They were 10 storeys above the forest floor. Four activists perched on two plywood platforms, suspended by thick ropes in a pair of massive Douglas firs.
The tree-sitters were barely visible from the ground, just a few fuzzy shapes where branches gave way to sky.
Nearby, a concrete bridge traversed a steep canyon. Rocky cliffs sank into the roaring white waters of Lava Creek dozens of metres below.
The activists had parked a pick-up truck sideways on bridge and wrapped it in barbed wire. Long ropes attached to the tree-sitters' platforms descended from the green forest canopy, ran through pipes wedged underneath the truck and went back into the trees.
Two signs warned that tampering with the ropes would make the platforms fall - and the tree-sitters would die.
It was July 28, 2000 when an RCMP aerial extraction team led by Insp. Bud Mercer arrived on this scene.
Mercer allegedly approached the blockade with a long-handled pruning rod, and cut the ropes.
That incident would become the centre of a six-year legal battle. One of the tree-sitters claimed Mercer imperiled lives, while the Crown argued that activists lied to entrap police.
In 2006, the B.C. Supreme Court cleared Mercer of any wrongdoing. Less than a year later, he was appointed to lead the Vancouver 2010 Integrated Security Unit, a $900 million behemoth charged with protecting the Olympic Games.
In 1997, Zoe Blunt joined dozens of other activists at the Elaho Valley. Most of the lower valley had already been logged. Activists feared an ancient grove of douglas firs would fall next.
They blocked roads and built platforms in the trees. Some days they'd hide in the forest, waiting for the loggers to come.
Blunt remembers listening for the first roar of a chainsaw. It was her cue to jump into the open. The loggers would drop their saws and chase her through the woods. She'd evade them, and circle back.
Two years passed this way. Interfor won court injunctions against the activists, but they kept returning to the woods. The end result was violence.
On Sept. 15, 1999, Western Canadian Wilderness Committee (WCWC) campaign director Joe Foy was in court. During lunch break, his cell-phone rang. On the other end was James Jamieson, a WCWC conservationist working near an activist camp. Jamieson had shut himself up in his car. He could see dozens of loggers approaching. The call ended abruptly.
Back at the Elaho Valley, 75 to 100 forest-industry workers had stepped down from logging trucks. There were eight people in the camp including Jamieson. According to his account, the men dragged him onto the ground. Someone lifted a 10 to 15 pound rock and threatened to drop it on his head, Jamieson claimed.
Other activists were punched and kicked. Tents burned. Video cameras lay in pieces. Three Interfor workers and two contractors later pled guilty for taking part in an attack that sent Jamieson and two others to hospital.
In late July 2000, activists built an elaborate blockade at Lava Creek. They parked an old Ford pick-up sideways across the bridge. It was filled with rocks and logs and wrapped in barbed wire.
Tree climbers lugged thick plywood platforms high up into two tall firs. They tied ropes to branches to secure their platforms. Long ropes descended to the blockade far below. Here, they ran through pipes underneath the brown truck.
Rebecca Avrett, Jonah Fertig, Dennis Zarelli and Trevor Schatz began their vertigo-inducing vigil on July 25, 2000. The next day, RCMP officers came to take them down.
On July 28, after two days in standstill, they called in the RCMP's aerial extraction team, a specially-trained unit led by inspector Bud Mercer.
In the summer of 1993, Mercer's skill as a recreational climber had attracted the attention of his superiors. He was called to a protest at Vancouver Island's Clayoquot sound. A senior officer asked Mercer if he could get activists down from the trees. The operation was a success. Over the next seven years, Mercer trained and worked with six officers skilled in high-altitude rescue.
On July 28, about 30 RCMP started taking down the bridge blockade. Mercer tested the long ropes ascending from the truck into the fir trees above. He concluded they were props. "So I did cut the ropes," he said.
Blunt claims the tree-sitters were "terrified." Mercer remembers differently. The activists didn't actually see him cut the ropes, so their reaction was delayed. He claims the whole thing was a set-up.
The tree-sitters climbed down Aug. 2, thirsty and weak. They were promptly arrested, but released after they agreed to stay away from the Elaho Valley.
Not long after, Zarelli successfully laid four charges of aggravated assault against Mercer. A justice of the peace in Squamish ordered Mercer to appear in court on Nov. 28.
But the charges never stuck. A month later, the case against Mercer was tossed after the crown reviewed a police videotape of the rope-cutting incident. Zarelli himself was put on trial - for allegedly lying to the courts.
On Dec. 12, 2006, Zarelli was convicted of obstruction of justice. Crown attorney Ralph Keefer successfully argued the former tree-sitter had a personal vendetta against Mercer, that the platform ropes were a ruse, and none of the activists were in real danger.
The court's decision still rankles Blunt, who thinks Mercer could have killed her friend. "The platforms were not designed to trap police," she said. "It was designed to put people in harm's way and delay the logging for as long as possible."
To a certain degree, the Lava Creek blockade - and the years of protest that preceded it - was a success. In May 2001, the provincial government declared a moratorium on logging. And in June 2007, it passed legislation ensuring the valley's protection.
Mercer still retains a clear memory of the day confrontation. He'd like to go climbing someday, but protecting the 2010 Winter Games keeps him too busy. "I haven't had the luxury of that kind of time," Mercer said.
Bob Mackin covers the Olympics for 24 Hours Vancouver and Geoff Dembicki does the same for The Tyee.
