115: A Tale of two saws, part 4!

Yesterday, I spent the afternoon and evening at the Great Smoky Mountains National Park, smoking chicken for NPS trail crews at the end of their summer.  There I reconnected with Josh Burt, who brought a plywood box full of huge, sharp, two-man crosscut saws, some dating to the 30's and 40's and bearing stamps showing they were part of the New Deal labor effort.  After watching Josh destroy a competitor twice his size in a race (see the video), I chose to let go my 2-year-old Angus's hand and challenge him myself.  Here's the first contest, complete with an unexpected twist of fate and the resulting drama:

Josh not only knows saws, but he's fit from using them in the field all summer.  He beat me handily even though I was fresher, but I was very close and pretty happy with my first-time performance and would say I'd get considerably faster with practice, except my aging knees and back threatened revolt last night and this morning.  Still, I love short, anaerobic efforts and had a great time.  Here are some pictures of my attempt!:

On the mark!

Go!

Angus watches Daddy under duress...

Josh is working like a machine!

I'm starting to burn.

Almost through, sinking to one knee...

Josh finishes now, and I'm spent.  Angus said, "Daddy, you're not supposed to do that!"  Don't know whether he meant lose, or tackle something so physically intense in the first place.  I said, "Angus, you're probably right!" and limped away...