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  Born in Ashland, Maine, and raised in Sherman, Mike Eash '93 knows his ashes (ash trees, that is). He grew up surrounded by the paper mills, timber-company land and thousands of acres of woods in southern Aroostook County. But not until a chance evening at Colby did Eash discover his passion for "timbersports." Now 29 and living in Coatsville, Pa., Eash is one of the top lumberjacks in the world, competing in chopping and sawing events for thousands of dollars and appearances on national television. Eash was the only Mainer of 29 lumberjacks who competed at the Great Maine Lumberjack Showgrounds in Trenton in August in a regional qualifier for the Stihl Timbersports Series, which brings together the best lumberjacks in the world. The lumberjacks had already competed in Tennessee. Eash, a world-record holder in the underhand block chop, did not qualify for any final events but he turned in a 19.7 seconds in the standing block and a 20-second underhand chop. "I haven't really had great chops here, but it's not bad," he said. "I would have liked to make one of the finals." He did participate in a relay with three other lumberjacks at the end of Saturday's show, cheered on by a group of friends from Colby. That's where Eash discovered timber sports, when a friend took him to a meeting of the College's woodsmen's team on the way to dinner one evening. Eash liked the people, took up chopping and after his sophomore year started competing professionally. "I was very involved with it," Eash said. The underhand chop is Eash's specialty, and the United States Axemen's Association ranked him eighth in the event at the end of the 1999 season. But with top Canadians, Australians and New Zealanders participating in the Stihl series, Eash gets a little overshadowed. "This is an incredibly tough show," said Eash, who is in his third year competing full time on the Stihl circuit. He was 22nd last year. "You've got all the best people here so it's, like, tougher than the Olympics. They only take 29 people in this show. It's the best of the best." Eash also gets lost in the crowd of flesh. At 5-foot-10, 195 pounds, Eash is no burly Paul Bunyan type. To make up for his lack of size, Eash gets up every morning at 5 a.m. to lift weights or run. He spends his days working as a jeweler, then in the evening heads to his backyard to practice chopping, a less delicate craft. He has chopped year-round, rain or shine, for 10 years. "When I was in Maine I would chop right through the middle of winter," he said. "[The weight training] helps a little bit, especially someone smaller like me where every ounce of strength helps." Eash doesn't concentrate on the sawing events, but he did enter the hot saw competition, a fan favorite because of the noise created by the souped-up saws. (Stihl hands out foam earplugs to the crowd before the event.) Most competitors use either a snowmobile or a motorcycle engine, which creates a 50-60 pound saw and jacks up the price of the saw into the thousands. Eash would rather spend his time and money on racing axes. He's got seven competition axes, each costing anywhere from $250 to $300, all ground differently for cutting different woods. Eash's father, Michael, competed in timbersports at Nichols College and professionally in the 1960s. But it wasn't until Eash was at Colby that he learned of his father's timbersports history. "I was home on vacation and he took me out back one day and said, 'Let's show you how to chop wood,'" recalled Eash–truly a chip off the old block. –Jessica Bloch. (A version of this article first appeared in the Bangor Daily News.)
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College Colby Magazine 4181
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