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The locals call the Pacific Northwest “the Upper Left.”

Being from the Lower Right, and never having visited the Pacific Northwest before, I had become quite curious about it. So back in September, I scheduled a trip and spent two memorable weeks exploring Washington and Oregon.

I covered a lot of ground in that time, and I feel qualified to make this observation: the Upper Left is the land of Subarus and log trucks.

A bit of a contradiction, yes, but that’s the way it is.

Subarus are relatively uncommon in the South. I own a Forester myself, so I notice these things.

But in Washington and Oregon, Subarus are everywhere. I even got an Outback as my rental car when I flew into Portland.

I have no idea why Subarus are so popular there. But after I noticed it, I began looking for them. They seemed to be the second most common vehicles on the road.

The most common? Log trucks.

Logging is THE major industry in the Northwest. It dwarfs everything else. The cutting and hauling of trees goes on non-stop, and all you can do is get out of the way.

I’m sure the tree-huggers of that region — the Subaru people — do not like the logging industry very much. But fighting it is futile. Timber is simply too big, too important, too entrenched.

And the logging people are happy to tell you that. One morning, I saw a bumper sticker on a pickup truck that said, Save a logger. Eat an owl.

Later, I got behind a log truck with this bumper sticker: Are you an environmentalist, or do you have a job?

My first thought was to answer, “Both,” but that’s not right; I’m retired.

More about logging in my next post.