3 Day Break and California

I took a full 3 days off after Sunday. I spent most of them hiking, working on my car, and watching movies. With the exception of almost dying in an electrical storm as I hiked through a canyon, my break went pretty well. Today the day started out pretty normal at work...until about 10 when we got orders to head to California. We're heading to the Iron Complex near Weaverville, CA. The last I checked on the National Situation Report the Iron Complex was at 47,000 acres and is being managed by a Type I Incident Management Team. That's all for now, I'll try to post again sometime soon...

Jack Shit

Today we did jack shit. Everyone thought we'd be busy as hell with the lightening that hit Cedar City yesterday but we didn't go anywhere. The Boise Smokejumpers and a few Single Engine Air Tankers (SEATs) ended up on a fire south of town that turned out to be approximately 30 acres or so. Asides from that, we didn't do much of anything. We pulled weeds, refurbished our gear, and played horseshoes for a while. For the first time in almost a couple weeks, I came home without any overtime. Instead of going out like everyone else in the fire service is doing tonight, I'm sitting at home drinking a beer and studying up on my Wilderness Medical Society protocols and a few other fire and rescue topics I need to brush up on. A slow night but a relaxing one...

Camp Creek Fire

Yesterday was my first day of my current tour at work. Because of only getting a few hours sleep I woke up pretty out of it and very forgetful for I forgot my backpack and my camera. Thinking that it was too early in the morning to get a fire worthy of taking pictures of, I didn't think too much of it. Running by the house and picking it up during my lunch break seemed like a feasible option at the time. Around 0900 or 1000 we got sent to a fire near Kolob Canyon in the far northwest corner of Zion National Park. Between this fire being my first within the park's jurisdiction and the fact that I was flying that day, I was beginning to kick myself hard for forgetting my camera. The exit for Kolob is about 15-20 miles away from Cedar City giving us a 10 minute flight to the fire. The second we lifted off the ground at the air center we could see the smoke from the fire. The fire sat on a mesa top right up against a canyon wall. The canyon itself was absolutely goregeous. The canyon itself must have been at the very least 700-800 feet tall with sheer Navajo Sandstone walls. Myself and one of our lead firefighters were dropped off on an adjacent mesa top with a view that looked over the fire and down to the canyon bottom to see if there was any spotting to the canyon floor. The Camp Creek Fire, as it was called, was about 2 acres covering the entire mesa top which made it impossible (at the time) to land and put firefighters on it safely. Our job was to monitor the fire while the helicopters worked. While our lead firefighter watched and directed the helicopters, I went to work with our chainsaw clearing out a 90' diameter spot for our helicopter. This is where I began to get pissed that I forgot my camera. The entire time I was cutting helitanker 718, a Sikorsky S-64 Skycrane, was doing water drops on the mesa. The impressive thing about it all was his flight path was eye level with us as he descended below our mesa to reach the mesa in question. It was quite an impressive aerial show with a gorgeous backdrop. We spent the better half of the afternoon and evening on that mesa top until we flew in the park's Fire Effect's crew to watch the fire for the night and the next day. By the time we made it home it was near 2200. Today we spent the day at the helibase below the fire doing more bucket work on the spots the pilot missed the day before. We came home in the midst of a pretty big storm that dropped rain and a shit load of lightening all over the Cedar City area...primarily on the Dixie National Forest which currently has a lot of beetle kill sporadically spread across the ranger district just outside of town. We had been joking all this season about how the Dixie would go up in flames this year with the proper ignition. Tomorrow will tell us how much work we'll have on our hands for the next few days or so to come...

3 days off....

After a big roll on Sunday the 6th (5 fires in 7 hours and not getting home till 1 AM) my normal 3 days off were a welcome break from work. Monday I spent the entire day doing absolutely shit. Asides from a few minuscule errands I had to run, I sat around the house and watched a few movies. Tuesday, I went into the park for some backpacking on the La Verkin Creek Trail in Kolob Canyon. I left around noon to hike the 6.5+ miles into my campsite. The hike in was superb. The temperature was about 100 with very little humidity making the trek very pleasant. The views were spectacular:





The best part about the entire trip was that I didn't see a single person. I did how ever see several rattlesnakes in my campground:



As usual, I did this trip alone. Some people think it's foolish to backpack alone...especially miles in to a desert canyon bottom but I prefer the solitude. I like the time I get to think to myself....or not think at all and revel in the silence and the experience of nature and the land around me. I made it to my campsite around 1900 after 4 hours of hiking.


View Larger Map

I sat in the shade and listened to the creek and the falls next to my campsite, set up my tent and started cooking my dinner. I went to bed rather early with the intention of waking up at 5 to make it to my car before 1100 to beat the heat and to salvage the latter half of the day. I cooked breakfast in the dark (which was somehow pretty soothing and relaxing), packed up and hit the trail by 0700.






The rest of the day was spent lazing around the house. I did some laundry, red a few books, and really didn't do much else. Since September is getting closer I've been thinking and planning more and more for my post-Antarctic plans...primarily traveling to Africa before I come home. The logistics of packing and having my climbing stuff with me will be interesting. I still have a lot of planning to do. The rest of my Wednesday night was spent on the internet and reading Dr Seuss to Anna over the phone. All in all, a pretty good break.

Fire, fire, and more fire....

Thursday the 26th, we headed for a fire west of Escalante in the town of Boulder. What was initially reported to be 10 acres or so turned out to be a couple hundred acres by the time our helicopter arrived.




This was my first fire where I was on the initial attack load on our helicopter. Unfortunately I didn't get my new camera until I got back damn near two weeks later so I don't have many photos of the fire which was called the Bear Creek Fire. We left the Bear Creek fire to stage at the Escalante Airport for the lightening storms coming through. Between Monday and Wednesday, we ran 7 fires because of the lightening. Thursday I made it back home for the first time in a week to pick up my new camera. The next day (the 4th) we went back to Bryce Canyon Airport where we had been since Wednesday for reasons that escape even our management. Saturday and Sunday were 'normal' workdays for us at the air center back in Cedar City. With dry lightening finally plaguing the area, we ran 7 fires between the two days. Needless to say, the fire season is here....