When Nate Blakeslee, of Spartansburg, first heard about the logging competition at Deary Days in Idaho, it seemed like one of those dreams that would stay on the bucket list forever. But last summer, after years of talking about it, he and his friend Cleve Holcomb, of Corry, found themselves booking plane tickets to the small logging town nestled in Idaho’s timber country.
“Cleve said he thought we should go, and we started looking at plane tickets,” Blakeslee recalled. “The next thing we knew, we had tickets booked to Idaho.”
Blakeslee, a fourth-generation logger and partner in Blakeslee Forest Products, comes from a family with deep roots in the timber industry stretching back to World War II, when his great-grandfather Carl T. Blakeslee served in the 797th Division of Forestry in Burma. Holcomb, a teacher at Corry Area Primary School, has been using a chainsaw to cut firewood since he was 12, and started competing in lumberman contests about five years ago after meeting Blakeslee through a mutual friend at the Spartansburg Community Fair.
The two men represent an interesting cross-section of the chainsaw racing community.
“What will surprise you with this group is less than half of them work with chainsaws every day,” Blakeslee explained. “They just like chainsaws.”
He’s met jewelers, financial advisers and people from all walks of life who share this unusual passion.”
Not very many people will go all the way across the country to race garden tools,” he added with a laugh.
Cleve Holcomb placed second in an eight-cube (eight cubic inch) chainsaw run.
Contributed photos
A different kind of timber
The journey to Deary required careful planning. Since the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) doesn’t allow chainsaws in carry-on or checked luggage, the pair had to ship their equipment ahead of time.
“I know a guy that tried it once — put a chainsaw in his suitcase, drained all the fluids out of it and stuff,” Blakeslee said. “They confiscated it.”
When they arrived in the small Idaho town — population just over 500 — they found a community that felt familiar despite being nearly 2,000 miles from home.
“It was just a small town, almost like coming to Spartansburg, but it was in Idaho,” Blakeslee said. “The locals were curious about their Pennsylvania visitors, asking questions about the mountains and timber back east.”
But the wood itself presented a significant challenge. In Pennsylvania, the largest logs Blakeslee had competed with measured 12 inches in diameter. In Idaho, they were cutting through 24-inch rounds of red fir, a much harder wood than what they were accustomed to.
“I was nervous about that,” Blakeslee admitted. “A lot of the work that goes into saw racing is chains and getting the chain right for the wood that you’re cutting.”
His preparation paid off.
“My chain did what I needed it to do,” he said.
Bringing home the hardware
In chainsaw racing, competitions are divided into classes based on engine displacement, measured in cubic inches. A five-cube competition, for instance, allows chainsaws with engines up to five cubic inches, which translates to about 81 cubic centimeters. These size restrictions create a level playing field where competitors race chainsaws of similar power, making the difference come down to the saw’s tuning, the sharpness and design of the chain and the skill of the person running it. The smaller three-cube class uses even more compact engines, while unlimited classes allow competitors to run any size saw they choose.
The Spartansburg contingent — which also included Blakeslee’s wife Megan and Holcomb’s girlfriend Becky Donovan — competed in multiple events and performed impressively. Blakeslee took first place in both the three-cube and five-cube competitions and second in crosscut sawing. He and Megan won the Jack and Jill crosscut event.
Holcomb secured second-place finishes in axe throwing, five-cube and unlimited chainsaw, while he and Donovan took third in Jack and Jill crosscut. In one memorable event, Blakeslee and Holcomb crosscut through a 16-inch round of red fir in about 45 seconds, earning second place.
“My favorite moment was probably my first run when I realized, ‘Hey, I’m not terrible at this. I can be competitive,'” Blakeslee said.
For Holcomb, the highlight was simpler. “Cutting that big timber is different,” he said.
The competition format in Idaho differed from what they experience in Pennsylvania. Rather than cold starts (chainsaw not running) or hot starts (chainsaw running) where the saw sits on the ground, Idaho competitors use what’s called “over the block” — standing with a running chainsaw above the log when the timer begins.
“It’s more about the speed of the saw and how you run it there,” Blakeslee explained.
From left are Cleve Holcomb, Nate Blakeslee and Jason Egan, organizer of the competition and owner of Egan Performance Saws in Deary, Idaho.
Contributed photos
A world of difference
Beyond the competition, the trip offered a glimpse into how dramatically logging practices differ across the country. In Pennsylvania, loggers typically use skidders, dozers or horses to drag timber out of the woods. In Idaho’s mountainous terrain, they employ yarders — overhead cable systems that pull logs up steep hillsides.
“They take strips off these mountains,” Blakeslee explained. “The cable pulls it up, so it’s very different.”
Even the tree-felling techniques varied from eastern methods, reflecting the adaptation to different terrain and timber species.
The pair made a vacation of the trip, spending time sightseeing around Idaho when they weren’t competing. They connected with lumbermen from Washington, Oregon and California, including someone from Washington state who now owned a saw Blakeslee had previously sold — a small-world moment that highlighted the tight-knit nature of the chainsaw racing community.
From Spartansburg to the circuit
The Idaho trip represents just one stop in what has become an expanding competition schedule for both men. They recently competed at the Battle at Burrville Line Clearance Tree Trimming Rodeo in Watertown, N.Y., and were preparing for Saw Fest in Marysville, Ohio — a major event that fills its 50 entries per class months in advance.
Blakeslee, who entered his first saw competition at age 15 and has been competing for 30 years, credits the internet with transforming his approach to the sport.
“I met all these people online through different chainsaw groups,” Blakeslee said. “That kind of sparked more interest, because I learned there was a lot more to it than what I knew going to one race a year in Spartansburg.”
He watched videos, learned techniques and discovered that success in saw racing often comes down to one critical factor: having a fast enough chain.
“I think everyone’s motors are somewhat evenly matched, but if you have a really good chain, it will help you a lot,” Blakeslee said.
The pull of the saw
Both men plan to return to Idaho.
“I think I’ll probably go back,” Blakeslee said. “I can race a little bit, and I can make a vacation of it.”
Holcomb agreed with Blakeslee.
“It was just an overall great experience,” Holcomb said. “It’s something I never thought I would do. I’ve always enjoyed chainsaws, but I never thought, ‘Hey, I’m going to be out in Idaho competing with a chainsaw.'”
For Blakeslee, the experience represents something deeper than competition results.
“I’ve met people from all over the world,” he noted. “We all have common bonds through racing. We’re very similar — similar type people when we finally meet, and similar in other interests, too.”
In a world increasingly connected by screens, two men from western Pennsylvania found community the old-fashioned way: by pursuing a passion, traveling far from home and discovering that whether you’re cutting timber in Pennsylvania or Idaho, the love of the work creates bonds that transcend geography.