it or thought it wasn't worth taking."

He carefully examined the chain's material and the sharpness of its teeth.

"This is good stuff! Though broken, if I can find a way to fix the remaining part onto a bow-shaped wooden frame, I could make a very efficient hand saw!"

"It can fill the gap of not bringing a saw, which would greatly improve my subsequent wood cutting and processing!"

He unhesitatingly pocketed this chainsaw chain segment.

Then using the back end of his logging axe blade, he pried down those thick iron nails hammered into the wooden wall one by one.

"These iron nails are also valuable metal resources that can be used to make other tools, or for purposes I can't think of right now."

Lin Yu'an wasn't satisfied with this. He continued carefully searching this small logging camp, hoping for more discoveries.

He noticed a track worn by heavy equipment near this camp, winding toward the lake.

"Seems they dragged the harvested logs to the lakeside via this small road, then lashed them into rafts for water transport."

Lin Yu'an followed the small road toward the lakeside. This path ultimately led to a slightly sloped riverbank extending directly to the water.

The shoreline mud was soft, still bearing some deep furrows left by dragging large timber, along with scattered wood chips, obviously this was the dock for pushing logs into the water.

At this somewhat messy-looking riverbank, his attention was drawn to things scattered in rock crevices and along the shore.

Walking closer, his eyes flashed with pleasant surprise! Those were segments of nylon rope in various colors!

These nylon rope lengths weren't too long, mostly between one to two meters, with varying thicknesses, some as thick as his own paracord, others thinner.

They weren't concentrated in one place, but scattered throughout this roughly ten-meter-long riverbank area.

Lin Yu'an bent down and picked up a meter-and-a-half-long blue nylon rope. The rope surface was covered with mud and sand, but the main structure remained intact.

"These should be scraps left after the loggers cut ropes used for binding and dragging logs."

"These scattered rope fragments had little utility value for them, so they just abandoned them here."

Lin Yu'an patiently collected these scattered nylon rope segments piece by piece. Counting roughly, there were over a dozen pieces! Though each segment wasn't long, their combined total length was quite considerable.

"Though I brought paracord, rope is something you can never have too much of in the wilderness. These nylon ropes will definitely come in handy!"

For a logging team with adequate material supplies, these scattered short ropes might indeed be "waste not worth bothering to recover."

But for Lin Yu'an in the wilderness, where everything required careful calculation, this was undoubtedly an unexpected windfall.

"Guys, look at today's pleasant surprise!"

Lin Yu'an held up the broken but still gleaming chainsaw chain, waving it in front of the camera.

"Though it's broken, to me this is practically a divine tool! I already know how I'm going to use it!"

With his bountiful harvest, Lin Yu'an paddled the canoe once more. He couldn't wait to return to the shelter and begin his new project.

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