Rain, rain, go away!

Last week, I went with my new partners, Mike and Gregg, to the Bison Range to do some prep work for a prescribed fire that they are planning on burning in September.

Actually, we didn’t work at the Bison Range at all. We just stayed there for a night, then continued north to Swan Lake/Swan River National Wildlife Refuge. This might not seem significant, but let me sum up the Bison Range like this: Bison and dead grass. Period.

Boy, that would have been boring.

For you Michigan people, I can describe the Swan Lake area as sortof like Northern Michigan, but with bigger mountains. Pines and lakes and rivers - it was beautiful! And just a little bit south of Glacier National Park. Definitely going to stop there on my way home!

What kind of work did we do? Well, the first day I went on a boat ride with a guy that works there to survey for eagle nests. Rough life, huh? J We took the boat up the river and found the 20-yr old nest that had just been taken over by a Canada goose, but couldn’t find the new nest that the eagles had made. We needed to find these nests so that we could fireproof them. Yeah that’s right, I said FIREPROOF them. We cut down everything in a 20 foot radius around this nest so that the fire doesn’t burn it down.

Mike hopped in the tractor and mowed grass. It’s supposed to form a firebreak, but by the time they actually burn, it will probably have grown back. Go figure. But that’s the idea, at least. While he did that, Gregg and I scouted out ahead on an ATV and moved logs that were in the tractor’s way. Boats, ATVs, eagles, and chainsaws. It was a good time! J

While I was out on the boat the first day, there were two smokes that we could see from the lake. Ends up that Justin, a Flathead NF firefighter that I had met in Darby, works out of Swan Lake, and he stopped to talk to the guys and see if we wanted to help them out. Unfortunately, since myself and the other guy weren’t there, we didn’t end up getting to help them. After that, it rained. So much for smoke chasing!

One evening, we went into Big Fork for dinner - it was a welcome treat after staying at the ghetto-8 motel in Condon (it might look nice on the outside, but no AC on an 85 degree day… yuck!) and eating at the same restaurant for every meal. We go into this bar and it just seemed a little… different. As we were eating our meals and watching what was goingon around us, we realized… it’s a gay bar. Ha! No wonder nobody seemed to even notice me but did seem to fancy Gregg a little bit!

So that’s that. We did our part and now hopefully I will get to go back and help burn in September. We also stopped at the Smokejumper base in Missoula so I could finally meet my FMO (fire management officer) who was the one who hired me but I hadn’t actually met yet.

We got back to Red Rock Lakes on Friday night, but had to get up around 4 am to make a 3 hr trip to take Mike to the Bozeman airport so he could go back to Mississippi. Once we got that done with, Gregg and I decided to check out downtown, then drove to West Yellowstone for lunch. With nothing better to do, we adventured into Yellowstone National Park and do a quick drive-through.

That’s when it started raining.

It rained all afternoon, then into the evening. In the middle of the night, lightning flashed and sheets of rain hammered on the windows and roof.

So much for a fire season!

Well, I’m exaggerating a little bit, but it’s definitely been a slow fire season (for better or worse).

The next morning, the clouds encircled our Centennial valley and loomed over the mountains, hiding the peaks. Grey and nasty, but never intruded into the valley until later that evening. I think it rained Sunday also. That evening while running, I could finally see the top of Jefferson mountain.

All white! The first snow in the peaks that I have seen this summer. Actually, the snow just finally started melting off today - it’s been cooler lately, highs around 60 degrees, so it’s no surprise the snow lasted this long up at 10,000 ft.

I can’t remember if it rained Monday, but it was just raining here a few minutes ago.

I did talk to my FMO and he said that because of all this rain we’re getting, he is going to try and send Gregg and I “out of the region”. I am not sure what that means exactly, except that it would be cool if we could get out of here for at least a little bit and maybe get on one more fire. Sweetness all around!

In the meantime, we went grocery shopping and made that annoying 1 ½ hr drive to Dillon. At least we got to get jiggy with the CD player in another employee’s truck. When we got back, I had a package waiting for me from the UPS man - my new DVDs, Deliverance and The Boondock Saints! Woo hoo, something to keep me busy this week! ;)

Word, yo.

I'm back from "up north".

Drove all day. Beer and movie time. Weinhard's and Mothman. I've had enough Bison Range to last until at least September's burn.

I gave Gator the address to my journal and he said the way I worded all this fire stuff was "trivial". Ass. ;) Though, looking back at what I wrote before I came out here is definitely funny in retrospection. I had no idea what to expect and I was so nervous... even those first few days here, like that first lightning storm, I was so excited (and naive! But it's fun to be that way sometimes!) but definitely out of my element.

Hey, I've adapted. In my own "special" way, but I'm figuring it out and having a great time along the way! And yes, even out here in the middle of BFE I still find a reason to wear mascara and eye shadow. ;)

Anyway, back to my wild Friday night at the bunkhouse. Look out, boys - the only single female in this entire town (population 18) is gonna tear it up on the couch with that beer and my PS2 (that was sarcasm, boys and girls). Grrr, baby.

The map shows where we stayed, up near Glacier National Park. It's beautiful up there!

I'm here at the Bison Range, in a pimp-ass bunkhouse on the internet! I'm such a spoiled techno-brat. ;)
For the next week, we're going to be doing prep work for a prescribed burn here. The good news is that Kevin, one of the fire guys here, said that when I am done at Red Rock Lakes, he could use my help in October. I'm already pimping myself out, heh heh!
After tonite, we'll be staying in a motel but it definitely is pretty out here. Looks like we might get some storms so maybe something will happen...
That's all for now, time to tour the refuge!

And we'll all float on ahead...

I guess I’m officially a wildland firefighter, eh? Seven days dispatched in the Bitterroot National Forest and two fires, lots of overtime and hazard pay and living in Nomex pants for a week. I didn’t know what to expect, but I think I’m hooked on this fire thing!

After we were called and told we would be leaving on Wednesday, Gator and I finished getting the engine ready and tried to get a few hours of sleep for our 3 am departure. Gator, Jeff and I had our coffee mugs filled and drove the 4 1⁄2 hours to Hamilton, which is Northwest of Red Rock, and checked in with dispatch.

Dispatch sent us back the way we came, south a few miles to Darby.

This is how being “initial attack” (the first resources to respond to a fire) works. You bounce around and never know where you will be! I love it!

At Darby, there wasn’t much going on so they sent us out with a ranger to Como Lake for… a boat ride. J He needed to fix some buoys, so Jeff was nice enough to stay on shore while Gator and I went out. As you can expect from a man from the bayou , he was awesome at handling the boat. I just sat and enjoyed the scenery. Rough day, huh?

Later, we were just on our way to dinner when Ray from Dispatch tells us that we were going to a fire at West Fork, a little bit south of us. Time for action!

We got to that ranger station and talked to their dispatcher, Stu, who told us there were at least 3 small lightning fires in our area and gave us one. I think this is the point that we realized that we probably should have eaten dinner before we left. Woops. MREs for dinner later, oh boy!

We drove the engine to the point that we were told was directly downslope of the fire. What fun, a steep slope of loose rock! We put our fire line packs (45 lbs), helmets, and yellow shirts on, grabbed our tools and started uphill. It was tiring but exciting! A little bit of smoke drifted around the peaks. We still hadn’t reached the source and had more elevation to climb, it was hard work, keep hiking up…

Jeff calls out from above. “Found a road!”

Good news, but we were annoyed that the person who scouted the fire hadn’t told us about this road, which could potentially make life a heck of a lot easier. Still hadn’t reached the fire though, so we went up another 30 yards and reached our fire.

80 foot ponderosa pine struck by lightening, flames at its base, surrounded by a few burning logs and shrubs. Maybe 30-40 sq. feet?

It wasn’t huge, it wasn’t spectacular, but it still was a fire and you still need to be careful. A good beginner’s fire. Jeff was in training for crew boss and incident commander, so it was good for both him and I to start small. The biggest challenge was how steep the terrain was, and it was hard just standing in one place. At this point, we decided it would probably be a good idea to have a backpack pump with water; Jeff volunteered to go back to the engine and get it, as well as scout out the road.

While he was gone, Gator and I dug line around the fire. That means that we had hand tools and cut away all the unburned trees and bushes around the fire, then dug a trench to stop it from spreading. We got a call from Jeff on the radio - that old logging road was just up the road from where we climbed the slope, and was a much better hike to the fire. We couldn’t drive the engine up because of some trenches in the road, but just that easier hike made a big difference!

At one point, dispatch asked Jeff what the name of the fire was. He paused a second, then responded “Novi”. And so the Novi Fire was born, in memory of the place I can’t seem to escape. J

At this point, it was late afternoon and we ended up working on the fire until 10:30 or 11, working to the light of our headlamps and the flames. We scraped away the burning area of the tree as best we could, expecting it to settle down overnight and maybe be out overnight. Somehow we made it off the side of that mountain and set up camp around our engine. There was a 20-person crew also hanging out near us who had been dispatched to a fire even smaller than ours on more level ground. Go figure. J

And so it came that I ate my first MRE (Meals Read to Eat). Nothing screams gourmet like that pukish-beige colored bag that contains even more little bags, filled with all sorts of delicious goodies. Mine? Pork. I opened it up and a square hunk of fleshy Spam-like “meat” greeting me with the aroma of Alpo dog food. Eeeechhh. But I was starved and figured that putting it on a giant cracker with the “cheese product” might make it more bearable. Mental note: knead the cheese product more thoroughly next time. Lumpy cheese sauce doesn’t add much to the experience. It actually wasn’t awful, but I could only stand so much of that salty pork-stuff. I also had a pound cake and something like rice. I think the highlight of that meal were the chicklets for dessert.

Jeff set up a tent while Gator and I decided to try and share the cab of the engine. I slept great… and apparently took up most of the cab while Gator froze his ass off. Woops. L I remember at one point waking up and telling him about a dream I had - my mom bought a little dog that started having seizures and I gave it CPR to save it. Ends up the dog had diabetes, but I saved his life so it thanked me. He thinks I’m a little “throwed off” now. J

In the morning, first thing first: coffee. I brought some along with my mini French-press, so we made a little fire and heated water in a tin can. 12 ounces at a time, we started our morning. Wednesday ended up being a 19 hour day! Back up the hill, this time up the road. Gator stayed at the engine in case we needed the chainsaw. We figured it would be pretty calm that early in the morning.

Jeff and I arrived to our tree and - surprise! - there were flames coming from the now-hollow base of the pine tree as well as the logs on the ground. We used the pumps and scraped away to try and put it out but that tree was definitely a problem. It made us a little nervous to see how little was holding the tree up now and it looked like it might fall soon. We needed the chainsaw and more water, so Jeff and I went back down to the engine for a refill and to get Gator.

We arrived back at the site with Gator maybe 20 minutes later, and the tree had fallen! Good thing we left when we did. Gator said we wouldn’t have been able to cut it down anyway and would have had to babysit it until it fell, so it was a good thing. We spent the day cutting the tree up, scraping it out, water, water, and more water, and finally we called it out. In the process, Jeff forged himself a nickname - “the Animal”.

That night, we went back to Darby and stayed in a motel. Showers! What a treat!

The next day (Friday), we were dispatched to the Sula district - a little bit south again - and were sent to mop-up with a few people from the Forest Service on the Saddle Mountain fire. This fire had been a bit bigger with some trees torching, but they had done a good job drowning it with a few helicopter bucket drops, a hand crew, an engine, and who knows what else. So, though this counts as a “fire”, it was sopping wet and there wasn’t much to mop up. Needless to say, we sat on that wet mess all day. In the meantime, the Capri fire had blown up so they were setting up a fire camp for that. We never were dispatched to that fire, since we were initial attack. We consider that a good thing - initial attack is the way to go!

…And once again, we were sent back to Darby. By this point, there had been a core group of crews that had also been staged there, so we knew people and went out to the bar and to dinner a few times. I met some great guys with the Flathead engine - Justin, Guy, and Jared - and they sparked my interest in working near them next year, at Swan Lake. We hung out at the station and Gator and I shared the engine cab again. But after a night of Guinness and spicy pizza… we’ll just say Gator nearly suffocated me. ;)

Saturday and Sunday, we stayed at Darby while the weather was calm and the action subsided. Lucky us, we got to do “project work” - fuels reduction, which means that Gator cut down trees and I stacked them up. It was fine to keep us busy, but seems sucky to me that the local crew who’s project it was didn’t have to work on it. But I guess that’s the way fire works, and it all evens out in the end. They even had us trimming their bushes at one point! We did have a good time at the Sawmill bar with everyone on Sunday night!

That’s the way fire works - “Hurry up and wait” is the phrase for it. Sit around and wait for something to happen… and when it does happen, you gotta bust ass!

Monday, Gator got us out of more project work by teaching the portable pumps class. At this point, we knew we were going home soon; weather was calm and even the Capri fire was demobing crews.We stayed at a motel that night and on Tuesday, we headed back to Red Rock Lakes.

It was a great trip and I couldn’t have asked for better company!

Other memories: alternate lyrics to “Seven Nation Army” by the White Stripes, singing that one line from “Float on” by Modest Mouse repeatedly, ordering two super-size pancakes on accident, hearing Gator’s life story over and over and over again, all the ladies (coffee shop, motel, waitresses) who told me they felt bad I was stuck with Jeff and Gator, "All - my - friends - live in Mon-i-da!", a guy with the nickname of Balls, and all everything that “happens in the engine, stays in the engine!”

When we returned to Red Rock, the new fire guys were already here to replace Gator, who left on Friday. We threw him a little party and him and I hung out Thursday and finally found some bull moose to photograph. I hope he can come back in a few weeks to work on the prescribed fire! It’s going to be a lot quieter and a lot more boring without him to mess with, but hopefully we’ll stay in touch!

Monday, my new partners and I are going to Bison NWR, 6 or 7 hrs from here, to do some prescribed fire prep. Not sure what that means, but it’s supposed to be very pretty up there. Fire danger starts to get high around this time of year, so hopefully I’ll get on another fire soon. I completed my Firefighter Type 2 task book and would start my Firefighter Type 1, but there is a course I need to take before I can begin.

Overall, I’m loving it! I think I just may have found myself a career I would enjoy!

The photos are of after the tree fell the next day, plus a few of Gator and Jeff.

Well, my first assignment as a wildland firefighter was awesome. Unfortunately, I received tragic news and haven‘t been much in the mood to write. I lost a friend earlier this week, he was only 19 and the younger brother of my two good friends. It seems surreal, since I am so far removed from everything. It was wayyyy to expensive for me to fly back (cheapest was $750) but my heart goes out to the family.

In other bad news, my cousin had a seizure and was sent to the hospital… only to run into my other cousin, who was also there for seizures! What a crappy coincidence. They did some tests on the first cousin and ends up she was having mini-seizures during the entire test - which means she could have a seizure-disease or even a brain tumor!

Good family news - my lil’ bro made it on the travel hockey team!

Anyway here is a photo of Gator, Jeff and me with Red Rocks Engine, making coffee after a night of sleeping at our first fire that Jeff lovingly dubbed the “Novi” fire for me. It looks a little weird because the road should actually be flat and the engine should be slanted uphill. ;) More will come soon!

Finally got the call!

Dispatched to Bitterroot National Forest about 5-6 hrs away, leaving tomorrow at 3 am!

Fortunately we put the finishing touches on the engine this afternoon! I hope I brought everything I'll need - who knows how long we will be gone!

EXCITED! Time to get 4 hours of sleep!

Handy-chic

Finally, a chance to write an update!

This past week has been busy - I worked overtime every day but Sunday, and by the time I get home I certainly don’t want to wait for my slow dial-up internet connection to do an update!

I’m sure the big question everybody is thinking is “Did you get any fires yet?”

Funny that you ask.

Actually…. No.

But in the meantime, Gator and I have been bringing their engine up to standards and increasing the efficiency and usefulness of it. Our big project over the past week and a half has been fabricating two long metal boxes to mount on each side of the rig. They are each about 6 ft. long and made of steel; this means I had plenty of time to practice cutting metal, welding, grinding, and being a handy-chic! Believe it or not, I picked up on welding quickly and got a lot of compliments about how well I was doing. I’ll post pics of the boxes whenever I get around to it.

Gator mounted them on Saturday while I went on a hike into the burn area of last year’s fire. The first true hiking-trial of my fire boots. They felt ok for the first 3 hours, but that last hour… Won’t wear thick wool socks again, fer sure! There is so much “bug-kill” (dead pines from the bark beetles) in this refuge that the fire last year burned so hot, the land is still nearly barren in some areas. There’s still plenty of dead wood around, so the next lightening bolt could spark off another big one at any time!

So besides mastering the art of welding, I’ve been getting in my paid PT (physical training) and running a few times a week. I’m still trying to get my high-altitude lungs back, but there’s a nice trail that runs down the valley through the willows, usually startling a few sandhill cranes or distant cows. I heard coyotes yapping from their den the other day, and often large raptors - bald eagles, hawks, even golden eagles - fly overhead. Sometimes the killer mosquitoes can be mistaken for birds of prey… ;)

We watch a lot of movies. A LOT of movies. People rejoiced when they found out I had a PS2 and plenty of DVDs. In fact, we are watching “Hellboy” right now. Last night alone we watched 2 movies, on top of going to see Catwoman in Dillon yesterday. By the way, except for providing the inspiration for my Halloween costume this year, the movie was really really BAD.

Besides to see the movie, Gator and I went to Dillon to visit his friend Ward, a firefighter for the Montana DNR. They hadn’t seen each other in years, and since he is a dispatcher, he was up on all the fire news. We had only been there for about 10 minutes, and as he was explaining that there haven’t been any fires and nobody has really been called out, he got a message over his radio.

Fire report. Go check it out!

We all laughed in amazement. Not only was their visit cut short, they were called out to their first fire in ages. The luck!

…And of course, Gator and I did not drive the engine to the city, after debating over it earlier. There was finally the possibility of being dispatched, and we screwed ourselves over!

The only other highlight of that day was swinging on the swings a 36 year old man (Gator). Teaching an old man new tricks! Ha! ;)

On our drive home, our valley was filled with smoke - smoke from the fire that Ward was dispatched on. We never got a call from them, though the wind was strong and probably made the fire spread. So Jeff called them this morning to see what was up.

“The engine here at Red Rock Lakes is available for dispatch.”

“Oh, really?” said the dispatcher.

Doh! We went from being #4 on their list, to absolutely forgotten. From now on, we’re going to call every morning just to remind them that we exist. If it hadn’t been for their poor communication, we probably would have been sent out by now. We’ll see what happens!

Today we officially initiated my “task book”, which is a record of certain tasks that I need to complete in order to become certified as a Firefighter Type 2. That’s the first step; after that, I complete the next round of tasks for Firefighter Type 1, and then up from there. I will be starting a water pump class this week, as well as taking the fire behavior course. I also will be getting training on chainsaws and doing more work on the engine. Today, we took an inventory of rig and are now official above minimum standards! It feels good to get that out of the way so I can get some more hands-on training.

In other news, I shot a gun for the first time ever! Jeff, the biologist here (coincidentally from Port Huron), took Gator and me out to shoot some clay pigeons with his shotgun. I didn’t hit a single one, but they realized that I should have probably started on targets that are NOT flying through the air. They’re going to take me out again soon, hopefully! They both are avid hunters, so they hit nearly every one. Jeff might take me hunting this fallor at least let me shoot his bow - they’ll make a country girl out of me yet!

Gator is leaving next week, while two new fire guys will be coming in for a month to work with me. Fortunately, Gator and I get along very well - we pick on and beat up each other a lot, but it’s fun to have another sarcastic smart-ass to spar with. J He’s got a crazy history - 6 yrs in the military, smoke jumping, heli-rappelling - but he’s got a lot of good stories to tell!

I don’t know what I’m going to do once he leaves, though. The nature of our job is such that I worked with him 56 hrs last week, plus live with him AND hang out with him. I have never spent so much time with a person. We’re not sick of each other yet, but I’m not sure who I’ll hang out with once he’s gone. Most everybody is leaving in the next 2 weeks, so it will get awfully quiet around here. Anybody got any good books to read?

That’s the latest and greatest here! The job is going well, the people are great, and I’m learning so much! Hope everybody out there is doing well and I miss ya’ll!